How to Do Low Key

Jay Z had his nearest and dearest at a party in New York earlier this month to listen to his eagerly awaited album Watch the Throne.

Watch The Throne Album Cover

The stylish ladies in attendance were a good example of how to do low key; not everywhere we go do we have to be dressed to the nines but we still want to look like we’ve made a bit of effort.

Make like Beyonce, Kelly, Jada and Solange and keep it casual cool.

Day Dresses by La Redoute

Society: Net-A-Porter's Dolce & Gabbana Party

Dolce & Gabbana is now available, for the first time, online at net-a-porter.com and its menswear equivalent Mr Porter. To celebrate, Messers Dolce and Gabbana invited some fabulous friends to a party last Friday at the net-a-porter offices at Westfield, London.

It goes without saying that almost everyone wore Dolce & Gabbana.

Solange Knowles

Star print is going to be big for Autumn/Winter.

Alexandra is very on Autumn/Winter 2011 trend with her jewel toned dress.

Keisha Buchanan. What's she up to these days?

Dolce & Gabbana ambassador Naomi Campbell.

Queen Latifah channels women in menswear, another trend for Autumn/Winter.

Tolula Adeyemi

Leah Weller

And last but by no means least, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce.

Solange Knowles: New Face of Rimmel London

Solange is flexing her spokesmodel muscles – as well as being the face of haircare brand Carol’s Daughter, she has recently been announced as the latest face of Rimmel London in America. Joining the likes of Kate Moss and Georgia Jagger, Solange will represent Rimmel London makeup looks in US campaigns which debuts in Autumn.

She says: “I have always been passionate about make-up because it allows me to express my personality and style.  I’m very excited about representing Rimmel because it’s such a young, vibrant, on-trend brand.”

No word on whether she’ll be a spokesmodel over here but we certainly hope so.

Read a short interview with her here.

Online Find: British Curlies

While looking for products to treat our natural afro hair, we came across British Curlies. Intrigued, due to the fact that it can be hard to source US products – which tend to be better suited to our hair type – we had a brief chat with the company about the natural hair movement and the wonderful world of curly hair!

Jill Scott

British Curlies was launched in May 2009 and has a global following of customers from all ethnicities who they help to understand how to properly care for their curls while providing all the resources to enable them to have their best Curl days ever!

They are the only UK website dedicated to naturally curly hair providing a curl forum, styling advice and a curly emporium with the best products for naturally curly hair.

The company was started by Keisha Jo Lawler after she stopped relaxing her hair. She soon realised that Curlies in the UK did not have a great selection of products or any online community to share and learn from and that Curlies seemed to be lacking representation in the UK media. Keisha Jo wanted to change that!

Solange 

AB: Solange Knowles seems to have started a trend toward natural hair - have you noticed curly hair is more popular now?

BC: Solange is new to the natural curly hair community. The Natural Curly Hair Community has been going strong for many years now and it is nice to see young celebrities realising that they don’t need the weaves or the relaxers to make it in Hollywood or anywhere for that matter. I would definitely not say that we are seeing a trend just the awareness growing as more women realise the harmful effects of chemically processing their hair and equally the joy and beauty to be had in wearing their own natural texture with pride. Type Natural Hair into YouTube and you will see the thousands of women from all over the world celebrating their natural hair. It is an inspiring and joyful movement.

AB: What products work best on different types of curls?

Yaya DaCosta

BC: British Curlies provides solutions for wavy, loose curls, curly and tightly coiled afro curly hair for both adults and children. Each texture has different needs, for instance wavy curls need products that provide hold but no weight while tightly coiled afro textures loves hair butters, oils and heavy creamy products.

We offer a service called the Curl Guide in our Curly Emporium where customers who need product selection help can submit their questions and get information on choosing the right products for their personal texture. We also have videos showing great styling ideas plus style guides that can be printed off our site in the comfort of your home.

Whatever your hair type – corkscrew curls, fractal curls, wavy or cherub curls – British Curlies has the right advice and product selections for you. They ship internationally and carry bestsellers like Mixed Chicks, Miss Jessie’s and Kinky Curly.

www.britishcurlies.co.uk

Solange, Selita and Cassie Talk Hair

Solange Knowles, Seltia Ebanks and Cassie are the new faces of Carol’s Daughter – a US based company started by Lisa Price (whose Mother is called Carol, hence the name) that produces natural haircare products for natural, relaxed, curly, healthy and damaged hair types.

