NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 04: Jordan Alexander on location for “Gossip Girl” reboot on March 04, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)
Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman could tell we were already mentally preparing looks for the weekend. On Thursday, Jordan Alexander, one of the stars of the forthcoming reboot, was spotted filming in NYC wearing the perfect Saturday afternoon look.
For the scene, Alexander, who is playing influencer Julien Calloway on the show, combined her Constance Billard uniform with athleisure, creating an enviable duet of sporty and preppy. She paired colorblock track pants and chunky Fila sneakers with an oversized trench coat, a men’s button-down, and a cropped Cinq A Sept sweater. Around her neck was a ribbon, in Constance Billard’s blue, that matched the Dior Saddle bag looped around her forearm.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 04: Jordan Alexander on location for “Gossip Girl” reboot on March 04, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)
Like the outfits we’ve caught a glimpse of since filming began for the reboot — which included Schutz boots, Adidas sneakers, and bike shorts— Alexander’s latest, minus the designer handbag, is easy to recreate. Most people already own a trench coat, track pants, and sneakers. All we needed was Daman’s eye for styling to realize we should combine them all. And maybe add a tiny sweater for good measure.
Ideal for the confusing is it winter or is it spring? time of year we’re in right now, the transitional weather look is just waiting to be copied. And if you choose to wear it to spend the weekend rewatching old episodes of Gossip Girl in anticipation of new ones, so be it.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
There’s plenty of overlap between Coming 2 America, the sequel to the 1988 comedy of the same name, and Black Panther — and not just because the former referenced Wakanda early on in the trailer. For one, both films center around the homecoming of American sons, who go to their ancestral (and fictitious) African countries with plans to ascend the throne. And, secondly, they’re outfitted by costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who not only became the first Black woman to win the Oscar for her Afrofuturistic looks in the Ryan Coogler’s Marvel film but, last month, was awarded a Walk of Fame star (she’s only the second costume designer to receive the honor).
Taking place 30 years after the original, Coming 2 America follows King Akeem (Eddie Murphy) as he discovers that he has an adult son, Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), in New York, and brings him to Zamunda as his heir. Like Black Panther‘s Wakanda, Zamunda’s combines a mix of African cultures and aesthetic traditions, which are reflected in Carter’s costumes in a vibrant display of traditional prints, fabrics, and silhouettes.
“I didn’t do the same kind of research that I did with Wakanda because I felt like this was more of a lighter, more comedic film. And so, it had to have more [about the] fashion,” Carter tells Refinery 29. “I remember the fashion from the first movie, and I really wanted to honor that, but also bring some new fashion that I was seeing around the internet.” As part of her research for the film, Carter looked at brands like Ikiré Jones founded by Nigerian-American designer Walé Oyéjidé, South Africa’s MAXHOSA by Laduma Ngxokolo and Mantsho by Palesa Mokubung, and the British designer Ozwald Boateng (of Ghanaian descent).
Carter’s talent for combining contemporary silhouettes and traditional designs is best embodied by the fashion of Akeem’s three daughters who are modern-day princesses with distinct looks. While the youngest Tinashe (Akiley Love) wears cutesy styles, the middle daughter Omma (Murphy’s real-life daughter Bella) opts for loose dresses in statement prints. The oldest, Meeka (Kiki Layne), the obvious Zamunda heir to everyone but Akeem, displays the most fearless style of the trio, preferring daring cutouts, tighter fits, and dramatic silhouettes. Her fight-training outfit, a bright yellow-and-green set with a fringe skirt, is especially powerful.
KiKi Layne and Eddie Murphy star in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
“KiKi told me that she wanted to wear the flag of Zamunda,” says Carter. After finding some flags online, her team sourced matching fabrics to make the outfit. “We added some movement by putting fringe on it and draping it so that it could have a nice flare as she moves around. It was like dance.” In a later scene, Meeka wears an athletic Puma halter dress with cutouts and armbands that read “democrazy” (photo below), created by Jahnkoy, the Brooklyn-based brand by Siberian-born Marusya Kazakova and Burkina Faso-born Burkindy.
For the many intricate crowns and headpieces featured in the film, Carter turned to Laurel DeWitt, a go-to designer for Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Lady Gaga. “In her showroom, there were crowns waiting for queens to wear them. And I scooped them all up and brought them with me to Atlanta,” she says. “So anytime one of our princesses or our queen was getting ready in the makeup and hair trailer, there were four or five crowns to choose from to match their outfits.” This opulence extended to the rest of the jewelry, too, which Carter worked with several designers to create, including L.A.’s Melody Ehsani, whose designs feature Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, to create.
“We were really interested in everybody who was addressing the African diaspora with their work,” says Carter who, according to WWD, worked with 39 independent designers for the film. “We really were picky about [the pieces] having a regal appearance.”
