As a teenager, I avoided stepping into Sephora with my friends during shopping trips for one specific reason: I could never find products that looked good with my skin tone. The sparkly pink lip glosses my schoolmates gravitated toward appeared white against my brown lips and the complexion products I tested on the back of my hand always leaned too red, orange, or gray. I would step toward the corner of the store with a basket in one hand and my cell phone in the other, pretending to pay no mind to the excitement buzzing around me.

I knew that even if I spent hours sifting through the endless shelves of products, there wouldn't be much for me. Thanks to BIPOC+ beauty brand founders like Priyanka Ganjoo, my experience at Sephora has changed for the better. Her brand, Kulfi Beauty, officially launched in 2021 and landed itself on the shelves of the major beauty retailer. With Ganjoo at its helm, the brand focuses on celebrating and sharing South Asian beauty, drawing from cultural practices, experiences, and conversations among less-represented individuals in the beauty space.

As Women's History Month comes to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about the buzzy brand and the inspiration behind it from the founder herself (and, of course, enthuse over Kulfi Beauty's line of inclusive and brightly colored products). Keep scrolling for the inside scoop on all things Kulfi.

Meet Priyanka Ganjoo, Founder of Kulfi Beauty

Can you tell me about your background in beauty? Have you always been interested in being part of the industry?

It's wild that I started a beauty brand because I didn't wear makeup through my late 20s, and I never thought I would be part of the beauty industry. Growing up, I never thought I could participate in beauty—I think it was because I didn't see people who looked like me. I felt intimidated by colorful makeup and thought it was reserved for people who are "already pretty."

I started by working on the marketing strategy team for Estée Lauder, which was my first introduction to beauty. Then, I had the opportunity to work at Ipsy in merchandising. It was such an amazing opportunity to try all these up-and-coming brands and products. I have this distinct memory of trying glitter eye shadow for the first time, and it exploded on my desk. That's when I understood how beauty could be fun and playful without the feelings of judgment that I grew up with.

How has building a brand centered on joy and the celebration of South Asian beauty informed your views of the beauty industry as a whole?

When I first left my job and had the idea of pursuing this, I got a lot of nos from industry people. They didn't understand how South Asian beauty could be aspirational—whatever that means! I told them it was an opportunity to celebrate South Asian beauty, people, and cultures through makeup! I wanted Kulfi Beauty to be a cool, fun brand without having intense ethnic storytelling behind it!

With that vision, I was getting lots of nos from people in the industry who didn't see the brand having potential. The reason we're still here today is because once we launched, we saw positive responses to our mission through social media. It's been really rewarding to be able to see us in the beauty space after coming from so much rejection, but I still think there's a lot of work to be done.

On TikTok, there was a conversation about inclusivity not being limited to creating inclusive foundation shades. We need inclusive shades and inclusive eyeshadow shades too! I can't believe in 2024 we're still having this conversation about what inclusivity is. At Kulfi Beauty, we make sure that we create products that can work across all skin tones. It's still a space we're trying to fill, and there's so much more work to be done.

One of the first things I noticed about Kulfi Beauty was how many shades were offered for each product. Can you tell me more about what it's like to come up with these formulas?

I love that you said that! It makes me feel so validated. It's always nice when people in the beauty industry recognize the effort that goes into our brand. Understanding undertones is so important for all products. For us, it goes back to working with our community on all product development. For example, the first product we launched, the Kajal Eyeliner, came from a conversation.

That's when I came up with the idea of launching a kajal eyeliner since it allows for such an important cultural connection between the history of South Asian beauty and our modern generation. With the concealer, we aimed for a variety of shades with the help of focus groups, testing on all skin tones. It was the same process for our blush and lips colors. Everything is developed by our community and tested on real people, which gives us the opportunity to come up with different colors.

Do you have a favorite product from your brand that you think everyone should try?

The Zari Eyes Eyeshadows are inspired by sari and the silver and gold threads that are found in so many South Asian garments. Our eye shadow formula is this beautiful cream-to-powder finish. Even though the color can look intimidating at first, all you have to do is tap and swipe it on to the skin for easy pigment that can pack on color. But don't tell my other products!

In what ways are your products' formulas informed by your culture?

One of the things I think is true for South Asian cultures as well as many BIPOC+ cultures is that beauty is a really shared experience. It stems from memories of putting henna on each other's skin and hair oiling. It's all about the community and people coming together to make everyone feel beautiful. That inspires a lot of how we think about formulas. For our eyeliner, we wanted to reimagine kajal and bring that same sultriness, pigment, and glide while adapting it to the needs of the modern consumer.

That meant a product that didn't smudge all over and bleed. For the cream blush, one of the biggest challenges was to make a formula that didn't disappear in two seconds. We wanted to create a long-lasting cream blush, and we thought about henna/mehndi, which has staining power. Our new brow gel is inspired by hair oiling, and we drew from the idea of obsessing over the hair on our head while treating the hair on our face differently instead of nurturing it.

What do you hope customers take away from experiencing Kulfi Beauty?

I want them to have that moment where they can enjoy using the product and feel included. We've always been met with this typical, European-centered image of what to aspire toward. At Kulfi, we're about enhancing your own unique features and using makeup as a tool to achieve. I want people to have fun with our products and use them as self-care. Our brand's name, Kulfi, means ice cream and stems from the joy a treat brings. I want our products to do the same thing.

As a beauty insider, where do you see the beauty industry heading in the next couple of years?

There's been a push for diversity and voices over the past few years, but somehow it feels like we've taken a few steps back from that unfortunately. I feel like diversity shouldn't be just a checkbox. Brands that are BIPOC+ are doing the work of pushing for diversity in everyday conversations and not as an afterthought. It's something that I hope we can continue seeing more of, and I'm excited to see more BIPOC+ beauty brands, founders, and influencers finally getting their flowers. I hope the beauty space can give people the recognition they're due.

Discover Kulfi Beauty's Line of Products

If your Instagram feed looks anything like mine, it's chock-full of perfect-condition Dior and Chanel kitten heels; archival Versace, Tom Ford for Gucci, and Mugler dresses and jackets; and a kaleidoscope of colorful Fendi Baguette bags. Every week it seems, there are more one-of-one items to indulge in, with drops from all fashion eras and categories arriving on my phone screen like clockwork. In a world where fast fashion continues to reign supreme, no matter how many people claim to have given it all up, my all-vintage Instagram page is an oasis—a place where wanting to add to my wardrobe doesn't feel bad. And there are three specific IG stores that I hold responsible.

Alexia Ioannou, Mariana Vergara, and Julia Rabinowitsch run the accounts that keep my feed filled with beautiful things, including Elsa Peretti jewelry, feather-trim satin Manolos, and Victorian-era blazers via their respective e-shops: Nou; Merci, C'est Vintage; and The Millennial Decorator. All three women have built something out of nothing—gone off on their own and built not just loyal customer bases but entire communities from the ground up. Together, they're carving a path for fashion that's not reliant on new, new, new, but rather everything beautiful that's already been created and is now waiting for its next home. Read their stories and discover their ever-changing curations below.

If Alexia Ioannou's name sounds familiar to you but her vintage brand Nou doesn't, you probably recognize it from her personal style account, @bohochicken, where she's garnered 115,000 followers and counting. She founded Nou in 2018 after years spent sending the same disappointing response to those questioning where she got her unique items: "It's vintage." "I saw a demand for people wanting vintage from a curiosity regarding my own wardrobe," she explains. "At its heart, Nou is an outlet for me to share items that are a reflection of my own psyche and genuine interests." Every one-of-one item sold at the Los Angeles–based store is handpicked based on Ioannou's own, individual tastes: "Each piece showcases a sliver of my mind," she says. It just so happens that what piques her interest, piques a lot of people's interests, a point that's made even more believable when you look at Ioannou's rèsumè, which features stints in the marketing departments at Barneys New York (we miss you!) and Mother Denim. She knows what people want to buy, and Nou's current designer shoe selection can prove it.

Tell me about your community. 

Just like any form of self-expression, the opinion of what is fashionable is relative and varies from person to person. I'm so grateful to have a community that understands my taste and my vision. My greatest success is making other women look and feel good through what they're wearing. I still pinch myself anytime I'm out and a cool chick comes up to me and recognizes my brand. I hope that every person who shops Nou feels how personal it is. Every single item that I share with my community is something I love and would wear myself.

Describe the feeling of discovering a true vintage gem, and what are some of the best ones you've found in the past?

There's a certain rush that comes with discovering something you were never expecting to find. I discovered some of my most memorable vintage while sourcing in Paris. I'll never forget this 1998 vintage black Versace gown that I found. It had the most divine fishnet detailing all along the sides and hugged the body in all of the right places. What a beautiful experience it is to go into a place filled with a slew of items and come out with just a small handful of things that made you feel something.

Tell me about your experience as a woman starting your own business.

At times, working for yourself can feel very isolating. The best knowledge really does come through experience, and sometimes the only way to learn is through making mistakes. I always tell my friends, you never sleep the same after starting your own business. There is a lot of pressure to keep things flowing, and that can be tough when you're naturally a creative like me. The business side of things can definitely feel overwhelming. With all that being said, the risk is definitely worth the reward.

Do you have any tips for other women who want to start shopping vintage but don't know where to start?

Sourcing vintage goes beyond just having a knack for it. It's hours of research and discovery. It's hedging bets. It's doing the work on yourself so your intuition is strong and clear. I'll be digging in the most random of corners in the world and come out with just five pieces that I really believe in. I hand-carry everything home just for you, try everything on to make sure it fits and feels right, and often pay a premium that doesn't make sense for reselling. Just like any other career, you have to really love what you do, and that feeling will reflect in the work you produce.

Mariana Vergara started her vintage store, Merci, C'est Vintage, as a hobby when she moved to Paris for school. "I was a uni student with an extremely refined eye that was way bigger than my budget," she says. She spent her free time sourcing items that spoke to her from Paris's many vintage markets and either saving them for herself or selling them to her three best friends. Because she didn't speak any French, when people would ask her about one of her finds while out, she'd respond with the simple phrase, "Merci, c'est vintage." Hence the name. That's when she ventured onto Instagram to make her hobby into a business. "I just sourced beautiful pieces that I loved and posted [about them]," she says. "And then I started creating loyal customers."

