The Intersection of Color and Style

Like the women it celebrates, there’s a lot more beneath the surface of a new book about the style contributions of black women. “Soul-Style: Black Women Redefining the Color of Fashion” (Universe) compiled by New York art director Duane Thomas neatly examines the intersection of fashion with music, and to a lesser extent, cinema and television. Thomas’ first book, “Body & Soul: The Black Male Book,” followed a similar pattern with men’s images.

In the new book, eight writers provide thoughtful chapters that examine the look of black legends, funky divas, supermodels and more. In his chapter on supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, former Philadelphia Inquirer fashion editor Roy H. Campbell delivers one of the book’s most hard-hitting discussions of the fashion industry’s pervasive racism and of models’ efforts to break barriers.

“Their success,” he writes, “is more than just about setting fashion and beauty trends. Black supermodels, by their very visibility among the upper echelons of the fashion and beauty business, have shown us again and again that if we press on, we cannot be held back.”

While in Los Angeles recently to promote the book, Campbell said: “There’s still this feeling that we’re still the invisible man, that we’re not normal or mainstream. Too often, if you find someone is part of the mainstream, they’re considered the exception.”

Thomas selected the cover photo to make a statement. The first cover choice was a glamorous black-and-white portrait of top model Veronica Webb, which he eventually rejected “because she looked too white.” Instead, he chose a color photo of top model and former Sudanese refugee Alek Wek, whose look is newer to American fashion. Campbell said that the arrival of Wek “signaled a new kind of black beauty,” one that he described as more African and celebratory of darker skin.

Another promising fashion dot-com is a dot-gone. ZoZa the multi-functional clothing collection created by Mel and Patricia Ziegler, the founders of Banana Republic and the Republic of Tea, unplugged its Web site last week after nearly 19 months of operation.

“Basically, we couldn’t get any more venture capital,” said Trish Donnally, ZoZa’s editorial director. In building its Web site, store and catalog operations, ZoZa zipped through $17 million of cash from loans and investors.

Raising their family after they sold Banana Republic and the tea business, the Zieglers found a void in their own wardrobes that could transition from business and PTA meetings back to an athletic lifestyle. ZoZa offered quick-drying bicycle commuter pants and cashmere-like synthetic fleece sports coats for men and slinky evening gowns and trim-fitting tops cut from swimsuit fabric for women--all of which were machine washable.

“People loved the comfort of the clothes because almost everything we made had some sort of built-in stretch,” Donnally said. The Greenbrae, Calif., company continues to sell its inventory through its nearby Mill Valley store.

Touched Up for an ‘Angel’?

With a head full of Botticelli ringlets, Jennifer Lopez was looking quite angelic the other night at the premiere of her new movie “Angel Eyes.”

While fans may be heading for the home-perm aisle, J.Lo had the expert help of New York stylist Oribe, who was in town to do her ‘do for the premiere, interviews and her “Tonight Show” appearance. Though her hair looked shorter, Oribe didn’t cut it, he said from his New York salon. He wound her hair tightly on a curling iron and pinned the curls at the roots. He’d crafted the elaborate updo once before when Lopez posed as an angel for the cover of Notorious magazine. Oribe, who charges a zillion bucks for day of hair care, stayed out West for eight days while he worked his magic for a new video Lopez was shooting for the international market, said her publicist, Alan Nierob.

“She is in the middle of making a movie,” Nierob said, “so they can’t mess with her hair too much. What you saw that night, you didn’t see the next morning on the set.”

Her new movie, “Enough,” stars Lopez as a woman who marries the perfect guy--Billy Campbell from TV’s “Once and Again”-- only to discover that “he’s the husband from hell,” Nierob said. And you know, it’s hard as heck to have good hair with a bad husband.