All posts tagged: Milan Fashion Week

eating pizza with Winta

Guide to Black Owned Italy

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Last year I introduced Tripadvisor’s audience to my dolce vita with a Guide to Black Owned Italy. But that was just scratching the surface. Immediately after I found out about more businesses and many of you sent me others. The response was exciting and inspiring. Want to know one thing I wish people knew that I have learned while living in Italy? How diverse the country is. In both its ancient history — the diverse Roman Empire — to recent history like Italian Somaliland to immigration now, Italy’s diverse population influences much of what it means to “be Italian.” Coffee from Ethiopia and Marco Polo’s China expeditions contributing to the origins of pasta are far too often ignored and unknown. Often, this history is “hiding” in plain site: William Shakespeare’s Othello, Blackamoor art, the stories of Alessandro de’Medici, the Black member of the famed Florentine Medicis. There was even a Black Roman emperor, Septimus Severus from 193 – 211. To say “there are very few black women in Milan and Italy as a whole” as …

Stella walking down a raining street in Rome

Stanning for Stella

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I’ve been stanning for Stella, designer Stella Jean for a few years now. When recently profiling her for TripAdvisor, I ended up feverishly writing my love story with the brand in a way that made my editor laugh. I submitted about 3 times more than was required and they worried it wasn’t “digestible” for the TripAdvisor audience! Fully understandable. I got carried away. TripAdvisor is not where people go for essays, word play etc. They go for quick, digestible info in graphically appealing formats, and great crowd sourced reviews. But that’s why I started ‘N A Perfect World. As a place where I can go into depth on subjects that I’m passionate about and my perfectionists appreciate it! So… as Stella Jean’s latest Laboratorio Delle Nazioni partnership was just released (it’s with Kyrgyzstan), let me tell you the origin story of my full on stanning for Stella Jean. It’s been argued that the Italian fashion system is harder for new designers. Do a google search of “Italian fashion designers.” Nestled between greats like Miuccia Prada …

Cropped Stella Tripadvisor Image

New Byline for TripAdvisor: A Profile on Stella Jean!

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I have a new byline for TripAdvisor: a profile on of Stella Jean, my favorite Italian designer! In honor of Black History month, I’ve contributed to Heather Greenwood Davis and Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon‘s package celebrating Black Joy internationally. The women wonderfully state You won’t find tragic stories in this package. Instead, we’ve opted to focus on Black Joy, on the parts of travel that draw us all year long, and on the ways we are working to change the industry so that it welcomes us as much as we yearn for it. Travel is in our blood, whether by force or by choice. And in a year when the world has shut down much of our access to it, we hope the decision to celebrate our past, present and future – told through this collection of contemporary stories by young Black writers – resonates with you, too. Heather Greenwood Davis and Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon Take a look through this package, and check out my quick run down on Stella Jean! For me, it was exciting to share …

Podcast: Never Date A Traveler – Loano

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It started with Grace Jones at a gala in Milan and ended in Italy’s Boca Raton. In between, there was a possible robbery, a strike and that glorious feeling of why not that can only be captured by Italian sprezzatura. Listen to this week’s edition of Never Date a Traveler and find out how I really detox after Fashion Month.