Recently, Vergara ventured off the web and started selling her finds at pop-up events, allowing her to create in-person relationships with the community she's amassed online. Her latest was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan, while another took place last summer at Soho House in Paris. If you missed them, though, there's always plenty to find online.

What's your favorite part about your work on Merci, C'est Vintage? 

I think it's probably the fact of being constantly stimulated by beautiful clothing, jewelry, home objects, and antiques. It's sort of an escape. It's refined my eye in ways I couldn't imagine. Also just learning history through clothing is a really beautiful part of this industry. 

Now that Merci, C'est Vintage has been doing IRL pop-up events, I think that connecting with my customers has also been incredibly gratifying. I just had a customer that has been buying from me for years at different stages of her life recently need me to source her some jewelry for her wedding, and I did. This was such a highlight of my experience with Merci, C'est Vintage. To be able to grow and evolve with my customers and to find them special pieces that I know will be cherished forever and at memorable points of their life is really incredible.

Tell me about your community. How do you interact with it? How have you gone about building it? 

Community is so special. When I started Merci, C'est Vintage's Instagram, it was a hobby, and I treated it as a mood board, so I took it very lightly. Every follower I got would be like a new friend—every new customer I would have really deep conversations with. I would follow up after each purchase. I'd ask them to send pictures, and it sort of felt like I was creating a community of vintage lovers without really having that as a goal. I just felt that I was sharing this passion for beautiful items with other people. For now, this is still possible because most of the purchases happen via Instagram. (Although, we are launching our website soon.) I know that once the business starts scaling, this might not be as possible, but I'd like to think that I will forever be able to have close relationships with my customers. When you buy Merci, C'est Vintage, you are buying into my personal sourcing, so I find the transaction personal. I want to know where these precious treasures go to. Now, these IRL events that I've been hosting this past year have made this sense of community even stronger.

If you like pretty things, you'll want to follow Julia Rabinowitsch's vintage brand, The Millennial Decorator, on Instagram immediately. Really, you should add push notifications for her page as well since practically every pair of '80s, '90s, and early '00s Dior and Chanel shoes she releases sells out in minutes. Rabinowitsch started the brand in 2020, when she was living on unemployment and in search of a creative outlet. "I started TMD with the intention of wanting to share how I was decorating my life in a unique and affordable way," she says. "My answer to that was through vintage." Her mom instilled in her at an early age that buying vintage and secondhand was the way to go, so naturally, the practice stuck with her through the years.

"We first started solely as a vintage homeware account, and I had very small drops centered around homeware," she explains. "Think Elsa Peretti bean dishes, coffee table books, Picasso lithographs, etc." A year after starting TMD, her love of fashion drew her to curate her first non-homeware drop, which she focused on vintage shoes after noticing a gap in the market. "At the time, a vintage brand solely dedicated to footwear didn't exist, but I thought it was a far more inclusive and interesting route than only doing vintage clothing or even a mix of both," she says. "With clothing, I knew I would be sourcing one-of-ones versus shoes that could fit everyone." When she found it to be successful, she kept the shoe drops coming. "Today, we have monthly vintage drops that feature vintage heels ranging from a [European] size 35 to 42," she says. For her, TMD offers women of all ages the chance to discover the best of what vintage has to offer. "Every shoe I include in our drops has a timeless nature to it, and I often talk about giving our shoes a true second (or hundredth) life. The heels are meant to stay with you for life as a real investment versus just a trend."

What drew you to start sourcing designer vintage and eventually launch The Millennial Decorator?

Vintage has always been a big part of my life. My mom raised me [on her own], and when I was born and for many years of my life, most of my toys, clothing, and even crib were secondhand. My mom instilled a deep love of fashion in me and was a fashion importer herself from Paris to the States, so the world of vintage and fashion was always inscribed in my life. I launched The Millennial Decorator completely organically. Vintage, to me, was and continues to be an extremely interesting convergence in new and old fashion. For someone like me who looks for unique pieces to wear in a somewhat affordable way, vintage was the best solution. Hence The Millennial Decorator being born. I launched a vintage brand because I personally was sourcing vintage for myself, both for my home and wardrobe. I found that in a sea of affiliate links and influence, it was hard to make a purchasing decision that is truly unique to you and different from the rest. The world of vintage and The Millennial Decorator allows women all around the world to buy that special pair of shoes they know will be different (and probably longer-lasting) than all the rest.

What is it like discovering a really special vintage item, and what are some of the best ones you've sourced in the past?

There's no better feeling. I started sourcing vintage shoes when no one else was doing it, and the heels I sourced early on have become staples and cult favorites today. I'm talking about the Chanel mesh slingbacks with ribbons, the pointed Chanel two-toned slingbacks, the perfect crisp pair of suede Chanel flats from the '80s, or the Karl Lagerfeld–era Rosebud Chanel heels. We still include all these staples in our drops, which is always very special. To me, finding a true vintage gem is like uncovering a work of art—something of the past that you only hear myths about. Each shoe is a real relic in that they express so much about the time period, designer, and brand, and to see how they still translate in today's time and the ways that women are [wearing them] feels really special. Some of my favorite shoe finds [are] Chanel Rosebud sandals by Karl Lagerfeld, a perfect pair of red patent Chanel flats, pink satin YSL heels, Chanel bow mules, Tom Ford for Gucci bow string sandals, and so many more.

Tell me about your experience as a woman starting your own business. What are some of the challenges you've had to overcome?

Growing up with a single mom, all I ever saw was a strong woman working for our livelihood. It's a blessing that I never saw anything else, because today, I feel like I have the best women supporting me. Instead of being fearful that I was doing it all on my own, I felt uplifted. Luckily, I have been able to work with the best individuals around the world who have helped me to get to where I am today—designers who took note of me and influencers who started wearing our heels early on. That was a big help. Of course, there are many challenges I face. Navigating being an entrepreneur as a female comes with its brevity, but I've learned that as long as I surround myself with the right individuals, I'll be okay no matter what. It took time for people to take me seriously and see me as more than just another vintage brand, which took and continues to take hard work, day and night, seven days a week. I was extremely surprised to see how welcoming the larger fashion industry has been for someone in the vintage realm. We're not really looked at as competition when working with contemporary brands, which has been amazing to see, and the work we've done with modern-day designers like Mirror Palais is some of the work I'm most proud of today. 

Working for yourself is hard, but I feel it's also an amazing, uplifting, and empowering process, especially as a female.

Women's History Month gives us the opportunity to show our appreciation for all the influential women in our lives, but it also remind us to celebrate and treat ourselves. That's why this new collection by gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross and SHEIN couldn't have come at a better time. In collaboration with her mother and sister, Richards-Ross sought to create an assortment of colorful dresses, tops, and bottoms that encourage women of all ages to feel confident and empowered through their style. She says, "It has been a joy to work with my mother and sister on this collection, which we hope reflects the unbreakable bonds between us, and specifically inspires mothers, daughters, and sisters everywhere." The collection speaks for itself and has something for every occasion, including easy everyday pieces, sleek formalwear, and vibrant statements (for when you're feeling extra bold). As part of the launch, SHEIN is donating $50,000 to MommiNation, an organization founded by Richards-Ross that creates community and support for mothers of color. And to top it off, every item featured in the collection ranges from $4 to $40. Seriously, what could be better? Keep scrolling to shop.

Today, red lipstick is associated with many things. It's associated with confidence, which is why some people swipe on their favorite shade of red ahead of a big presentation at work. It's associated with romance, which is why it's the go-to shade for so many people come date night. It's also associated with the classic French-girl look. Pairing a bold red lip with bare skin and natural eyes creates something that's at once both elevated and effortless. (This is the oxymoron that's kept the world fascinated by French beauty for decades, but I digress.)

These associations we have with red lipstick aren't random. Do a little digging, and it becomes increasingly evident that red lipstick has symbolized boldness, individuality, and, most importantly, defiance for millennia. One of the most interesting yet ambiguous examples of this is said to have taken place during women's suffrage, when suffragists allegedly wore red lipstick to reflect their unity and protest. While the history is, at times, murky, the point remains the same: Red lipstick is more than makeup. Ahead, learn all about its empowering history, extending from the ancient world to the modern day.

Ancient Civilizations

To understand red lipstick and the power it holds in the modern era, we have to trace it back to its origins (I'm talking thousands of years ago). "You can find red lipstick in Ancient Sumer, Egypt, China, etc.," says Erin Parsons, celebrity makeup artist and beauty expert. "There’s a Minoan fresco featuring a woman wearing lipstick, a papyrus from ancient Egypt [depicting someone] applying a lip rouge using a brush, and of course, you can’t forget the bust of Nefertiti."

Back then, people used natural pigments from the earth and plants to create the cosmetic. "During the Zhou dynasty in China, we see the use of cinnabar pigment for red lipstick, which continued into the Tang and Han dynasty," Parson explains. "The makeup styles and shape of lips changed throughout these eras. In ancient Egypt and Sumer, red ochre would have been used to create red pigments used in cosmetics. This was actually found in cockle shells near Queen Puabi's grave at Ur. Surprisingly, we still see the use of this same iron ore in makeup today. Although, now it’s more often synthetically created." 

The Victorian Era

Fast-forward to the Victorian era (approximately 1837 to 1900), and red lipstick didn't have the same positive associations that it does now, which explains why the look was all about sheer and subtle color. "To be obviously painted in the Victorian era would have been seen as someone of low morals," Parsons says. "If women used lip rouge, they did it quite subtly by creating a tinted lip salve mostly made from ingredients in the kitchen." 

The Early 20th Century

This is when things really get interesting. Legend has it that women who were marching and protesting for the right to vote wore red lipstick to symbolize their mission and further the fight. More specifically, it's said that Elizabeth Arden, the businesswoman and boundary-pushing beauty savant, handed out red lipstick to suffragists as they were marching past her Fifth Avenue storefront, as she herself was a staunch supporter of the cause. 

