Welcome to The Velvet Rope

A paradigm-shifting newsletter on fashion, culture, and business

The Velvet Rope publishes cultural insights and business analysis on the fashion industry, with a focus on Black fashion and emerging designers.

After working in the fashion industry for 12 years, receiving my MBA, and a brief stint at a consulting firm, I realized that modern fashion media lacked the duality and depth that initially made me choose a career in fashion: the exercise of the right and left sides of the brain, the creative and the analytical.

Furthermore, following the civil unrest of 2020, I was increasingly frustrated by the “15 Black Designers to Know ” articles flooding my social media newsfeeds and email inbox. I had met and befriended dozens of emerging Black brands and designers. As a Black woman and amateur fashion historian, I knew Black fashion and Latino/Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous fashion deserved more nuance and storytelling than a designer bio and headshot.

At its best, fashion transcends clothing. It is history, culture, music, and visual art. Underneath its glamour, economic factors like global issues, consumer behavior, and fierce market competition determine its success or failure. These divergent influences are interconnected; you don't have to be a fashion insider to understand them.

The Velvet Rope will explore fashion through a diverse and cultural business perspective. It will cover current events, fashion week highlights, designer stories, and fashion history through text, images, audio, and video.

I will also use this newsletter to announce my upcoming fashion history lectures and for personal essays on FAQs about my career.

I hope you will join me every Tuesday and subscribe.

About Me

I am a consultant, writer, and fashion culture historian who advises brands and retailers to embrace BIPOC fashion, honor its rich cultural heritage, and ignite consumer interest and sales through designer partnerships, retail experiences, and product curation.

I host fashion history lectures on LinkedIn and for corporations on topics such as The Battle of Versailles, Pre-90s Black Fashion Designers, and Ebony Fashion Fair. My guiding principle is exploring culture and fashion from a business perspective.

I have worked in fashion and luxury for over 12 years in buying and consulting roles for brands such as J.Crew, Macy's, and Rent the Runway. Before fashion, I worked in fine art at Marlborough Gallery and Gagosian. Originally from Ohio, I have a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from New York University's Fashion & Luxury program.

I am currently based in London and New York.