Everything She Wants

In my haste to escape the snow and slush, I almost missed a brush with glamour greatness. But thanks to a tourist snapping photos of a Macy's Herald Square window display, I slowed my rush hour roll down 34th Street long enough for a fashion history lesson. In honor of Black History Month, Macy's and Ebony Magazine have created a fabulous display celebrating the signature style of Ebony Fashion Fair founder Eunice W. Johnson .  During the '80s, I attended an Ebony Fashion Fair show with my mother.  The elaborate gowns and suits with architecturally stacked shoulder pads.  The dramatic hair and makeup.  The model sashays and twirls. For a young African-American woman, this traveling fashion show was better than Fashion week. Macy's tribute prompted me to learn more about Mrs. Johnson.   The store's website describes her as "a great couture client, friend of designers and voracious advocate for black women."  Not only did the Selma, Alabama native s...

You want festive and flawless makeup for the holidays.  But women of color often have trouble finding the perfect match for our wide variety of skin tones (some shades leave us looking unnaturally gray or orange). So I asked several pros for holiday makeup tips you can easily recreate at home: 1. Working Day and Night Kathy Cabral, a freelance makeup artist for Youngblood , says by using your favorite brands your daytime makeup can easily transition to a glam girl look for night.  For day, one or two coats of mascara will suffice. A neutral shade of eye shadow and a very light application of eyeliner will finish the look nicely. For light-skinned women of color, peach, taupe, and subtle shades work well for eye shadows. For medium-brown women, mauve, brown, and gray are good choices. For dark-skinned women, deeper colors like rich violet, chocolate, and navy look best. Eyeliner should be applied to the upper lids and, if desired, very lightly to the lower lids. ...