Here's the thing, though. It's difficult to find proof of this. As Parsons puts it, "Women in the suffrage movement would have used lipstick as a means of rebellion, power, and feminism if in fact it actually happened." I wanted to know more, so I went straight to the source: Elizabeth Arden, the very same global beauty brand founded by the namesake cosmetics maven.

Janet Curmi is the VP of global education and development at Elizabeth Arden. She says Elizabeth Arden was pioneering when it came to introducing red lipstick to American beauty trends. "Before 1912, makeup was not acceptable for most American women, with it generally only being worn by performers and alike," she says. "On her first trip to Paris in 1912, Elizabeth Arden took note of the city’s fashionable elite—women who attended the theater and opera, with their lashes lacquered and their cheeks tinted with rouge. On her return to New York, she wasted no time in formulating the first rouges and tinted powders, as well as mascara and eye shadow for American women. Around the same time, Vogue published an article suggesting that 'a little rouge, discreetly used, might make a woman look healthier and younger.' Soon after, makeup became the height of fashion in American society, with Elizabeth Arden pioneering the industry in America to match the rising demand."

"While turn-of-the-century actresses like Sarah Bernhardt and Mary Pickford helped to bring red lipstick into vogue in 1912, it was Elizabeth Arden who gave it political power, elevating it to a symbol of rebellion and female empowerment," Curmi says. "On November 9, 1912, 20,000 women took to the streets of New York to advocate for the right to vote. Elizabeth Arden, a dedicated suffragette herself, opened the doors of her New York spa to hand out her Venetian Lip Paste and Venetian Arden Lip Pencil, before joining the suffragettes marching down Fifth Avenue as a sign of solidarity. The most striking sight was the bold red color on the women’s lips." 

Curmi says it was a bold and effective tool due to the perceptions that surrounded red lipstick at that time. "Red lips were still considered illicit and immoral at the time, so the women wore them in unison as a rebellious emblem of emancipation and defiance," she says. "In response, leaders of feminist movements such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman began sporting red lips as a symbol of female empowerment. Since then, red lipstick has mirrored resilient femininity." 

Through this lens, red lipstick owes its grip on 20th-century beauty to Arden. "One of the first female entrepreneurs in 20th century America, Arden remarkably turned a $6000 investment into a billion-dollar brand. She opened the Red Door Spa on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1910 at a time when makeup and cosmetics were considered improper. She was instrumental in changing how the world thought about beauty—the ultimate influencer," Curmi says.

"While the original Venetian Lip Paste and Lip Pencil products are no longer in production, our iconic red lipsticks remain an important part of our product portfolio to this day," Curmi says. "Our cult-favorite Elizabeth Arden Lip Color Lipstick in Red Door Red best matches the shade worn by the suffragettes over 100 years ago. Red Door Red is a universally flattering hue and remains one of our most popular shades globally!"

The 1920s

Parsons says this was the era that brought red lipstick into the mainstream consciousness, making it seem accessible and trendy for young people during that time. It was thanks, in part, to turn-of-century actresses like Mary Pickford, who regularly donned a bold, red lip. "What changed the perception of lipstick was the flappers and 1920s Hollywood," she says. "The jazz age and the youth during that time completely rebelled against the older morals. They cut off their hair, wore knee-length skirts, and of course lots of makeup. It was a wonderful time for the world of cosmetics after the clean-girl Victorian and Edwardian eras." 

The 1940s

This is the era that Parsons finds particularly interesting in regard to the history of red lipstick. When the U.S. entered WWII, red lipstick was again interpreted as more than a cosmetic—it was a political stance. "I find it fascinating that red lipstick had become a woman’s patriotic duty during WWII," she says. "The story goes that Adolf Hitler hated the cosmetic, so allied forces used it as a statement against fascism. There were even colors from Elizabeth Arden like Montezuma Red and Victory that were meant to match the women’s uniforms worn in the military. During this time, all ads pointed toward taglines like 'Keep your beauty on duty!'" 

Elizabeth Arden played a role during this era, too. "Wearing lipstick on duty became standard protocol for women in the armed forces, as well as nurses and volunteers throughout the war," Curmi says. "During World War II, the Marine Corps even commissioned Elizabeth Arden to create a tube specifically designed for women in service—1941’s vibrant, victorious Montezuma Red—which was issued in the official military kit alongside nail polish and matching rouge."

The 1990s

We can't talk about red lipstick without talking about iconic moments in the '90s, particularly when Madonna adopted a specific shade of red to wear on her Blonde Ambition tour. It was MAC's Russian Red ($22), a highly pigmented true blue-red. "That color defined the era," Parsons said. It was "the intense matte red lipstick that turned MAC into a global cosmetics company that changed the beauty industry!"

Want to play your own part in red lipstick's enduring history? Shop some favorites below. 

10 of the Best Red Lipsticks

Next, From Cher's to Bianca Jagger's, These Are the Most Iconic '70s Makeup Looks

Anyone who’s sat down on Sunday to watch a Formula One race will tell you that, no matter your preferred channel or the country you’re tuning in from, there aren’t very many women in the frame. Currently, 20 men race on the grid for 10 teams, all helmed by male team principals. In the sport’s 74-year history, only five women have driven in F1, the last of whom, Lella Lombardi, drove from 1974 to 1976. Despite efforts by female drivers like Giovanna Amati, Desiré Wilson, Susie Wolff, and Jamie Chadwick, the grid has remained wholly dominated by men ever since.

Off the track, however, a handful of women have led the charge. After multiple appearances during practice sessions in 2014 and 2015, Wolff retired from racing to launch Dare to Be Different, a campaign designed to increase female participation in all aspects of motorsport. Later, she became the team principal of the Venturi Formula E team before being designated the managing director of the newly developed all-female driver category, F1 Academy, where she’s in charge of preparing young female drivers for a competitive future in motorsport. Natalie Pinkham has been a member of the Sky Sports F1 commentary team since 2011 and is one of three members of F1 Nation, F1’s official podcast that she hosts with Damon Hill and Tom Clarkson.

Also on the Sky Sports F1 team is Rachel Brookes, a longtime TV presenter and journalist, and Laura Winter is one of the leading broadcasters and presenters for F1 TV and the host of the sports podcast Lessons Learned. In 2022, former W Series driver Naomi Schiff joined Sky Sports F1, where she’s now a full-time presenter and analyst. On the pit wall, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s principal strategy engineer, Hannah Schmitz, is lauded as one of the grid’s greatest strategists. After the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, the team’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko stated, "We were all exceptional, but if we won, it was mainly due to Hannah.”

These women set the stage for a new era in F1, one that—despite an abundance of pushback from change-fearing fans and a significant lack of representation—is, in many ways, dominated by women. But rather than a racing car, the women currently making their mark on the sport work from behind screens, on platforms like Instagram, Twitch, and, most significantly, TikTok. Even without a seat or, in some cases, any official credentials, it hasn’t taken long for their impacts to be felt across the internet and inside the moving walls of the F1 paddock.

"Female F1 content creators have ushered in new terminologies, new ways of approaching and consuming the sport, new ways of talking about the sport, and new content styles, all of which were mocked at first by fans, teams, and the sport itself and then replicated and finally celebrated,” Toni Cowan-Brown, 38, says. Cowan-Brown is a longtime fan of F1, but it wasn’t until 2020 that she made the transition from fan to content creator after publishing her first F1 video on TikTok. Since then, Cowan-Brown has amassed more than 100,000 followers on her F1 TikTok page, @F1Toni, where she shares both educational and entertaining content surrounding the media and culture of F1. One of the major methods she’s used to shift the way audiences think about and consume the sport is through her simple and easy-to-grasp Guide to F1, which she first developed for her friends who weren’t ready to watch hundreds of races in order to learn about F1. Realizing that her original guide was too long for even her friends to read through, Cowan-Brown decided to divide it into bite-size pieces for content, putting them on the taking-off TikTok platform. “I realized that people enjoyed going on this research and discovery journey with me and that the gap I was filling was this desire for knowledge and learning,” she says.

Those who weren’t raised on the sport but who grew into fandom thanks to its increased representation in popular culture (a result of Netflix’s wildly successful docuseries Drive to Survive, Lewis Hamilton’s presence in music and fashion, and the rise of F1 content creators) could be easily turned off from the sport due to information overload, especially given its existing fan base’s reputation of being harsh on newcomers—particularly female newcomers. Cowan-Brown’s Guide to F1 and the videos associated with it make it easy for new fans to get acquainted with F1 in a judgment-free zone. “I’m hoping to break down some of the stereotypes in this space and the toxic traits we are seeing with certain fans who think the sport belongs to them because they can name every race Michael Schumacher won,” she says. “There is no one way to be a fan—that’s the beauty of fandoms.”

Mikaela Kostaras, 34, felt this exact judgment from a fan’s perspective when she attended the 2021 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Despite the noticeable increase in female attendance post–Drive to Survive—she became a fan of F1 in 2011 and had attended races prior to the Netflix show’s release—she quickly became frustrated by how many attendees attempted to invalidate her throughout the weekend. “From the moment I stepped off the plane until the moment I returned home, I had to constantly ‘prove’ myself as a fan,” she says. “Surely, as a woman, I was only there because the drivers are good-looking, not because I enjoyed the racing, competition, and all of the things that make F1 so thrilling on-screen and in person.” To her, the consensus seemed to be that, in the eyes of the sport and its established fan base, a woman’s interest in F1 was strictly vanity-based.

Upon returning home to San Diego after the race, Kostaras created the TikTok account @SheLovesF1, where all different types of fans would feel welcomed and empowered to celebrate the sport she’d loved for the last decade. “I don’t think it matters why or how someone is a fan of something, so long as they are being respectful, and I felt there needed to be a space where being a fan—for any reason at all—was accepted,” she explains. “The goal of She Loves F1 has always been to create a wickedly fun, hilariously sassy, ridiculously intelligent, and powerfully badass community where people feel comfortable being themselves, having opinions, and meeting friends all around the world for the sake of a shared passion of F1.” With more than 100,000 followers and counting, it appears to have worked.

