Skip to main content

Amazing Grace Jones, a Fearless Style Icon

This photo of Grace Jones and Naomi Campbell I found on Essence.com prompted me to republish a love letter of sorts that I wrote to Grace Jones on my former blog, Tracy's Pop & Shop.  She is my hero.  I'm sure Lady Gaga and Rihanna feel the same way.

"You know who you look like?" a woman once asked me while I was getting my hair pressed. I shook my head "No." 

"Grace Jones," the woman replied.

The musky smell of hot hair and Afro-Sheen lingered. My tweleve-year-old face sullened. 

"She thinks I look like that scary lady?" I thought to myself. 

Detecting my dismay, she offered, "I mean that as a compliment." I feigned a smile. 

When the woman left, my hairdresser Shirley reassured me, "You don't look like Grace Jones. You're prettier than that."

You see, at that adolescent age I didn't want to be associated with anyone darker than I already was. Growing up and to this day, the beauty of darker skinned black women is often prefaced with the footnote, "You're pretty for a dark-skinned girl" or the curious cat-call "Hey dark and lovely." I still don't understand what skin color has to do with your degree of beauty.

Yet decades since I was offended that someone thought I looked like Grace Jones (the only real similarity is that we've both been blessed with high cheekbones and deep brown skin), I've re-discovered and embraced that mad icon of brazen sexuality and avant-garde style. 

For years I combed vintage stores for a t-shirt emblazoned with her androygynous image, and finally found one at Zara of all places. At a Brooklyn Salvation Army, I dug in the $1 record crates and found copies of her 1982 Living My Life LP and the 12" single of the rhythmically intoxicating single "Slave to the Rhythm."

The Sally Army sales clerk gave me and the album covers a puzzled double-take. "Isn't that the girl from Conan [the Barbarian]?" he asked. 

I loved Grace as a nocturnal seductress in the campy vampire flick Vamp, as the crazed Amazonian villain opposite James Bond in A View to a Killand as the comical diva Strangee in Boomerang, but I didn't immediately recall her from Conan. An older man standing in line remembered and proudly told the clerk, "Yes, that's Grace Jones."

Weeks later, I was sitting in the Musee' d'art contemporain de Montreal (the Contemporary Museum of Art in Montreal) watching the uncensored version of Grace's stereotype-riddled-redefining (black face, pickinnies, Venus Hotentot), gender-bending, high-art-meets-couture fashion video for "Slave to the Rhythm." 

I was mesmerized. Grace is unashamedly black, bold and beautiful. I strive to be as fearless in my skin as she is in hers. From her '80s heyday to now at age 62,  Ms. Jones is a muse for black girls and self-empowered women everywhere.





Image credit: Web archives

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Giveaway: Thank Your Friends with Merci Chocolates!

National Friendship Day was August 4, 2013, but Everything She Wants has decided to continue the celebration with a giveaway from merci fine European chocolates . While some friendships are for a season or a reason, other friendships are built to last a lifetime.  I’m fortunate to have two best friends: Cindy, whom I’ve known since junior high school and Deanna, who started out as my amusing intern.  Besides my mother and my husband, these girlfriends are my greatest confidants.  They’re like the sisters I never had and we’ve supported each other through personal trials and triumphs. So what better way to say ‘thank you’ to your friends than with merci chocolates?  One lucky reader will win a ‘Friendship Kit’  that you can either keep to reward yourself for being such a great friend or share with a deserving comrade. The kit includes: $25 Target gift card (yay!) 7 ounce box of merci chocolates A picture frame to display a photo of you a...

DanceAfrica 2024 Returns to Brooklyn Academy of Music

The DanceAfrica Bazaar is one of my favorite annual street fairs. I love to watch folks show up and show out in their flyest Afrocentric garb and to shop for handmade beaded bracelets and earrings from the African vendors.  And when I'm fortunate enough to snag a ticket as I did this year courtesy of BAM, I enjoy watching the kinetic African dancers (this time the country featured is Cameroon) during the spirited and spirit-filled DanceAfrica performance at the Howard Gilman Opera House.   (Photos courtesy of BAM/Tony Turner) If you want to join in the fun, here's the weekend lineup that's truly for the culture. DanceAfrica 2024:  The Origin of Communities / A Calabash of Cultures Artistic Director Abdel R. Salaam DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers, Women Of The Calabash, The Billie's Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble, and Siren – Protectors of The Rainforest Fri, May 24 at 7:30pm; Sat, May 25 at 2pm & 7pm; Sun, May 26 at 3pm BAM Howard Gilman Opera House   (Pe...

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Graces Brooklyn Academy of Music, June 4-9, 2024

Dance is expression. Dance is spiritual. Dance is activism. Dance is life. I feel most alive when I am listening to music and dancing.  As a spectator and fan, some of my fondest moments of watching dance performances have been witnessing the dignity and grace of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Every time I see the Ailey company, I am inspired, moved, and grounded in the beauty and complexity of the African American experience.  Photo by Paul Kolnik For me, the highlight is always "Revelations," Mr. Ailey's three-part ode to his upbringing in the Black Baptist church. The three sections -- "Pilgrim of Sorrow"; "Take Me to the Water"; and "Move, Members, Move" -- tell the story of African American faith and persistence from slavery to freedom. Over the weekend,  I had the pleasure of taking an outdoor Community Workshop in downtown Brooklyn, where we learned some of the choreography for "Revelations." I beamed from ear to ear...