Islandista we love - June Ambrose

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Jay-Z calls her his "secretary of style".

 

In addition to Jay, she has worked as a stylist for Mary J. Blige, P.Diddy and Janet Jackson - among others.

 She has crafted some of the hottest and most memorable looks in hip-hop - and that is no hyperbole.

Remember Missy Elliot's inflatable 'bag' suit in the music video for The Rain?

Or Puffy and Biggie's shiny suits in Mo Money, Mo Problems?

That was all the work of June Ambrose, hip-hop's ultimate stylist and style influencer.

Oh, and did we mention she's an island girl? That last name was a dead giveaway, wasn't it? Of course, she hails from Antigua.

Trend Alert: All black everything

Get y’all black tees up, all black everything

Black cards, black cars, all black everything.

How many times have we said ‘black is the new black’?

Well, get ready to hear it again and see it again because black is back in a big way, heavily influenced by the iconic lines in Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West’s smash hit ‘Run This Town’.

The all-black look is doing crazy rounds at New York Fashion Week with everyone from Ciara to the Simmons sisters to Rihanna herself rocking … what else… all-black everything.

There are many ways to wear all black and this particular black out look is more elegant gangster or edgy fashion stylist/editor than creepy goth.

Of course, the subtle sub-text underpinning all of this is Barack Obama’s presidency. After all, with a black man leading the most powerful nation in the world, it really is a time of ‘all black everything’.

Check out how many celebs have been wearing the all black look in recent days.

Video of Rihanna's comeback performance!

Rihanna hit the stage with Jay-Z and Kanye West last night at Jay-Z's huge September 11th memorial concert at Madison Square Garden, to perform Run This Town.

What a lot of people don't seem to realise is that this is actually her first performance since the Chris Brown beating incident back in February.

It had been touted for over a month now that her comeback performance would be on the season debut of Jay Leno's new show , also with Jay and Kanye to perform 'Run This Town'... but that performance is set for Monday, September 14th.

So last night was actually her big comeback.

And ... not bad. We all know Rihanna is no vocal wonder but for the most part, she manages to sound about as good as she does on the album and more importantly... she looks the part!

 

Bits and pieces - Lara fete back on, socially aware fashion and more...

Yes islandistas, I have another pelau post here for you - a bit of this and a bit of that and you know seh it always good!

First up - apparently Brian Lara's all-inclusive Crop-Over party is back on. The Prince changed his mind over a week ago so all systems are go once again.

No details on what caused him to change his mind and work the party into his schedule but we're guessing that some fervent pleading from Bajan party-goers may have gone down.

In other news, Barbadian fashion designer Toni Thorne of Bouik is bringing social awareness to fashion with the launch of a new campaign to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, called Wear The Issue.



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Back to back black Vogue covers and Rihanna's belated bday party

Well slap me with a fish and call me Wally!



Sorry, I just needed to create an expression as crazy as that to express my shock at the fact that Beyonce is covering the April edition of US Vogue magazine - which means ... BACK TO BACK covers with black women for the 'fashion Bible'!

See? Slap you with a fish too cos I know I was not the only one (pleasantly) surprised at this. We all know that black women don't make it onto the cover of Vogue much (see a listing of all Vogue's covers with black women here) - certainly their representation on the cover of US Vogue does not match up to their proportion of the US population or - let's be honest, the disproportionate influnce of blacks on US culture.

Could this be change we can believe in Anna?

In other news, Rihanna has been seen out and about in earnest for the first time since she was beaten by Chris Brown before the Grammys last month.

She had a belated 21st birthday party at the Spotted Pig in New York City (her birthday was actually in February but she was in no state to go out or be seen after the incident) with a few fellow celebs, including mentor Jay-Z and wife Beyonce, Brandy and BFF Melissa.



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Rihanna's dad: 'I am not homeless' & Chris is so sorry

It's been a week in coming but  people are finally talking out about the Rihanna/Chris Brown assault situation.

After speaking to people.com at the start of the weekend, Rihanna's dad Ronald Fenty is speaking to the Barbadian press about his daughter's situation and more specifically how folks are trying to smear him to get at her.

Photo credit: nationnews.com

According to Ri-ri's dad, news stories have appeared in the international press claiming that he is homeless and lives out of his car.

From the Barbados Nation:

It's an attempt by them to shift the focus from Chris Brown [ex-boyfriend]," he told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday.

Fenty was referring to the incident involving Brown, an international singing star facing charges after allegedly assaulting his daughter in the United States.