Making the transition from F1 fan to content creator as a woman in no way halts this kind of treatment. Rather, it adds to it. “It’s been tough in many ways,” says Lissie Mackintosh, 24, who started out as a content creator before being recruited into F1’s presenting team for the 2022 season. She’s now the lead pit lane and paddock presenter for Track TV. Just like Kostaras and Cowan-Brown, Mackintosh says she sometimes feels, as a young woman in motorsport, that she constantly needs to prove herself in order to warrant respect. “There have been times when I have been hugely undermined, both online and in real life, and online, it can be much worse because people can hide behind their keyboards,” she says. “I have been told too many times to stay in the kitchen or explain what DRS is in front of a large group, but I remember that I need to use it to fuel me. What I’m doing is so much bigger than hateful or small-minded people.” According to her, “the sport would not run without women,” yet so many of the women who play pivotal roles in F1’s success continue to face opposition.

This treatment is worsened tenfold when creators use their platforms to speak about gender-related issues that have long existed in the sport. Cowan-Brown says that at the beginning of her TikTok journey, she purposefully created somewhat “vanilla content” that was based solely on facts in order to avoid being met with adverse reactions. “When I started being more vocal about the treatment I was seeing of young female fans creating forward-thinking and very different content, then I started seeing backlash,” she says. “When I voice opinions about [things like] gender-bland sexism, I get pushback. What’s interesting is any time a woman talks about issues that affect women, the men (really, they are trolls) all come out to play.”

What the content is doesn’t always matter. If made by a female content creator, it will oftentimes be subject to ridicule at a much higher degree than content created by non-female creators. Kostaras discussed this in a video published last year, specifically talking about the difference in comments received when she wrote that McLaren driver Lando Norris was “entering his model era” compared to those found below a post his team published with the same caption. “When a woman says [a driver is] entering his model era, a lot of people are going to look at her as an illegitimate fan—a crazed fangirl,” she says in the video. In contrast, the comment section on McLaren’s post consists mostly of thank-yous and fire emojis. Kostaras goes on to say that while she knows that not all women receive hateful and invalidating comments on their F1-related videos, a large number of them do, especially when it comes to “thirsty content” like the sort she often creates for She Loves F1.

“I hope that, by shining a light on the criticism many women receive while others are praised for talking about the same thing, it begins the conversation that will spark change in how women fans are perceived by their peers and community,” says Kostaras. For her, it shouldn’t matter what type of content you create, whether it’s an educational deep dive or a Thirsty Thursday roundup—women should be allotted the same amount of respect that their male counterparts consistently receive, no questions asked.

Despite the barrage of negativity they so often face online, female creators like Kostaras, Mackintosh, and Cowan-Brown are driving forces behind the democratization and personalization of F1, a shift that’s funneling an abundance of new fans into the sport. “Drive to Survive has been great at getting more fans involved, but it’s creators like myself who are constantly keeping F1 fans engaged and who have created lasting communities by bridging the gap between sport and fan in a personal, accessible way,” Mackintosh says. And she’s right. Drive to Survive releases a season once a year just ahead of the start of the F1 World Championship. The winter break, which goes from December until March, is a long, dry period of time when on-track action ceases to exist and practically everyone involved in the sport goes silent—but not creators.

During that period, creators like Kostaras fill their feeds with engaging, funny, and mostly driver-related content that gets—and keeps—fans excited about the season that’s coming. That way, when the winter break does eventually end, everyone tunes in for that first race in Bahrain. When a new season starts and the content on our screens turns to race statistics and technical analyses, female creators leverage the followings they’ve gained during the off-season to provide something different from what’s on TV. “Content creators like myself who focus on the creator ecosystem surrounding F1 and personalizing the drivers and the sport offer a new perspective that [isn’t otherwise being] captured,” Kostaras says. All in all, she believes that creators have helped to cast a wider net of eyes in the F1 space. “People who wouldn’t have traditionally been interested in watching this sport or learning about it are now lifelong fans because of an edit they saw on TikTok that catered to their tastes,” she adds.

This is not lost on drivers or their social media teams, almost all of whom have embraced this lighthearted and highly personal marketing technique that’s primarily been utilized (quite successfully) by female F1 content creators. “Female creators have done a lot for the relevancy of certain drivers,” Cowan-Brown says. “It was so obvious last year in this [Fernando] Alonso interview how much he really wanted the relevancy that young female fans were offering to other drivers, but he didn’t quite have it in him to respect this fan base yet.” The difference between Alonso and drivers such as Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas, and Hamilton who were receiving significantly more attention on social media was their engagement on various social media apps. “[Alonso has] turned a corner this year by meeting them where they are at and letting loose on social platforms like TikTok,” says Cowan-Brown. In turn, his popularity has skyrocketed, with his first video garnering 2.2 million views.

The biggest shift of all, though, especially for the financial success of female content creators, arrived when F1 teams began embracing the creator community. “I was invited to the Red Bull [car] launch in February [of 2023] and was impressed at the access we were given,” Kostaras says. “By being present at major events, content creators can do what they do best: create content that is going to have higher engagement because they know their audience better than anyone else!” According to her, She Loves F1 garnered a million impressions from the content she created around that event alone.

At the same launch, Twitch streamer and Oracle Red Bull Racing content creator F1 Elly published one of the most talked-about TikTok videos on all of F1 TikTok, featuring herself and current World Champion Max Verstappen doing a voiceover of Lola Brooke’s viral song “Don’t Play With It.” “Elly did more for Max’s likeability than anyone else has, and she did it in less than 15 seconds,” Cowan-Brown noted in a video posted in the days following. And she wasn’t exaggerating. In those 15 seconds, F1 Elly took a driver with a rock-hard shell and framed him in a humorous and playful light in front of the video’s seven million viewers. If teams needed any more proof of the effectiveness of building relationships with content creators, that short clip more than provided it.

Unfortunately, despite the futuristic nature of the cars on track, F1 remains, in many ways, stuck in the past. Though inviting female content creators to attend F1 events on behalf of teams and hiring them in full-time positions are moves that should be rewarded in spades and serve as examples for every team and department in F1, the sport as a whole still has a lot of work to do. “I don’t think there is any going back, but I do think the sport right now is in a discovery phase, trying to see what works and what doesn’t,” says Cowan-Brown. “It’s going to get a lot ‘messier’ in the coming years before F1 decides who it is, how it wants to be, and how to cater to a plethora of audiences.” In the meantime, you can count on female creators like Cowan-Brown, Kostaras, Mackintosh, and so many more to continue pushing F1 in the right direction, delivering inclusive content that’s designed to introduce new people to the sport and convince them to stay—primarily for the on-track action but also for everything that, if you know where to look on TikTok, comes with it, from She Loves F1’s famous Thirsty Thursday content to Mackintosh’s epic driver interviews. It’s all just a click away.

This story was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

Historians, activists, and even fashion designers know one truth: movements come in waves. Much like a tidal wave breaking back and forth, we can see massive surges in the more "superficial" things (e.g., fashion trends) and the larger political movements tied to fighting for marginalized communities. And while fashion is in no way as serious of a matter as that of the continued infringement of rights that women face today, to dismiss its role in culture would be a disservice to the history books. 

Fashion may seem frivolous, but its impact can be best distilled by one famous slogan from the second wave of feminism; "the personal is political." It's a phrase that feels more relevant than ever as we've seen the reversal of Roe V. Wade and the stripping of people's bodily autonomy across the country. For marginalized communities, the personal (even through the lens of style) has always played a pivotal role in subverting oppression. You can pull all plenty of recipes to show how style has played a role in dissent—e.g., the civil rights or the voting rights movement. But for the sake of time, the general point is that clothing has always been political for marginalized communities. 

And that stark truth makes it evermore imperative to shop consciously and support designers that are pushing boundaries. There's been a tidal wave of new designers whose work is changing the industry, but we're most interested in the women leading the charge. In honor of Women's History Month, we're highlighting five female fashion designers who founded their labels in the past six years. Their work is a reminder that fashion is a powerful tool for protest.

The beauty of art and fashion is that they've always played a pivotal role in spotlighting (and sometimes poking fun at) society's larger shortcomings. That's something that the former artist turned fashion designer, Carly Mark, fully comprehends and puts on full display through her label, Puppets and Puppets. Since the Detroit-born creative launched the womenswear label in 2018, it has taken the industry by storm thanks to its tongue-in-cheek approach to fashion. That perspective is most pronounced through the brand's buzzy handbags—simple handbags are adorned with sculpture-like resin objects that resemble eggs, bananas, and even brownies. 

While one may argue that a bag adorned with a life-like cookie is the visual embodiment of frivolity, this artist uses her work to add humor to reflect the absurdities of notoriously serious subjects. Take, for example, her most recent F/W 23 collection, which drew inspiration from the horror film Dead Ringers which follows two male gynecologists that use their power to manipulate women and eventually fall into a state of mental deterioration because of it. The subject alone is an artistic statement (considering the state of women's reproductive healthcare today), but her design details are where you see her challenging norms.

You saw blood-red faux fur coats accentuated with packing tape, satin gowns adorned with a print from the painting, The Operation, and hobo bags with handles that mimicked a telephone. The result was a collection that pulled inspiration from dark subjects and transmuted it into clothing that can spark joy. If that's not art, I don't know what is. 

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As much as modern society may try, identity does not exist within one box that can be checked off on the census; it exists on a spectrum. The flattening of identity impacts every community, but it's evermore apparent in the misconceptions surrounding Black Caribbean communities. Due to colonization, there's a built-in image of what Jamaica "looks like" right down to how they dress, but designer Rachel Scott hopes to change that through her brand, Diotima. With years of industry experience (including holding the position of vice president of design at Rachel Comey), she was primed to launch her label.

But the Kingston-born designer admitted to us at this year's Black in Fashion Council showroom that she didn't feel she had the space to bring her idea to fruition until the COVID-19 pandemic. That time away from the hustle and bustle of New York-City, gave her the space to realize that there was enough room for her vision of Caribbean style to exist alongside other brands. And while Scott may have initially been worried about how her interpretation of her heritage fit into the larger story of the diaspora, she's since been able to reflect the full tapestry of this community. 

Scott's work has expanded the visual definition of Jamaican style through her signature melding of traditional artisanal techniques from Jamaica with European fabrications and silhouettes. For example, her S/S 23 collection featured a pair of white trousers with a hand-woven crochet insert that mimicked a doily. While her F/W 23 collection featured a knit-web crochet gown (see above). What's more, these pieces don't just reflect the culture but center craftsmanship, as each piece is made-to-order in Jamacia by women who have been in the industry for generations.

