Closet Envy: Celeb Stylist June Ambrose
Essence.com March, 2010
It’s nearly impossible to have a discussion about the relationship between music and style without mentioning one of the mavericks of celebrity styling, June Ambrose. Ambrose, as we’re sure many of you already know, is an iconic stylist who has been instrumental in creating the looks of some of the music world’s biggest stars like Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, P. Diddy and Jay-Z. It was the ingenious Ambrose that came up with the idea of putting then-new artist Missy Elliot in a blown up garbage bag in the video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” That’s just one of the many looks she created for her clients that will forever be etched into music video history. You would think assisting celebrities in developing their image, dressing them for every occasion from press conferences to world tours, giving out style tips on her numerous TV appearances and running Mod Squad, her successful branding firm, wouldn’t allow any time for the premier stylist, and mother of two, to devote to her own personal style. Nevertheless, for a fashion addict and clotheshorse like Ambrose, taking pride in how she presents herself is as important to her as making sure her clients’ sartorial needs are met. [Read more...]
Valerie Frankel, former editor of now-defunct Condé Nast title Mademoiselle, just released a book about the pressure to stay slim in the world of magazine publishing. In Thin Is the New Happy, Frankel writes she snorted “hillocks of cocaine” to help fit into a size 8 — sometimes at the workplace — and that she did “more blow in my first two years at Mademoiselle than in college, when I lived with a coke dealer.” She adds human resources told new hires to “represent the magazine in [their] personal appearance,” and the office motto of sorts was “get thin or die trying.” 
In October, as part of the Kaleidoscope exhibit at the Ingrao gallery in New York City, Law’s eye-catching homages to the female form made their American debut. Working with high-gloss paint on aluminum, Law creates loving renditions of the body, from the indentations on the small of one model’s back to the subtle roundness of another’s belly. Fashionable props include stiletto heels, corsets, and knickers. “I find that as I draw, I fall in love with a different part of the body each time. There are endless perspectives one can take with the female form,” says Law, who is best known for her fashion illustration work and collaboration on prints and sets with the FrostFrench label from 2001 to 2003. 
Everybody’s eager to please Rachel McAdams. But, frankly, the royal treatment that’s customary for budding starlets gives this Toronto-born actress the creeps. As she says, “The more that’s given to you, the less you have to come up with yourself. And that’s not productive.” As if on cue, there’s a knock at the door. It’s the hotel staff, dropping in for the second time that day to see if McAdams has everything she needs. “She just asked me if I wanted fresh apples.” she says, embarrassed by all the attention. “And I haven’t even eaten the ones that are sitting here.” 
In 1995 DJ Static and Professor Groove were McGill University students in Montreal, volunteering at the college radio station CKUT when, in what can now be interpreted as a blessing from the musical gods, they were paired up to fill in 15 minutes on the air. The following year Static (née Michael Lai) and Professor Groove (née Nick Foster), a self-described funk head for life, would turn hip-hop radio on its head with their genre mashing show Wefunk. 
Paris may be revered most often for its culinary delicacies, haute fashion and now its supermodel First Lady, but thanks to Parisian party promoters Alexandre Barouzdin and Cyril Blanc’s latest dance phenomenon, Tecktonik, the spotlight is now turning to the city’s dance floors.