Big Rube’s Philly: Women’s Style

I grew up with two undeniably stylish women. My mom was Muhammad and Belinda Ali’s seamstress and tailor. I was born the year of The Rumble in the Jungle. Up at his training camp at Deer Lake, Muhammad Ali would ask to pick me up by saying to my mom, “Give me that curly haired boy.”

My grandmother, Nan — her clientele were Main Line women. She made dresses for the Academy Ball and cotillions. Just imagine, in the middle of the 80ss, the crack era, Rolls Royces and big Cadillacs pulling up on Ithan Street, off 56th Street between Locust and Spruce. My Nan walked to the El at 56th and Market in the 50s and 60s in her dress and coat, always wearing stockings, garter belts, a veiled hat, heels and gloves. She was going making clothes for Albert Nippon in his North Philly factory, or for Botany 500.

When I saw the stylist June Ambrose on Oprah, talking about how she styled hip-hop artists, I was like, Wow. It’s all possible. That’s what I want to do.

So in the mid-90s, I started just knocking on doors: Joan Shepp, Nan Duskin, the hosiery shop Papilio, and a shoe boutique on 19th Street Danielle Scott where Zama Sushi is now, asking if I could borrow things to style models. Joan Shepp co-owner Ellen Shepp and shop manager Tuesday Gordon became my friends. Between those places and thrift shopping, I came up with looks that I’d have my friend Marcel Port photograph.

As far as my styled photographs, I feature 70s and 80s fashion. Here, two of my muses, Azizi Umi and Tali Shinnar, wear vintage sequined gowns I found at Bargain Thrift in Germantown. This was the day after Christmas 2015, unseasonably warm. We were at American and Berks streets outside an old factory that’s now apartments, a landscape that isn’t there anymore.

I loved to photograph beauty in front of a confused background: a damaged car, a giant pile of trash, graffiti. It’s my way to pay homage to Gordon Parks and Helmut Newton.

When it came to photographing for my Streetgazing column in The Daily News, I love to see women dressed up, which you see less on the streets since Covid. I’ve always believed when you look good, you feel good. Style is speaking without speaking.

I saw Nicole Phoenix (left) at like 8:30 in the morning. She was rushing to work and I was on my bike and stopped in front of the old Williams Sonoma at the Bellevue. In her brocade Chanel houndstooth jacket, pencil skirt and sheer stockings, she reminds me of Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, a real woman in her 20s, fresh out of college in her first job. For a Black woman to be in corporate and wear her natural hair — that really excited me. She went on to be one of my muses.

Her sister Ruby Phoenix has a different style: military jacket, an above-the-knee skirt, a scarf around her neck, Doc Martens and again, natural hair. This is a more utilitarian look, but with sheer hose on. She told me their mom always told them: Don’t leave the house without legwear.

This is the first time I photographed interior designer Shawn Gibbons-Bowman. It was 2014 and she was walking from an appointment at 15th and Walnut. I was like: Man. That’s a classy lady. She and I became friends, and I photographed her wedding to Michael Bowman.

This is on Broad Street, in front of the old Banana Republic. The woman in the photo didn’t stop to talk to me, but I spotted her and thought: You can’t go wrong with a fedora. I love that French knotted scarf with little fringes, her moto jacket-style pea coat, that leather bag, tight skirt and slouchy suede calf boots.

I captured Margaret Greco in red in front of the Union League. She told me she was in town from San Francisco, and compared me to New York Times street style photographer Bill Cunningham. This red dress with the front slit and high zipper mock neck, those Jimmy Choos, pouch bag on her left arm and cool Cali shades — I told her she reminded me of Brigitte Nielson in Beverly Hills Cop 2.

I love to photograph women on the go, and these three had places to be.

Here’s another young lady on her way somewhere, a statuesque redhead with riding pants, knee-high stacked leather boots, a topcoat and some spectacles. I think she may have worked at a boutique on Walnut Street, and ran out to get a beverage on a break.

Britney Coleman (center), she has her coffee in her hand and is racing to work in her suit with the white piped lapels with the cardigan under it, opaque tights, patterned scarf. I asked her: “Where are your heels at?” And she pointed to her leather bag and was like, “Oh, my stilettos are in here, Rube.”

I love this shot of a woman walking in front of Rouge on Rittenhouse Square — the patterned poncho, her hair pulled back so some hangs just in front of her face, pops of color from those stacked heels and nice purple pocketbook. She’s like: Look. I’m confident. I know who I am.

Santoi Boyd (left) has great energy. Plus, that natural hair, dyed red; three-inch heels with opaque tights, a sweater dress and a moto jacket. Her glasses are that mod 60s shape. This was in Midtown Village, on Chestnut Street between 12th and 13th.

On the right is filmmaker and director Ryan Coolger’s wife Zinzi. I love the look of her cable knit snood, keeping a low profile but also standing out from the crowd.

This woman was walking past me, saw that I wanted a photo, and seemed doubtful. But the people around her were like: Don’t you know who that is? That’s Big Rube. So she stopped in front of a food truck parked on 16th Street and gave me a pose. I love her monochrome look: the sleek dress, trench, hosiery and those Ferragamo princess heels.

For this one (center) I went back to West Philly. This young lady was strolling outside at Malcolm X Park between Pine and Larchwood. I love how she’s mixing it up: the fur collar, the embellished turtleneck with the ripped jeans and knee-high sueded boots. That really sparked my interest.

The pattern of this woman’s flowing skirt first caught my eye. She gets a demerit for being bare-legged, but I love those nude, pointy toe heels, dark shades, and that pearl necklace is a statement piece.

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