It's a brand that's not only combating the negative impacts of colonization—from helping support artisans to fighting myths. But Scott's work gives back the power of self-definition and determination to afro-Caribbeans, one crochet piece at a time. 

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As aforementioned, fashion has always been a part of cultural shifts, and various feminist movements of different eras are not immune to this fact. Historically, there have been multiple trends larger societies would deem as "risqué" that marked shifts in how society views gender norms, attitudes toward sex and sexual education, and women's right to bodily autonomy. Take, for example, the rise of the mini skirt in the '60s, which was popularized at the same time as birth control was legalized. While plenty of historical examples show the intersection of style and social movements, there's an even more recent trend to contend with: the rise of lingerie-inspired clothing. 

Contrary to the popular myth, feminists aren't burning their undergarments; they're wearing them to challenge ideas around sexuality. And this idea is most pronounced in the work of one singular designer: Nensi Dojaka. The Albanian-born designer founded her namesake label in 2017 after graduating from Central Saint Martins, where she studied the underpinnings of what constitutes excellent lingerie for years. That accumulation of knowledge paid off because, in the short span of six years, the designer has managed to build a cult following and attain accolades, including winning LVMH's Emerging Talent Award and British Fashion Council's Fashion Award.

But what makes Dojaka's work revolutionary isn't the buzz (though having fans like Bella Hadia helps); it all goes back to the garments. While her brand has been around longer than others in this story and has attained a high status in the industry, its founding marks a pivotal time in fashion and culture. One could argue that Dojaka's sheer bodywear with exposéd seams not only ushered in the era of risqué trends but was in some way affixed to the culture's conversations around the #MeToo and TimesUp movement. For many, that time not only marked a rise in consciousness about consent, assault, and abuse of power. But it reminded many people that misogynistic viewpoints around clothing continue to play a role in victim-blaming.

In a time when people were arguing over if a mini-skirt meant you were "asking for it" (which, for the record, it never does), it was refreshing to have a designer dedicated to celebrating women's bodies. While time has passed since then, and Dojaka's work has been cemented into the zeitgeist, the thread throughout her work always goes back to empowering women to feel their sexiest. And in a way, with women still fighting for bodily autonomy, the simple act of choosing to slip into a sheer body-hugging dress from Dojaka is a small act of rebellion.

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Inclusivity has not always been a defining factor of fashion—in fact, one could say that the industry has long operated on exclusion. After all, designers of color still struggle to break into the industry, class largely dictates if one has the financial means to stay in the industry, and brands still don't offer extended sizing. Add on top of that fact that talent struggles to cultivate larger audiences if they live outside the limits of major cities. But, despite the track record, a new generation of designers is aiming to redefine how we look at American fashion; Elena Velez is one of them. 

The half-Puerto Rican designer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up with a single mother. Despite not residing in a "cosmopolitan" area, she became infatuated with clothing and was eventually compelled to attend both Central Saint Martins and the Parsons School of Design. After graduating, the creative launched her namesake label with her initial showing at New York Fashion Week in 2021. Don't be fooled, though; Velez may show her work in the city, but it champions and draws inspiration from America's rust belt.

Witnessing her mother work as a ship caption with fellow blue-collar workers as a child is an experience that looms larger over Velez's work. Her pieces often feature materials that make an homage to that experience. For example, in her F/W 23 collection, she partnered with local metalsmiths to create a bra made from welded iron that subtly peeked out of a strapless green ruched dress (see above). Each collection doesn't just champion Milwaukee artisans, though; it offers a more extensive commentary on paradoxes in womanhood.

Her debut collection in F/W 21, for instance, was reported as being dedicated to exploring the idea of "tough feminity" and how the grit required for women to make it through the world is often in direct opposition to how we define feminity. Each collection since has not only challenged the misconceptions that surround both womanhood and the midwest but has been a reminder that great talent can come from anywhere. 

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Mowalola Ogunlesi isn't keen on being put in a box, or at least that's what one can deduct after deep diving into the designer's career. The Nigerian creative first made her foray into fashion by attending (and dropping out of) Central Saint Martins. Though she's openly discussed how she disliked her experience there, she accredits the school with landing one of her most influential internships with Grace Wales Bonner. Cutting her teeth under the tutelage of one of our time's most revolutionary female designers inspired Ogunlesi to start her eponymous label, Mowalola, in 2017. 

She debuted her first collection at London Fashion Week in 2018 with the philanthropic organization Fashion East. The non-profit is dedicated to fostering new talent and has some of the most esteemed veterans in the program, including Maximilian, Jonathan Anderson, Nensi Dojka, and Mowalola. While Ogunlesi stopped showing with Fashion East in 2020, that first collection (and the subsequent ones after that) cemented her as a rising star in the industry.

That newly attained star status was partly due to the celebrity set that quickly took to her work—fans include Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell, and Drake. Additionally, Ogunlesi landed some of the buzziest collaborations quickly (with Nike and Gap). But don't be fooled by the hype; at the end of the day, the fandom surrounding her work all goes back to her out-of-the-box approach to fashion.

Unlike other designers who foray into womenswear or menswear out of the gate, Ogunlesi didn't choose. She doesn't put herself in a box, which is apparent through her championing genderless looks and the topics she chooses to explore in her work. For instance, her debut collection with Fashion East in '18 explored the influence of '70s rock Nigerian music. It featured men donning low-slung colorful leather pants with exposed chests and women in ultra-tailored leather jackets with matching micro-mini skirts.

More recently, Ogunlesi made her solo debut at Paris Fashion Week in S/S23 after a hiatus of three years. The collection explored the idea of every criminal and featured looks that made nods to priests, stock brokers, and even fictional film characters like Regina George from Mean Girls (see the look above). And even her F/W 23 collection had a larger meaning—it critiqued capitalism and its role in societal collapse. That criticism was apparent, though, how oversize hoodies had screen-printed trademark logos and were mud-splattered with mud. 

It's clear to any observant viewer that Ogunlesi (much like the other designers featured in the story) is keenly aware of the boxes society tries to push on them. They know that the world tries to simplify everything from gender to identity to who's seen as a criminal and who's seen as glamorous, and even the creative process is flattened by capitalism. Yet, these women rebuke the ideas before them. They rage against the machine simply by taking to their sewing machine. It's a wave of women using "women's work" to spin up their own world on their terms, and we're all here for it. 

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Next: I'm Super Into These 11 Queer Female and Nonbinary Designers

In case you haven't heard, either from us or one of the many exceptional women in your life, it's Women's History Month, the one month a year when women and only women get the spotlight firmly planted on them. To mark the occasion, I plan on spending the rest of March treating myself to a bit of shopping (shocker), and this year—for once in my life—I have set a few strict guidelines.

Really, there's just one self-imposed rule on this month's agenda: only shop brands that are owned by women. That way, I can help move the needle in the fashion industry, where, according to a 2016 Business of Fashion survey, only 14% of 50 major fashion brands are run by women, despite women making up the majority of fashion-school enrollments and entry-level fashion positions. That being said, there are still plenty of shockingly good options on the market that stem from the creative and business-savvy minds of women in fashion, with standout designers including Rachel Scott, Catherine Holstein, Tory Burch, Grace Wales Bonner, and, of course, the matriarch in all our hearts, Miuccia Prada.

To further keep my shopping day on track, I chose to focus on one retailer that I know is stocked full of pieces by women-owned brands. Without further ado, shop the 28 women-owned finds from Nordstrom on my Women's History Month consideration list. After looking them over one last time, I get the feeling they'll be on yours, too.

Shop Women-Owned Brands at Nordstrom

This post was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

A very happy International Women's Day (and Women's History Month) to me and all those who observe! Today, March 8, we take a moment to celebrate our many achievements and to bring attention to women's rights issues, which include (but are hardly limited to) gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

In honor of this year's big day, this week's new-arrivals roundup is dedicated to both female-founded brands and products that support, uplift, and champion women with every purchase. If you're going to be shopping anyway, it's worth considering these buys before others to help out women across the globe.

This story was originally published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

I probably won't be the first person to say this to you today, but happy International Women's Day! Inevitably, our feeds will be filled with a mixture of personal appreciation posts, branded hashtags and girl power quotes over the next 24 hours, and while we welcome all the IWD love, we also wanted to cut through the noise and talk about something that is close to our hearts here at Who What Wear: small, woman-owned brands. These are the lesser-known names that we love shouting about, whether it's down to their innovative products, exciting approaches to sustainability or refreshing attitudes towards size diversity.

The last two years haven't been easy for independent brands, so you know that we'll take any chance to champion the fashion and beauty brands that set our hearts racing. So yes, it may be International Women's Day today, but, really, we're in the business of celebrating womanhood (in all its guises) every single day of the year. So our lovely beauty contributor, Shannon Lawlor, and I have put our heads together to come up with a by-no-means-exhaustive list of small, woman-owned fashion and beauty brands that we want to share with you. From Freya Simonne's stunning upcyled jackets to Nikkie de Jager's groundbreaking beauty drops, scroll down to see and shop our shortlist. 

Cawley Studio

Hannah Cawley founded Cawley Studio in 2017 with the aim of creating wardrobe staples that transcended the seasons. With a homespun, heritage aesthetic, the collections are made using natural fibres, such as cotton, linen and wool, sourced from traditional mills.

Fruity Booty

From elegant sets to pretty pants, all of Fruity Booty's designs are created from deadstock and sustainably sourced fabrics. We particularly love the Love Bug Set's ruffled appeal from the brand's latest drop. 

Freya Simonne

After working in the fashion industry as a designer for almost 10 years, Freya Simonne decided to create her own brand to encourage a more conscious approach to consumption. All her designs are upcycled from pre-loved fabrics and range from quilted puffers to patchwork dresses. She also offers bespoke commissions. 

Selena's Shop

I've long been a fan of the impeccable vintage edits of Selena's Shop (she was one of our first Second-Hand Shopper brands) that encompass everything from statement '70s printed dresses to classic '90s wardrobe basics. 

