I wish InStyle were still in print. I wish ALL the defunct mags were still in print. That’s neither here nor there, really, except that this would be such a lovely sight to see on the newsstand. The interview is mostly about Quinta’s feelings on fashion — how she approaches it, how she owns the messaging, how her current stylist Bryon Javar helped her experiment in an industry that tends to gasp when, in her words, you’re “short and have the nerve to have any type of curve.” What I like about the shoot is that it’s not just the same mood all the time, even if it’s the same outfit. She isn’t giving the same face, the same angle, the same vibe, which cannot be said of a lot of other shoots. Another thing I like is from the article itself:
“I always think of that freaking Beyoncé lyric, ‘I was born free,’ in ‘Church Girl.’ This is starting to really be my ministry. I was born free. I can do what I want,” she says. “That’s important for us, especially for Black girls to remember. You were born free. You can do whatever you want. And the more you do it, the more it may piss some people off, but the sentiment is still true. You can do whatever you want. I just want to feel like that this summer.”
Amen.
