Sometimes there’s a richer story beyond the sheen of red carpet glamour: For the U.S. press tour of Spike Lee’s 2018 BlacKkKlansman, Lacy Redway styled star Laura Harrier’s hair in a series of homages to iconic Black women, from Cicely Tyson to Sade. “A lot of my inspiration are things from my past,” says Redway, referring to a Nina Simone album cover or the beaded braids of her youth in Jamaica. Early in her career, assisting high-profile hair artists for runway shows, “the only woman of color I would see was Pat McGrath, and she’s a makeup artist,” Redway recalls. This summer, with stylist Jason Rembert, Redway launched the Black Fashion & Beauty Collective, which aims to move the needle on industry representation.
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