Rave Review

Making its debut at Paris Fashion Week for S/S 18, Stockholm-based Rave Review won over the fashion crowd with its use of sustainable materials and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes, which sees designers Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück upcycle pre-existing garments that they find at vintage markets.

Dolly Rocket London

"My dream is to provide a colourful and bold world for people to express their confidence and joy through clothes that fit and accessories that excite," says Dolly Rocket founder Sara Brown. From checkerboard tablecloths to feel-good frocks, this is the ultimate endorphin-boosting brand.

The Marcon Court Project

Laura Casas first trained in Spain before completing a three-year apprenticeship with Savile Row before setting up The Marcon Court Project in 2016. Expect impressive upcycled vintage blazers, cute accessories and handmade blouses.

Mad Brown Knitwear

I first covered Mad Brown Knitwear back in 2020, and the brand has continued to go from strength to strength. All of the brand's designs are made using pre-loved pieces that have been lovingly mended and reworked using coloured wool, which is woven between the cable knits. From tonal pinks to rainbow hues, each one possesses its own distinct character. 

Birdsong London

Ethically made in London for and by remarkable women, Birdsong London is a fashion brand and social enterprise that works with local communities to create its wares. I'd love to wear the brand's striped minidress with tan sandals and gold jewellery this spring.

Daphine Jewellery

Founded in London in 2018 by Damasia Ball and Philippine de Follin, Daphine is all about creating timeless jewellery pieces that will span generations. Every piece is handmade in limited runs out of 18-karat gold laid over recycled brass that is Responsible Jewellery Council certified. 

O Pioneers

Inspired by vintage patterns, O Pioneers is a British clothing label founded in Camden by Clara Francis, actor and jewellery designer, and Tania Hindmarch, PR and home seamstress. Their MO? Flattering, nostalgic dress designs made in limited runs and handcrafted in end-of-stock fabrics.

Jakke

Jakke is an ethical fashion label launched in 2015 by East London designer Nina Hopkins. Awarded Best Faux Fur Brand and Best Wool Free Brand by PETA, Jakke specialises in faux-fur coats and jackets in feel-good prints and vibrant colourways. 

Nubian Skin

With a goal of offering "a different kind of nude,” Ade Hassan launched Nubian Skin to create a more inclusive lingerie brand. The collection features four skin tones in 16 sizes from B to G cups and is beloved by A-listers such as Jourdan Dunn, Lizzo and Winnie Harlow.

Axiology

Ericka Rodriguez founded Axiology when her own search for cruelty-free and vegan makeup proved fruitless. She created the brand to fulfill those needs and also champion a plastic-free approach to beauty. The stick products are multi-use and come packaged in recycled paper rather than plastic. The paper is sourced from a woman-run and woman-owned business in Bali that collects used paper from the island and recycles it. The products themselves are wonderful. Think no-fuss makeup that delivers dewy, balmy results in just a few seconds.

Soapsmith

Soapsmith is responsible for some of the chicest bodycare products in beauty. Samantha Jameson founded the brand as part of her mission to help restore some of London’s lost craftsmanship. From the fresh lavender of Lavender Hill to the herbaceous grassiness of Hackney, each of the products features an iconic London-inspired scent (each one as delicious as the next), and they look really good on the bathroom shelf.

Uoma Beauty

Uoma Beauty (pronounced uh-mah) is perhaps one of the most inclusive and successful beauty brands to have launched in the past decade. Founder, CEO and Creative Director Sharon Chuter spent years in the beauty industry working as an executive for some major players before launching Uoma in a bid to rewrite the rules of inclusivity. The brand’s Say What?! Foundation (available in an impressive 51 shades) and contour sticks have become major industry favourites.

Nimya

Created by influencer Nikkie de Jager (otherwise known as NikkieTutorials), Nimya is a beauty brand that aims to bash down the concept of labels and instead encourage you to embrace your true self. The small edit of products on offer by the brand delivers impressive ingredients for a comparatively affordable price. The moisturiser/primer is without a doubt the star of the show, containing glycerin for optimum hydration as well as honey and lactic acid to boost glow.

Trinny London

Trinny Woodall’s namesake beauty brand has been impressing experts since its launch in 2017. The products are easy to use, seriously inclusive and perfect for every skin type. With over 20 years of experience working in the fashion and beauty industry, it’s really no surprise that Trinny’s products are so great.

Jo Loves

Founded by Jo Malone CBE after the sale of Jo Malone London to Estée Lauder, Jo Loves is a fragrance brand entirely dedicated to Malone’s passion and love for scent. Each product, whether it be a candle, perfume or body cream, invokes a rush of joyful emotions that you won’t find elsewhere.

Pat McGrath Labs

Dame Pat McGrath is pretty much the most influential makeup artist in the world, and her makeup line, Pat McGrath Labs, has been valued at $1 billion—so yes, this stuff is good. She has created some of the most iconic makeup looks in beauty (that Adele comeback Vogue cover, anyone?) using her own makeup products, so you’re guaranteed great value for money.

Shani Darden

Shani Darden has worked on the faces of some of Hollywood's biggest names, including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Emily Ratajkowski and Laura Harrier, to name just a few, so it makes sense that her own skincare line is really impressive. In fact, considering it is a recent launch in the UK market, its success has been astonishing, with particular thanks to its Retinol Reform Serum. It's pricier than others on the market, but beauty editors tout it as one of the best retinol products in existence. 

Kohl Kreatives

Kohl Kreatives really is a beauty brand trying to make a difference. Founded by Trishna Daswaney, its brushes are designed to be inclusive for everyone, including those with motor disabilities. The brushes have square handles (so they won't roll off the table), are labelled in Braille and, on top of all of that, really are exceptional quality.

Up Next: The 9 New-In Pieces I'm Adding to My Wish List This Week

If there's someone out there who knows about being confident, speaking your truth, and standing in your power, it's Cecile Richards. The former president of Planned Parenthood and author of Make Trouble has been an outspoken champion of women's rights and social and economic justice and equality for almost her whole life. In fact, her book is all about how people can speak up for themselves and become leaders in their own communities.

About a year ago, Richards launched a new community, Supermajority, with other activists and leaders like Ai-Jen Poo and Alicia Garza. Supermajority's goal is to build an inclusive community of women across the country who are ready to mobilize and fight for gender equity.

We got the chance to chat with Richards about how she learned to be assertive, what advice she has for young women who want to find their voice, and, because we're a wellness site, what she does to unwind. Take a look at what she had to say.

Were you always so assertive and confident? When do you think you really started to come into your own and embrace your confidence?

I'm definitely not always assertive or confident, and in fact, for so many years, I was always worried about making a mistake. And I was the eldest child in a family of four, and I had a lot of expectations. I was always opinionated, though. Obviously that's not the same thing as being assertive and confident, but it was probably when I went to college and realized that I had a point of view about what was happening and wasn't happening in college. There were all kinds of issues that were being discussed on nuclear power, on divestment from South Africa, on the rights of janitors to a living wage, and I realized I had a strong point of view on all those things. And in some ways, it helped me just be able to begin to stand up for the things that I believed in.

I think there is a mistaken idea sometimes that people are just born confident. And one of the exciting things to me now is seeing so many women support other women, which is one of the ways I think we all grow our confidence, is having a community, often of women, around us to tell us that they believe in us, that they support us, they agree with us. And that's something that I love seeing in the world now.

Your mother was a strong and formidable woman herself. What are some things you learned from her about holding your own as a woman?

Well, again, I say some people think that Ann Richards—she was a governor of Texas—that she's run forth as this fully evolved, feminist freedom fighter, and that is absolutely not true. There were so many things that in her life she felt embarrassed about or not confident about. And so she evolved, so what I feel like I learned from her in many ways was you can always make a difference to have a different life. You can always make a decision to change your life or to be a leader or to make a difference, or to… I mean, for her, she got divorced, she ran for public office, she did things that were really kind of unthinkable when she was growing up. And so for me, the most important thing I guess I learned from her was one, yes, you can be the architect of your future and your destiny, and then, that it's never too late to have a wonderful life. And really that is what it ended up she did.

What are some of the most important lessons you taught your daughters about being strong and speaking up for yourself? And how is this the same or different than what you've taught your son?

My first daughter, Lily, was the first grandchild of Ann Richards. I think there were all these expectations of her. She really was thrust into both a public life and kind of an adult life so early. And in many ways, I always felt like her childhood wasn't a regular one, and sometimes she never got to be a child because all eyes were on her as the next generation.

And so to me, it was so important for Lily and for [my other daughter] Hannah to just feel confident in themselves and to do things that gave them their own self-confidence. For so much of my life, I felt like I was always seeking validation from other people, my parents, fitting in at school—so to me, that was the most important thing about them growing up was feeling good about themselves, no matter what. I just think for a lot of girls, we don't. We think we have to have the right clothes, or we have to have the right friends, or we have to have gone to the right schools, or to do everything perfectly. I just wanted the chance for them to be their own person. And they have become these amazing women.

And I feel that way for my son, Daniel, too, but I also always felt like it was going to be easier for him. It's just the expectation game for Hannah and Lily was always different, and I think they, like a lot of women, probably figured out they were going to need to work twice as hard and run twice as fast to get half as far. Fortunately, they each have.

Actually, a Princeton professor said this to me the other day. I was teaching a lot of women there, and she said, "It's still hard being a girl." And I think it is. There are so many different expectations of us and, frankly, mixed messages we get, whether it's from magazines, whether it's from the media, whether it's in our own families. So I think the most important thing we can do is to give young girls and women the confidence to be their best self, whatever shape that takes.

How do you set an example or teach the people you work with or mentor about building confidence?

Well, it's something I continue to try to get better at. I try to listen to what women say. A lot of young women come to me about trying to find a new job, or they're thinking about maybe making a switch in their career or education. Actually, just this week, I met with a young woman who I have such admiration for. She's been the editor in chief of a magazine, and they had a change in leadership, and she had to leave, and she was talking about a job. She'd applied for a job as the communications director for an organization. And I said, "Well, I can help you there. I could write to people there. You're amazing." Here's someone who's been doing a really big job incredibly successfully. And then I felt like she even had her own self-doubt, which made no sense to me. But for me, [it's about] listening to women and where they're coming from, and making sure that as women, whether it's older women or mentors or girlfriends, that we really reflect back on them how awesome they are.

