‘The Beauty of Blackness’ Documentary Chronicles the Colorful History of Fashion Fair Cosmetics
The Magnificence of Blackness, a documentary presently streaming exclusively on HBO Max, chronicles the increase — and revival — of 1 of the American beauty industry’s most historic manufacturers: Style Good Cosmetics.
To start with introduced in 1973 by Eunice Johnson, publishing government and spouse of Johnson Publishing Business CEO John H. Johnson, Fashion Good Cosmetics was the first nationwide make-up line formulated and intended specially for Black females, an inclusive mission that is much more recognizable in today’s industry, but whose wide and prosperous shade assortment was difficult to uncover at the time.
Extra from The Hollywood Reporter
Cheryl Mayberry McKissack and Desiree Rogers, the two former executives at the Chicago-based mostly Johnson Publishing (which owned Ebony and Jet publications, together with Vogue Honest), purchased the business out of personal bankruptcy in November 2019 for $1.85 million, and now, as co-owners (and president and CEO, respectively) have ushered it into its future chapter.
Courtesy of Heather Houston
The assortment, which is now vegan and cruelty-absolutely free, features foundation, powder, priming serum, and 11 former bestselling lipstick shades with the addition of new nudes. It is readily available completely at Sephora and the brand’s revamped internet site.
“I believe it has an opportunity to enchantment to each ladies who are loyalists and girls who are new, who possibly have not knowledgeable the brand still,” Mayberry McKissack tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Like a lot of trailblazing initiatives, specifically in the splendor market, Trend Fair was born out of requirement. When Johnson could not come across items that correctly matched the complexions of Black styles participating in Ebony Vogue Reasonable (the yearly, touring fashion occasion she made that doubled as a charity fundraiser), the cosmetics line was born. It offered a daring selection of tangerine and plum-hued lipsticks and eyeshadows for women of shade (who had been usually promoted a lot more neutral earth-tones) and in the long run turned the very first intercontinental cosmetics model for females of colour accessible in high-end section shops like Neiman Marcus.
“She commenced this organization to seriously supply a option for a problem. The general sector companies who have been offering cosmetics have been not producing shades for gals of shade,” claims Mayberry McKissack.
The documentary — directed by Tiffany Johnson (Black Monday, Expensive White Individuals and Twenties) and Kiana Moore (vp of material manufacturing and head of Vox Media’s Epic Electronic) — tells this story by a refrain of voices, together with former Trend Truthful versions like Pat Cleveland, singer Kelly Rowland, designer Sergio Hudson, and celeb make-up artist Sam Fine.
Courtesy of Manner Honest
“Fashion Good Cosmetics supplied some of the most essential cultural moments for individuals of shade,” claims High-quality, who over his 30-yr vocation has labored with various notable actresses (Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Beyoncé Knowles, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Hudson) and supermodels (Tyra Banking companies, Veronica Webb, Iman, Naomi Campbell). “With little to no illustration in cosmetics, Eunice Johnson single handedly manufactured heritage and made a safe haven for girls of colour in cosmetics — for equally shoppers and workers alike. I was thrilled to take part in the documentary and speak on the historic rise, fall and relaunch of this legendary manufacturer. Having turn into the to start with Imaginative Make-up Director and launching the first co-branded assortment for the brand name has been a highpoint in my occupation a homecoming of types.”
Filmed more than the system of 2020, the movie was developed by Sephora in partnership with Vox Media’s Epic Digital and Vox Creative, and streaming rights were eventually obtained by HBO Max.
“One of the points you see in it is that it tells the historical past and results in that bridge to be able to notify the tale of what has been, but is also equally significant to notify the tale of what is and what can be. And so you’ve acquired like three distinct divisions: what occurred, what is happening, and then you have individuals projecting what this indicates for the future,” states Mayberry McKissack.
Provides Rogers: “No a person is heading to — just mainly because of nostalgia — purchase something. So how do you excite individuals right now about a brand that has the background but is in a crowded market place? We labored with a Black skin doctor [Dr. Caroline Robinson] who is aware pores and skin, and we also worked with Sam Good who genuinely [knows color], in terms of being capable to tweak all those undertones, earning specific that we have a neutral and a awesome undertone.”
Now, next a number of cross-era focus group conferences, Rogers and McKissack have a solid feeling of what the contemporary purchaser is wanting for: great shade matches, all-natural elements, solutions that accomplish d
ouble responsibility — like moisturizing lipsticks with wonderful shade payoff.
“It seriously is the first cosmetics enterprise that was developed in honor of Black woman’s glamour, splendor and fashion,” suggests Rogers. “Black gals sit at the cornerstone of this awesome brand and we really do not have many of people that have been all around 50 in addition many years.”