Selita, Solange & Cassie

The three spokeswomen sat down with Lisa and discussed all things hair.

Watch the video here.

Fashion at the Met Costume Institute Gala

Stars of film, fashion, television and music were at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Costume Institute Gala last night which honoured the late, great, Alexander McQueen.

Naomi Campbell (who's made it onto a few worst dressed lists) said of him: ‘He was a very sensitive, very instinctive and intuitive person - private and a very affectionate and lovely man. He was a monstrous talent.’

Naomi in Alexander McQueen

Celebrity attendees included SJP, Gisele, Rihanna, Jessica Alba and Beyonce and Jay-Z who were booed by photographers for failing to stop for extra pictures!

We’re more interested in who did stop!

Jennifer Lopez in Gucci. The colour looks gorgeous on her. The shoulders take the floral trend to a new level!

Rihanna in Stella McCartney. As usual she shows a lot without showing a lot. Not sure about The Little Mermaid inspired hair.

Beyonce is curvy perfection in Emilio Pucci. It looks really tight - how did she walk? Or breathe? The things we do for fashion! Feeling Jay's lo 'fro.

Tamara Mellon, Thandie Newton (who never looks bad) in Stella McCartney with Freida Pinto in Chanel.

Kerry Washington in Escada. Gorgeous dress and we love the 80's inspired hair.

Solange in Dries Van Noten. Umm...we like her hair. That's it.

A very serious Ciara in Prabal Gurung. Beautiful, beautiful dress.

Alicia Keys in Givenchy. Too much brown drowns her and the jacket brings the dress down.

Eva Mendes smoulders in Stella McCartney. This lady certainly knows how to work a red carpet.

Rashida Jones underwhelms in Stella McCartney. It's not a bad dress, it just doesn't have much wow for an occasion as wow worthy as this.

Zoe Saldana in Calvin Klein. Simple and elegant and love the easy waves in her hair.

Janelle Monae in The House of Chanel. We're getting a bit bored of this look now.

Iman in Stella McCartney. She looks stunning but we don't recommend matching your outfit with your hair.

Jennifer Hudson in Vera Wang with Vera Wang. It's a little bridesmaid'y.

John Legend and Christine Teigen. A little too 'showgirl' for us but fitting for an event like this we suppose.

Nicole Ritchie in Jason Wu. Very 'old Hollywood'.

Joan Smalls in Tom Ford looks supermodel perfect.

Serena Williams in Oscar de la Renta. Could have worked sans the hat.

Tried and Tested: Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditioner

Like many of you, we have been inspired by Solange Knowles and her natural hair journey. It can be tricky figuring out what products to use on transitioning or natural hair. Fear not! We are going to sift through the shelves of shampoos, conditioners and treatments and report back on what’s good, what’s bad and what you need to stay way from!

Solange Knowles

Our first review is of Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner.

Kingsley is a famous and well respected trichologist – an expert in the structure and function of human hair including the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the hair and scalp – so we had high expectations of these products, especially as they are meant for, according to the packaging, ‘textured, afro, mixed, curly and porous hair’. It should even work on synthetic hair or extensions.

We weren’t disappointed!

The shampoo left our natural afro hair feeling fresh but not dried out and one application was enough for it to be perfectly clean.

The conditioner applied well. We found we had to use a fair amount to get good coverage but that may be more down to the length of our hair (past shoulders) than the actual product. Once the conditioner was on the hair we went through it with a wide tooth comb and after rinsing, found the hair easy to manage and hardly tangled at all. Plus it smelled nice!

We heartily recommend and give Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner 4 out of 5.

Moisture Extreme Shampoo £14.30 for 200ml
Moisture Extreme Conditioner £17.40 for 200ml

Visit www.philipkingsley.co.uk to buy online or to find stockists near you.

Natural Hair Heroine – Solange Knowles

We’re not sure we’d like Beyoncé as our sister. No offence B! Could we ever step out from her formidable shadow? We like to think we’d handle it a la Solange Knowles and style ourselves in the polar opposite fashion direction.

Solange and Beyoncé

Beyoncé seems to favour lace front wigs and blingaliciousness while Solange likes to keep it a lot more urban and natural. We like her style.

Solange Knowles

She’s been spotted recently with short natural hair and now braids (as has Brandy – again – and Kim Kardashian). Is the style a bit 1996 or has Solange brought them back to the present day?

She works the turban!