The main thing that keeps women back is not a lack of skills or qualifications. It's our own confidence. I know there's a lot been written about imposter syndrome and how women suffer from it and feeling like they're not prepared for the next thing, and I myself dealt with that when I applied for my job at Planned Parenthood. [I thought] I wasn't really adequate for the job. That is a role that I think all of us can play with each other because I think men just sort of inherently imagine that they're qualified for the next thing and that for women sometimes we just need that confidence. Whether it's the Shine Theory, just really talking about how great other women are.

I think what is happening is more taking joy in the success of other women, realizing there's enough room for more than one of us in each of these endeavors. In fact, the more of us there are, the better it's going to be for everybody. Whether it's representative government, whether it's representation on the job, whether it's in culture and media and communication. So I just think trying to reflect back to people the confidence you have in them and specifically the things you have seen them do and excel is really, really powerful for women. We need that.

In turn, what have you learned from your daughters and other millennial or Gen Z women?

I feel like I learn stuff from younger women all the time. One of the things that was most important for my daughters—it was so different than my growing up—was when I grew up in Texas, girls really didn't get to compete in sports. We had a drill team, so if you were a certain height and weight and body type, you could cheer for the football team. And we had basketball, but you could only run half-court because they didn't think we could run the entire length of the court. When I was growing up, girls only had certain ways to compete. You could compete academically if you had the chance or compete to be most popular or things like that. So I just think it's exciting to think that now we have a whole generation of young women who've gotten to do things and compete in a really healthy way and learn how to do that. That's a big thing that I got to see my daughters do that had never been true for a generation of women, except for the most exceptional women who did all these things despite their restrictions.

And then I think the other thing I've learned so much from my daughters and other millennial and Gen Z women is something I really saw happen at Planned Parenthood—bringing in a whole new generation of young women as activists and leaders and employees, and that is the hope that at some point we really can move beyond gender and labels and how exciting that is that everybody can just be seen in the beauty of them as an individual, regardless of their background, how they identify, who they love, who their parents were. And I really do believe, if there is one thing that gives me hope, is that there's a generational difference and that we will move at some point to a place where gender is no longer a barrier to participation, to success, to living your best life.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting to find their voice or wanting to find their voice? I think a lot of women feel moved to start building their confidence and be assertive when they see other strong women. I know that I definitely think about it all the time. I know you can't just say, "Oh, today I am going to do it," because sometimes things get in the way, and you have good days and bad days. But I was wondering, how can one start?

Well, I think it's a great way you framed that because I do hear from a lot of women who are just raising their hand and saying, "What should I do next?" There is a little bit of a pathology out there that somehow there is one true path. This is how you go from X to Y to Z. And I believe so strongly in you just have to actually do what seems like the next right thing to do. That may not necessarily be great career advice for everyone, but I feel like for me, it was so important to be able to be someplace and be doing something that felt like it was making a difference.

There are so many examples in my life that oftentimes when you as a woman say something, just speak your truth, there are so many people who maybe for the first time feel like, "Oh, I can identify with that, and now I know I'm not the only one." We still live in very isolated lives that for women, whether they're experiencing everything from not being paid equally on the job and never having someone say, "Can we just get transparency here about who's making what?"—believe me, there will be other women around you who say, "I'm with her. I agree. We need to be figuring this out together." Or whether it's the issues of sexual assault and harassment that are part of women's absolute daily lives. Getting to see what it means when just one woman speaks up and then two more and then five more, and that's how it begins to ripple. And so I hope women will no longer feel this need to wait until everybody's in formation, if you will, and ready to go, but actually just speak your own truth. Because there were other women who feel exactly the way you do. And I think it's easy if you can start small.

The only other thing, which is just a super-tactical piece of advice, is I was really lucky. When I was in high school, I was in drama, and I had the experience of learning my lines, putting on a play before a bunch of strangers. I was definitely shy and I was definitely always worried about making a mistake, and in a way, drama and acting gave me a confidence because it was sort of like this other fake person that could just be out there saying what they believed, and it helped me. So I think there are also things that women can do, whether it's acting, whether it's debate, whether it's just beginning to work with another group of women and beginning to learn how to speak in front of others. It's enormously important because it builds your confidence and then it makes it easier to go before the city council or go testify before Congress or start your own organization or go on TV. It's a path. Looking for those opportunities, for a place to have your voice out there, is important. I guess the last piece on that is now, because of the explosion of podcasts, blogs, and social media, there are ways for you to begin to find your voice and express your voice, even if it's simply writing down the things that you believe, and that helps sometimes with women. So there are just a multiplicity of ways and opportunities.

And it's just about finding what's right for the person individually.

Yeah. I think it's, in many ways for women, speak your truth. Don't wait till you feel like you've studied up on everything, but just say, "Hey, this is…" Because I think as women, when we trust our gut, it's almost always right.

Yeah, 100%. It's just that there's also the part in your head that's like, "But is it?"

Well, you know what? What's the worst thing that could happen? Maybe you'd say something and, I don't know, maybe it doesn't come out exactly right. Or maybe sometimes you say something or do something, and you go later, "You know what? That was wrong, and I have to apologize." But why is it better to just sit there and have it all going on in your head? That was one piece of good advice my mother gave me. What's the worst thing that could happen? I think there are so many ways women second-guess. Whether it's quitting a job, taking a risk, writing a blog post, whatever it is, and then if you can just imagine what the worst thing is that could happen and that you could live with that, then you could just go do it.

And if you spend your whole time second-guessing or third-guessing or fourth-guessing or whatever-guessing, then you could miss your moment.

Exactly. You only get one life. This is it.

When you started Supermajority with other organizers and leaders, what were you envisioning in terms of helping women feel empowered?

I feel like we're in a fascinating moment in the United States where women are now actually more than half the college students. We are now more than half the payroll in America, and in all these fields, you look at graduate schools, law schools, medical schools, and yet we still really don't have power to change structural things that are holding us back. To me, the idea of Supermajority is what if women across race, across generations, across experience, actually came together? We could take on big, structural problems, like why is pregnancy still considered a liability and a problem by employers in this country as opposed to something that is experienced by millions of American workers? Why are we still discriminated against on so many things, in terms of pay and opportunity and promotion because of our gender?

So that was really the idea of Supermajority. It's just saying, "Hey, well why don't we actually now all pull together," because we could actually take on things not just as individuals—which is what women unfortunately had to do, like fight for something on their job or their school or at their city council—and instead think about how we do this together. Anyway, so far it's been wild. It's been interesting. A lot of women want to do more.

Do you believe getting involved in an organization or community like Supermajority can help women feel more confident because they are surrounding themselves with other like-minded women?

Yes, absolutely. And partly just to try to reduce the isolation that a lot of women feel and the frustration that a lot of women feel about what's going on in the country—that it feels less alone. But to me, the most powerful conversations and community gatherings we've had have not even been with women who are alike in every way. It's actually been with the women who have different racial backgrounds, different experiences, have never met each other. They may live in the same community, literally never been in the same room together, but they're all trying to make a change in the world.

The exciting thing to me is when women realize not just, "Oh wow, there are a lot of other women just like me," but, "Oh wow, there are a lot of other women that aren't just like me, but we share all those same values." And that, to me, is a powerful part of Supermajority and organizing—getting out of your comfort zone and beginning to meet and build community with women who aren't necessarily like you at all.

On a slightly different topic, but since we're a wellness site, we have to know: What are the things you like to do to unwind or de-stress?

Well one, I still run. It just clears my head. I'm never going to be a great runner, so I think of it as more of a mental exercise than anything else. On a probably less healthy side of me, I like to bake and like to cook, and in fact, my daughter and I were just texting about what we're going to bake this weekend because at this moment in this time, I think everyone's looking for things they can do to get their mind off the news. I'm an obsessive pie baker because I felt like it was kind of a lost art. Although, now pie baking seems to really have gotten wildly popular, which is exciting. And also, now that I live in New York City—which, who knew I would ever, having been born in Waco, Texas, that I've ever end up in New York—there is nothing to me like getting to go to the theater, even bad theater. Just getting to go and being able to go see people on the stage, big or small, in the city, any day or night, it really is my guilty pleasure. It is the most amazing thing, and I feel very, very lucky to be able to do that.

And lastly, what are some documentaries, books, or journals that you have found helpful about empowerment and confidence?

When I was growing up in Texas, like a million years ago, it was in many ways reading about women that were really different than me. I remember being in junior high and actually a librarian gave me Maya Angelou's book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. My life was so completely different than anything. It was like going through the looking glass into a completely different world. I can't overstate how important it was. I guess for me, it's books that actually turn the prism for you. I was trying to think about a book that did that for me too, and there are other ones I could mention, but one was Roxane Gay's book Hunger. I had the opportunity to actually do a panel with Roxane, which of course even made it just more incredible. This is a woman who has just laid herself out there for the public.

It's been one of the most inspiring things I've read. I think it helps take you out of yourself, in all your own stuff and things, and so I liked that. I like reading about women who really, really have had really different backgrounds, really different experiences, and particularly this moment. And, again, I guess back to the point, just realizing too, we've all got our hang-ups, we've got our demons, we've got the things that we are dealing with, and if we could kind of let down the barriers, there's so much more we could do together and do to support each other.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next up: 9 Body Language Secrets That Will Make You Look Powerful, According to an Expert.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used in the place of advice of your physician or other medical professionals. You should always consult with your doctor or healthcare provider first with any health-related questions.

Who among us has not wanted to blame their skin problems on bad genes? Conversely, for those blessed with a flawless façade, can you honestly say it's all thanks to frequent hydration and getting lucky in the DNA department? Either way—and without regard to skin type—it's important to take some ownership here: Dedicating time to care for your skin is the best way to keep it looking and feeling its best. 

