On Writing Fashion
One of the first writers that I was ever drawn to, fashion-wise, was Zandile Blay. She was the market editor at Paper magazine, Style & Culture columnist for the Huffington Post and then became the fashion editor at Essence.com before leaving for Nigeria to become Editor-in-Chief at Hello! Nigeria. She's back stateside now, working as a fashion/beauty journalism professor at Syracuse University and Editor-at-Large of Scene magazine.
I say all that to say, I was taken with her. The way that her words came alive on my screen. She starred in a Coach campaign. The way her clothing was so magnetic. Her jumbo quilted Chanel. She was brown and fashion writer. Most importantly, she was accessible. 23-year-old me was a goner.