The High Price of Haute Couture

Public interest in the campaign against sweatshops hit an all time high in the ‘90s following the news that high-profile brands like Nike and Gap were using sweatshop factories that paid women and children mere pennies to produce their merchandise. The anti-sweatshop movement, along with widespread public pressure, would ultimately force these companies to reevaluate the working conditions in some of their facilities.

Brooklyn-Based Pop-Up Shop Brings High Fashion to the Orthodox Community

The world of fashion can be a daunting landscape to navigate, especially for women who don’t necessarily fit into the industry’s rigid standards of beauty and style. For Orthodox Jewish sisters Chaya Chanin and Simi Polonsky (née Gestetner), finding runway looks that adhere to the important Jewish laws of modesty has never been an easy feat, especially since the laws (or tznius) vary from one community to the next.

What Place Does Blackface Have in Popular Culture?

Fashion stuntwoman Lady Gaga is no stranger to controversial red carpet attire designed for the gossip mill, but even the provocateur pop queen’s meat gown at the recent MTV Awards couldn’t compete with the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am’s wardrobe decision. For a futuristic performance at the pre-show, Will.i.am opted to take Jay-Z’s ‘All black everything’ mantra literally, donning head-to-toe leather and painting his face black, thereby performing a kind of inverse, 21st-Century minstrelsy, and raising the question: Is it possible to sever blackface from its hate-filled history?