fashion

How My Hair Became My Feminist Fashion Statement

Story ideas are all around you. Sometimes all you have to do is look in the mirror. Through the years, I have been inspired to write many stories simply by touching the hair on my head.

I’ve written about the natural hair movement for newspapers, magazines, and even public radio. I’ve shared my own hair story on those same platforms as well as on websites and blogs.

If you’re thinking it’s just hair, think again.

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Magic City Fashion Week Emerging Designer Shannon Warren

Shannon Warren

Years ago I figured out that to be a successful blogger I must not only be a writer but also an entrepreneur and thus I need to learn not only from other writers but from any creative person seeking to use her talents to make money and make a difference. This is one reason I love immersing myself in Birmingham’s fashion community. And if you think Birmingham doesn’t have a fashion community you obviously haven’t been following all of the events being hosted by the organizers of Magic City Fashion Week. (You can learn more here.)

One event of the week you definitely don’t want to miss is Friday’s Emerging Designer Competition. Hosted by Ty Hunter and Raquel Smith of Beyonce’s style team, the show will feature the works of five emerging designers competing for a prize package valued at $5,000. The show will also include looks from Macy’s and luxury streetwear by Splashed by DKG. This event is set for 6 to 11 p.m. and will be held at the Goldstein & Cohen building in Ensley.

I had the chance to interview one of the emerging designers who will be featured in Friday’s show — Shannon Warren of the Shan Latris Collection.

Warren’s advice for other emerging designers could so easily be applied to writing and blogging and there are so many takeaways from her journey that we can learn from, too.

Do what you can with what you have. Warren couldn’t sew when she was a kid so she used a hot glue gun to alter clothes!

Read, read, read. Before Warren could afford to go to design school she went to the library and read every book she could find about fashion design. And Warren continues to learn more about and work on her craft. We writers and bloggers must remember to do the same.

And whether she knows it or not, when Warren designs her clothes she actually uses Edgar Allan Poe’s single effect theory! She seeks to evoke a single emotion from her customer with each piece she designs just as Poe sought to evoke a single emotion from his readers with each short story and poem he wrote.

Take a look at my chat with Warren.

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