When I saw the stylist June Ambrose on Oprah, talking about how she styled hip-hop artists, I was like, Wow. It\u2019s all possible. That\u2019s what I want to do.<\/p>\n
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\u2019d have my friend Marcel Port photograph.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. This was the day after Christmas 2015, unseasonably warm. We were at American and Berks streets outside an old factory that\u2019s now apartments, a landscape that isn\u2019t there anymore.<\/p>\n I loved to photograph beauty in front of a confused background: a damaged car, a giant pile of trash, graffiti. It\u2019s my way to pay homage to Gordon Parks and Helmut Newton.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ve always believed when you look good, you feel good. Style is speaking without speaking.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 that really excited me. She went on to be one of my muses.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t leave the house without legwear.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s a classy lady. She and I became friends, and I photographed her wedding to Michael Bowman.<\/p>\n This is on Broad Street, in front of the old Banana Republic. The woman in the photo didn\u2019t stop to talk to me, but I spotted her and thought: You can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 I told her she reminded me of Brigitte Nielson in Beverly Hills Cop 2.<\/p>\n I love to photograph women on the go, and these three had places to be.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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: \u201cWhere are your heels at?\u201d And she pointed to her leather bag and was like, \u201cOh, my stilettos are in here, Rube.\u201d<\/p>\n I love this shot of a woman walking in front of Rouge on Rittenhouse Square \u2014 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\u2019s like: Look. I\u2019m confident. I know who I am.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n On the right is filmmaker and director Ryan Coolger\u2019s wife Zinzi. I love the look of her cable knit snood, keeping a low profile but also standing out from the crowd.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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