A few random notes:

Solange Knowles (via  Twitter) mentioned a few weeks ago, the last black woman on the cover of Nylon was Lil’ Kim in 2003.

I am a bit obsessed with Zoe Saldana (have I mentioned this before?) who is Dominican.

Zoe was a blue person in Avatar so you know, blue… Did you watch Avatar? If you didn’t I won’t spoil it by telling you why that is relevant, but seriously, where have you been?

Here are some tidbits from the Nylon interview:

Zoe Saldana’s leading role in the most successful film of all time may have been along time coming, but she’s just getting started.  Here, the actress speaks candidly about Avatar, racism in Hollywood, and doing her homework in a mango tree.  Here’s a peek at what’s inside – read the whole story in our April issue!

On moving from New York City to the Dominican Republic at age 9:
“We went from this urban life to running around barefoot in the countryside and being taught how to gut fish.  We were learning how to climb coconut trees – let me tell you, they are fucking dangerous!… I would do my homework in guava and mango trees.”

On learning dance as a child:
“That was the beginning of a beautiful fucking romance.  That was my Xanax, let me tell you… it put all my demons in order.”

On Hollywood casting:
“When they say ‘We want to go white,’ they have a very smooth way of saying it, and the recent one is the word traditional.  [I’ve heard] ‘Oh, you know, you’re just not what we were looking for, your skin is a little darker.’  Compared to what?!  My skin is just my skin.  It’s dark if you compare it to someone who’s lighter.”

On meeting James Cameron:
“I’m thinking he probably imagined some Amazonian girl [for Neytiri] – I had really long hair at the time – wearing really little shit with like, a bow and arrow.  I had no idea she was blue and nine feet tall.  But for some reason, he was like, ‘You look so much like her!’”
–INTERVIEW BY LUKE CRISELL (source)

Yes, it’s okay to subscribe to NYLON again. Woop!

It’s no secret that Kerry Washington is one of the most talented actresses in Hollywood (imdb her if you like), it’s no secret she’s extremely beautiful too, in the most easy natural way that I am sure all the other try hards (insert Riri here) hate… However this year she proved something else, having just come out of a breakup with her fiancee, Kerry hit the red carpets hard in 2009, and everyone noticed. She’s obviously got heaps of style (or her stylist deserves an award), she has the beautifully classic, elegant, usually an open neck style of dress (which suits her small boobs and shows off her sexy collar bones) that always looks like it was made for her (girls take note, find a dress shape that works for your body, and rock it – knowing you look hot all the time).

Her make up is always flawless, and her skin always glowing bronze goddess like, there isn’t a hint of excess in anything about her, and this is what appeals to me… Beyonce Others should look to Kerry for inspiration, when you are so naturally beautiful, less is always noted as more.

I’m going to blame the recession for my inability to get excited about shopping for 2010. However this may or may not be true, as retailers are apparently doing pretty well.
Here I’m sharing a few spreads from my xxl collection of images and notes, love them for various reasons, especially when they embody the massive amount of hectic trends that emerged this year, whilst highlighting the true ones which will drive you nuts next season.
Dangerous studs and leather? Exposed zippers? Tie dye? Wavy messy hair? Makeup madness? Yep, they will all still be pretty rad.
The point is, don’t go to Bergdorfs. Shop your closet.
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I just stumbled across this amazing website by uber (Emmy Award Winning) makeup artist Kevin James. As an aside from his website, Kevins ‘In My Kit’ aims to showcase what professional makeup artists really use, in other words products that have been proven time and time again to work so brilliantly, they are used on the faces of the best.

I don’t really talk about makeup on this blog, maybe I should, I have spent hundreds if not thousands of money on makeup since I started wearing it! Like most black (or any other ‘minority’) girl young woman, finding the perfect shade of foundation has been the hardest task of them all… Lots of trials and errors, products bought solely on word of mouth, and worst of all, products bought impulsively almost every time I walk by a Sephora or go into Selfridges, just because it looked good and I am always day dreaming about accidentally stumbling across my holy grail, perfectly matched skin colour in a bottle. This hasn’t happened yet, and I assure you I’ve done everything, including getting custom blends – which sometimes works colour wise, only to have some other major flaw in ingredients that wrecks havoc, causes dryness, irritation, and (for someone prone to this) dreaded acne. Whilst on the constant lookout, and backstage when modelling, I learned a lot about makeup, and I am almost positive I can prescribe a face to most people… So positive in fact, I considered beauty school (as opposed to fashion), but stopped kidding myself upon the realisation that the second I found my HG products, I won’t care about the face of others.

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When you’re a model, nobody calls you fat. “What they say is ‘curvy,’ but you know they mean fat,” says Lara Stone, who is Dutch and so soft-spoken, you have to lean forward to hear what she’s saying. However, she enunciates that word—fat—clearly and forcefully, as if it were caught at the back of her throat. The word hovers over the din of the hotel lobby where we are seated in downtown Manhattan, laced with irony and just a tinge of bitterness.

Worse than being called fat is a gaggle of stylists whispering in a corner after you’ve been trying on clothes for ten minutes. “That,” she says, “is when I know I’m about to be canceled.” It doesn’t happen nearly as much as it used to. In the last three years, Stone’s star has risen to the point where her face, a beguiling mixture of tough and naive—imagine Sandra Bernhard crossed with Grace Kelly—has appeared in ad campaigns for Givenchy, Calvin Klein, and Hugo Boss. She’s walked the runway for almost every major designer, including Marc Jacobs, Balmain, and Isabel Marant. In modeling, she has endured long past the usual sell-by date. The fact that she has done it while being a good two sizes larger than the minnows currently walking the runway makes her all the more unusual. But it has not been easy.

This is an excerpt from a Vogue feature on Lara Stone. You can read the whole article on the Vogues website here.