"I am really upset about the whole incident. They had me all over the TV saying that I was living in a car and was homeless. I have a home in Warrens. I don't live in this car. Rihanna has done really well as a person from a small island and I know that she is up against the heavyweights, so they will do anything to discredit her," he said.

According to the father of the international star and Grammy Award singer, selling items from his car in The City is "a job I do on the side just to keep me happy".

He pinpointed two media corporations overseas who allegedly showed clips of him selling from the back of his car in The City, and stating that he was homeless and also lived in the car. The middle-aged designer said he had seen vehicles parked down the street and people taking pictures from a car, but he had no idea what their motive was.

He chided the media for trying to "dig up dirt on Rihanna", whom he described as being okay and in good health.

Now what can we say about this? Truth be told, Mr. Fenty's admitted past as a cocaine addict has put him in a position to be misrepresented.

But from all accounts, he has kicked his habit and he ent nuh paro. Cuhdear man! Moreover, even if he was, what de hell that would have to do with Rihanna getting beat? stupse...

Furthermore, these people need to check themselves-  what car, wha? Homeless people in the Caribbean don't  live in cars! It's warm outside - they sleep on the street and never die of frostbite (or two day old, sour food).

In other news, Jay-Z is not pleased with how many folks are talking about the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown mess. Speaking to the media last night on the red carpet before his 'Two Kings' event with Lebron James, Jigga had this to say:

"It's not a sound byte, this is a real situation. You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that.... I just think we should all support her. She's going through a tough time. You have to realize she's a young girl, as well. She's very young."

Annnnnd... finally... one of the parties at the center of the whole situation has finally spoken out. Chris Brown issued an official statement through his PR reps at Sitrick and Company. And... well... he's sorry.

Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired. I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God’s help, to emerging a better person. Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong. While I would like to be able to talk about this more, until the legal issues are resolved, this is all I can say except that I have not written any messages or made any posts to Facebook, on blogs or any place else. Those posts or writings under my name are frauds.”

Mm. Trust me, you ent sorry yet buddy. By the time the public really done with you, you gine be real sorry in truth - you only just start to feel it.

Sorry.

Dunn named Model of the year and Rihanna publicist drama

Hurray! One of our favourite 'nuh tek back nuh chat' islandistas - British model Jourdan Dunn, won the Model of the Year award at the British Fashion Awards two nights ago.

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Just 18, Dunn was spotted two years ago in Primark (our kind of girl!) and has swiftly risen to the top - an all the more remarkable feat when you consider (as we have discussed ad nauseum on this blog) the still glaring lack of black models on the fashion scene.

Pretty amazing too when you consider that Dunn doesn't hold her tongue and make folks feel it's alright. After all, this is the girl who said:

"London's not a white city... so why should our catwalks be so white? I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there's just me and maybe one other coloured face."

Congrats from Islandista!

In other islandista news, some publicist named Jonathan Hay has claimed ... nay boasted that he is the one behind the ugly Rihanna/Jay-Z affair rumours that swirled around the Barbadian pop star at the start of her career and still track her.

According to Hay, he did it on behalf of a producer friend Vada Nobles who was the man behind Rihanna's first hit 'Pon De Replay' so as to build buzz and interest around Rihanna and the song.

According to Hay:

At first nobody seemed to really feel the song so I started a publicity campaign single-handedly. The whole idea behind the campaign was to get Vada Nobles out there as a producer so that ultimately people would forget about his past lawsuit and conflict with Lauryn Hill on her album the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

 Anyway, I sent the song to Jennifer Vineyard, my contact at MTV. She did me a favor and broke the story on Rihanna, “Pon De Replay” and Vada Nobles. Along with one of my partners, I then began to fabricate stories of Rihanna and Jay-Z, leaking false rumors to tabloids, working internet message boards, etc. We started to get an insane amount of media coverage very fast. There are so many things we did that people don’t even know about, not even Rihanna herself. She was completely unknown and I was paid by Vada Nobles to generate publicity. The mega Island Def Jam deal rumor, we fluffed and fabricated. Rihanna and Vada had no idea what I was doing behind the scenes, but my whole agenda was to get media for the song.

He goes on to say that "Rihanna had nothing to do with any of that nor did she know what we were doing. I was just trying to break the single and stay employed" and says he feels "awful" and looking back is "ashamed" because "there was zero integrity in that maneuver".

But he freely admits that "I was only thinking about the end result... gossip sells and even goes on to boast that "it worked" because "every artist needs a launching pad and there is nothing better than a good scandal to get the public's attention."

Hm. We all know how insidious the publicity game can be in showbiz and that things like this are not below publicists. But to start such a vicious rumour about a 16 year old girl without her even knowing? That is wrong.