For the celebrations shown in the film, which involved Carter dressing large groups of people for several scenes, color was key. “We had dancers, we had a choir, we had the ballroom full of Zamundans. That just gave you license to be colorful,” says Carter. “When you look at a lot of African beadwork, you see a lot of brights, you see a lot of primary colors. When you look at [West African] Ankara fabrics, you see beautiful color combinations and prints and patterns.”
Garcelle Beauvais stars in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
While the costume designer employed a whole spectrum of jewel-toned colors throughout the project, red was the prominent go-to, appearing on Akeem and the royal palace attendees. In one of the earlier scenes, the Rose Bearer Priestess (Garcelle Beauvais) enters the ballroom in a giant off-the-shoulder ballgown in red-and-gold, which Carter chose after being inspired by the East Indian influences in the first film. “We had permission to mix cultures and borrow, because Zamunda’s not hidden by a hologram, it’s an immersive place,” she says, referring to Wakanda’s strategic isolation from global influences. After buying the dress off the rack from an Indian designer, Carter wasn’t sure where the gown would fit in. “It took up half of my office,” says Carter. “Everyone was like, ‘What is wrong with Ruth?’” Once she learned of Beauvais’ scene, Carter says she knew the gown was meant for it: “It was such a good opening dress.”
Eddie Murphy and Shari Headley star in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Blue was another prominent color featured in the film. It first appears on Queen Lisa (Shari Headley) in the form of a sleeveless gown with cowrie bead detail, embellishments frequently used in West African designs. Upon arriving in Zamunda, Lavelle’s mother Mary (Leslie Jones) plucks a blue halter gown in an Ankara print with a matching headpiece from Lisa’s closet. According to Carter, it was an homage to the original film. “[Costume designer] Deborah Nadoolman Landis had big shapes, big headdresses,” says Carter. “It was a really beautiful fit on Leslie… She could actually wear the outfit to the Oscars.”
Leslie Jones and Jermaine Fowler stars in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
While Carter collaborated with various designers for the film, most of the costumes were created from scratch. “They’re the Royal family, so I didn’t want anything like, ‘Hey, that’s Tom Ford.’ I didn’t want it to be recognizable from the racks in a store somewhere,” says Carter. “I wanted it to feel aspirational.”
Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy star in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
But while Coming 2 America is distinctly its own film when it comes to fashion, Carter did include nostalgic nods to the original. When returning to New York, Akeem and Semmi (Arsenio Hall) wear the same gray and navy caped looks they first arrived in Queens in. In a later scene, Akeem also wears the same Mets jacket, and Semmi a blazer. “We had to remake the blazer that Arsenio wore in the first film 30 years ago. That wasn’t easy. We had to paint it and find a wool that was close in tone,” she says. “I looked at the sequel for the first time, and I could not see where the old footage ended and the actual new footage began.”
If that’s not the true mark of Ruth E. Carter, I don’t know what is.
Eddie Murphy stars in COMING 2 AMERICA Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Coming 2 America is out on Prime Video.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Gigi Hadid is back from maternity leave, and opening (and closing) runway shows again. Hadid, who gave birth to her daughter Khai during spring ‘21 Fashion Month in September, hasn’t been on a runway in nearly a year — not since she donned tweed mini shorts with pirate boots in Chanel’s fall ‘20 show last March. On Friday, she walked in Versace’s fall ‘21 show — and with red hair, no less.
For the show, Gigi joined a lineup of notable fashion faces, including her sister Bella, Irina Shayk, Precious Lee, and Mona Tougaard, among others. “Models are like actors,” said creative director Donatella Versace in the show notes. “They bring the designs to life.” That said, the designs were plenty lively on their own. Whereas many designers this season chose a comfort-first mentality, crafting oversized and cloud-like coats, scarves, and furry handbags, Versace remained steadfast in her pursuit to design clothing that drips sex appeal and glamour. (Puffers were still included, though they appeared more fit for chilly nights spent partying in Greece, than a bodega run in the snow.)
The collection went from day to night, starting with black and logo-covered skirt and pantsuits, none of which were safe for actual work. (Gigi’s opening look included a very low, square neck, while Bella’s knee-length skirt suit was missing a midriff.) As the collection continued, the hemlines got shorter and the colors got more vibrant.
Hot pink, red, and yellow mini dresses paired with matching tights, platforms, and bandanas came next, adding a Mod touch to the collection. Even shorter were the mesh, metallic tunics that arrived after, the likes of which were more Studio 54 than Mad Men. Precious Lee debuted a puff-sleeved mini dress that included a Timothée Chalamet-esque sequin harness, and was closely followed by Gigi in her finale look, a waist-defining, semi-sheer, floor-length black gown.
Watch the show in full below.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Lenny Kravitz seen wearing colorful beanie and oversized scarf with an embroidered sweater, torn jeans and fringed boots Pictured: Lenny Kravitz Ref: SPL465763 231112 NON-EXCLUSIVE Picture by: SplashNews.com Splash News and Pictures USA: +1 310-525-5808 London: +44 (0)20 8126 1009 Berlin: +49 175 3764 166 photodesk@splashnews.com World Rights
In 2012, on a day that will spawn thousands of memes, Lenny Kravitz bundled up for a grocery run, choosing a scarf as his primary mode of protection from the elements. Why did it spark so much attention — so much, in fact, that we’re still discussing it almost a decade on? It was huge — as in truly gargantuan — and that’s saying something considering Kravitz’s wardrobe is widely composed of oversized scarves. This scarf, though, was bigger than the rest.
“I cannot escape this,” the singer told Jimmy Fallon, of the memes and articles that followed photos of him wearing the scarf, during an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2018. Mostly residing in the Bahamas, Kravitz claimed on the show that he wasn’t used to the cold in New York, where the photos were taken. “I put on a little scarf to protect my throat, and that’s the scarf I had,” he explained, to which Fallon countered: “Lenny, this isn’t a scarf. This is a blanket.” Two years later, the scarf was brought up again, this time during an interview with GQ. When asked if he still owned the scarf, he replied, “Absolutely,” before acknowledging that the scarf was big. In his defense, though, “it was cold.”
But after nine years of mockery, it appears that fashion is finally coming around to Kravitz’s styling hack. Spotted on runways around the world during Fashion Month, the larger-than-life blanket scarf trend is, at last, a hit.
The big scarf’s redemption tour began in January, when The Row released its fall ‘21 menswear collection in the form of a lookbook full of big coats, sweaters, and trousers. At the very end, was a photo of a male model wearing a cable knit sweater so oversized, it looked more like a throw knit by your grandma — albeit an expensive one — than a sweater. Around the model’s neck (and perhaps attached to the sweater itself) was a scarf only comparable in size to Kravitz’s own. Just under a week later, a similar scarf-sweater hybrid showed up in Ganni’s lookbook during Copenhagen Fashion Week. Like The Row’s take, Ganni’s iteration was cream, cable knit, and blanketed its model’s entire upper half.
Model on the catwalk at the Rick Owens Fashion show in Venezia Lido, Fall Winter 2021, Ready To Wear Fashion Week
Big scarves continued to show up on runways throughout the month. In New York, Ka Wa Key served up scarves in a myriad of colors, wrapped around the heads, necks, and torsos of its models. In Milan, Kim Jones debuted his first ready-to-wear collection for Fendi, in which he included oversized scarves made of fur and fringe. On Thursday, Rick Owens gave the trend his stamp of approval at his fall ‘21 show during Paris Fashion Week, which included puffer takes on the scarf in mauve and army green. With that, Kravitz’s scarf is now a runway success. It only took nine years and countless memes to get there.
Oversized scarves have long held a place in our winter wardrobes, but the scarf selection for next fall isn’t just big — it’s huge.
Maybe by then, it will be cold enough for Kravitz to bring back his scarf.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
अनन्या पांडे को मुंबई एयरपोर्ट पर स्पॉट किया गया, तो इस दौरान इस यंग ऐक्ट्रेस का कूल स्टाइल इम्प्रेस कर गया। ऊपर से लेकर नीचे तक उनका फैशन कुछ ऐसा था, जो कॉलेज गोइंग गर्ल्स को तो खासतौर पर पसंद आएगा।
'बिग बॉस 14' से अपनी अलग पहचान बना चुकीं निक्की तंबोली शो से निकलने के बाद से ही सुर्खियों में बनी हुई हैं। एक तरफ जहां निक्की को कई बड़ी फिल्मों के ऑफर मिल रहे हैं तो वहीं अब एक्ट्रेस की स्टाइलिश तस्वीरों ने बवाल मचा रखा है। ऐसा ही कुछ हमें तब देखने को मिला जब निक्की को मुंबई एयरपोर्ट पर स्पॉट किया गया।
बॉलीवुड एक्ट्रेस जाह्ववी कपूर (Janhvi Kapoor) के स्टाइल सेंस से हम सभी अच्छे से वाकिफ हैं। लेकिन लगता है कि उनकी छोटी बहन यानी ख़ुशी कपूर (Khushi Kapoor) को अपने लुक्स के साथ एक्सपेरिमेंटस करना ज्यादा अच्छा लगता है। ऐसा इसलिए क्योंकि जब इस स्टारलेट को मुंबई एयरपोर्ट पर एकदम नए लुक में स्पॉट किया गया तो हर किसी की निगाहें बस उन्हीं पर आकर ठहर गईं।