However, if you're still hung up on the genetic factors that inform your skin type or condition, then allow me to introduce you to the co-founder of Glowbar (the buzzy new facial studio in Manhattan) and third-generation esthetician Rachel Liverman. After working in beauty-adjacent fields for much of her career, Liverman wanted to strike out on her own and create something new in an area where she not only felt informed but also empowered to carry on her family's legacy in the skincare business. Her grandmother, Catherine Hinds, helped pioneer the industry in America in the '60s, culminating in the establishment of the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics in 1979. Hinds's daughter, An G. Hinds, took over in 1998 and began to instill the benefits of skincare to her daughter, Rachel, at an early age. 

Fast-forward a few years and the industry has gone from super-niche to mainstream and boasts a consumer base that is more eager than ever. But all of these options can be overwhelming and are not an adequate replacement for placing your skin in the care of a true expert. Thus, Glowbar was born in 2019.

In honor of National Women's Day and to celebrate this impressive legacy, we sat down with Liverman and her mother to learn what it's like being in a family of entrepreneurial skincare professionals. Keep scrolling to read our Q&A in which this duo of experts honor their family matriarch, explain the benefits of regularly working with a professional esthetician, and share a few of their favorite at-home products. 

Three generations of estheticians: An Hinds, Catherine Hinds, and Rachel Liverman

When was the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics founded, and what was the motivation behind starting this company? 

AH: The Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics was founded by my mother, Catherine Hinds, in 1979. She was an early advocate for a simple skincare routine, and after spending time in Europe, where she saw women taking care of their skin, she felt that there should be a better esthetic program that took care of the skin. My mother opened Cyclax of London, a heritage beauty salon from the UK, in her hometown of Boston in 1965 (which was later renamed Catherine Hinds in 1967). She pioneered exfoliation as part of the at-home routine with her famous "grains,” which were one of the first-to-market manual exfoliators. 

As her salon became increasingly successful, she turned herself into a female beauty entrepreneur—an unfamiliar term for the times. Wanting to spread her knowledge and offer opportunities to other women, she heralded the notion that the simplest skincare is the best kind of skincare. Believing you should approach skincare the same you do medical care or dental hygiene. She developed a highly in-depth training program that took a medical approach to skincare.

In 1979, my mother opened the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, which became the first 1200-hour medical esthetics program in 1996. To this day, the institute has been responsible for training and placing thousands of successful estheticians, earning Catherine multiple accolades and awards including the ACCSC School of Excellence Award.  

I took over the institute in 1998 and was focused on modernizing the curriculum by implementing cutting-edge treatments, technologies, and advanced equipment. At the time, there were no tech treatments available such as peels or LED, which today are common facial treatments.

An G. Hinds, President and CEO of the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics

When was Glowbar founded, and what was the motivation behind starting this company? How is it similar to the Catherine Hinds Institute? How is it different? 

RL: I started Glowbar in June of 2019 after realizing I wasn’t taking the best care of my skin despite being a trained esthetician. Growing up with two generations of skincare-obsessed estheticians, I was absolutely aware that I should be seeing a professional once a month, but I was not, and it boiled down to two things: time and money. 

Obviously, there's not a void of places to get a facial today, but I didn’t have an hour and a half to dedicate every month. I needed a session that I knew would improve my skin health through results-oriented treatments without having to pay extra. Cue Glowbar.

Innovation in skincare runs in the family. I tell everyone that my grandmother pioneered skincare, and I’m reinventing it. The difference in our work is that Catherine Hinds Institute focuses on teaching the profession of skincare, whereas Glowbar is shifting the consumer’s behavior toward skincare.

Rachel Liverman, Glowbar co-founder

As a third-generation skincare entrepreneur, what does creating a business in the 21st century mean to you and your family? Why is this important to you as a woman? 

RL: By creating a skincare business in the 21st century, I am able to expand my grandmother’s vision for the industry into the modern age.

My grandmother was truly the OG girl boss. At a time when being a female entrepreneur was unheard of, she started her own company that pioneered skincare in the U.S. She also believed that women should create financial independence for themselves, and when they complete their degree, they have self-marketable skills that allow them the potential to become independent entrepreneurs.

The beauty of the business is that my grandmother wanted to advance the standard in skin health, my mom has invested in scientific developments to further the industry, and I get to continue that legacy every day by helping people take care of their skin utilizing the practices my grandmother and mom have developed.

What are the biggest skincare concerns you address at your business? 

RL: At Glowbar, we treat a wide range of skincare concerns. That said, acne, hyperpigmentation, aging, and skin sensitivity are definitely the most common concerns we see.

What is the value of working with a professional esthetician? How often should one get professional treatments?

RL: The value of having a professional treat your skin is that they are the skin expert. Skin is your body’s largest organ, and you should employ a professional to treat and address concerns on a monthly basis.

AH: Nobody knows skin like an esthetician. They can read and treat your skin better than you can and can properly advise on the type of products for your skin type. For optimum skin health, you should be seeing an esthetician at a minimum of every four weeks.

If professional treatments are not feasible, what is an essential product for everyone’s at-home routine? 

RL: Definitely a cleanser! Everyone should be using a mild cleanser in their routine. You have to wash your face!

AH: Sunscreen is the essential product I think everyone should be using. That plus a hyaluronic acid serum to stay hydrated!

When did you first start learning about the importance of skincare? Was there a staple product or brand you always had at home? 

RL: My mom has instilled the importance of skincare in me since the day I was born. I’ve been using eye cream since I was 10 (turns out starting this young is too young), using SPF every day, and moisturizing.

AH: It’s true! When she was younger, she would come up to me and say, "Mom, I’m never going to get wrinkles!”

My mother was always using new products, so I grew up with an understanding of what you needed to do to properly take care of your skin! Similar to today, I used a gentle cleanser and moisturizer with sunscreen, and this was back in the '70s. No one was into sunscreen.

It’s funny because when I was in boarding school, all my friends were out basking in the sun trying to get a tan while I was inside with a clay mask on my skin. I used to try to get all my girlfriends in high school to do masks with me, and they thought I was crazy!

What is your skin type, and what are the biggest skincare challenges you deal with personally?  

AH: I have oily skin, but I’m 63, and of course now I have topical dehydration, fine lines, and wrinkles. When I was younger, I was only oily, but now I tend to have more combination skin.

RL: My skin type is also combination, including an oily T-zone with superficial dryness. The biggest thing I tackle with Glowbar and my skincare routine is the congestion I get in my T-zone, so just trying to clear my pores. Plus, fending off signs of aging and the hyperpigmentation from childhood sunburns. 

Has your skincare regimen changed over time, and if so, how?

AH: Absolutely, and it should change based on your skin needs and your environment! My product usage has changed based on my skin at the time and what my concerns were as I aged.

RL: Over time, I have simplified my skincare routine. It’s still just as effective but simplified. I used to be your traditional consumer, falling for good marketing and friend suggestions of products they were loving. Now, I have a simple five-step routine (cleanse, tone, treat, moisturize, and SPF) that works and keeps my skin barrier intact.

What do you think is the single best innovation in skincare over the past few decades? 

AH: Definitely technology in the skincare studio. I’ve truly watched it evolve and grow. When my mother started, there was no product development in terms of ingredients and technology to change skin. The skincare industry competes with the medical profession. It’s progressive, not aggressive, and results-oriented. Just one treatment and you’ll see the result you want.

RL: Glowbar!

What is one piece of advice you would give to women at any age with regard to caring for their skin? 

AH: I would say hydration, sunscreen, and overall wellness. Your skin is an external organ, so what you put in it and how you treat the epidermis is going to make a huge difference. 

RL: Definitely hydration, SPF, along with consistent treatments with a professional. I always think of it like this: Can you give yourself a thorough teeth cleaning? No, you go to a dentist for that. For really healthy skin at all ages, you should be consulting a professional.

Is there any (business, general, or skincare-specific) advice from your mother or grandmother you wish you’d listened to sooner? 

RL: I wish I had stayed out of the sun more, especially on my face. I also knew I should have been seeing a professional monthly. One of the biggest reasons I started Glowbar came from a personal need: I wasn’t seeing a professional as much as I should have, and when I did, I wasn’t getting the results I desired. I wish I had prioritized seeing a professional from an earlier age. 

What are your hopes for the next generation of skincare professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs? 

AH: I hope for continued financial success and growth for women.

RL: I hope that the esthetician’s expertise remains on a pedestal. The consumer has shifted away from seeing a professional, trying to do as much at home as possible. The increase of direct-to-consumer brands and influencers is a strong catalyst for this. The esthetician is the expert, and they invested time and energy into their advanced training, and I truly believe you cannot take care of your skin successfully without an esthetician. Another value for the consumer is that the esthetician is constantly growing and improving. They have knowledge of skincare that typical consumers do not.

Up next: The 5 Worst Foods to Eat for Your Skin

Confession: I know without a doubt that I annoy my friends with my rants about fashion. Yes, they love when I tell them what is worth buying for spring or what to pack for their upcoming trip. But they know that in the same breath I’ll lecture them about why it’s crucial to support Black-owned businesses, the impact of fast fashion, and why buying from a female-owned fashion brand is more important than ever. Working in fashion, you become acutely aware of an immense amount of pressure to keep up with trends and realize how much power you have in choosing what to consume. Clothing is one of the easiest ways to express who you are individually and what causes matter most to you. Fashion can be a tool of empowerment for female founders, a way to express gender-fluidity, and even a way to express political dissent. Fashion is so much more than something frilly, which is what a new age of female-founded businesses know to their core. 

With so many brands out there, it’s hard to know which ones are not only popular but also doing something different in the overly saturated market. In that vein, I took it upon myself to round up some of the buzziest female-founded fashion brands of the moment. These labels are beloved among stylists, editors, and models alike, and the women behind them are ushering in a new age of fashion.

1. Apparis

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of greenwashing happening in the fashion industry. Despite righteous efforts to produce more "sustainably,” often that’s just not the case. This is what drove the French duo and female co-founders Amelie Brick and Lauren Nouchi to launch Apparis. The label was founded in 2016 after both industry veterans became tired of seeing all the unethical production processes in the industry. Originally a faux-fur outwear brand, it’s grown to a lifestyle brand that features alternative-silk dresses, recycled-cotton tops, and faux furs made from corn. (Yes, you read that right.) The founders’ attentiveness to sourcing ethical fabrics, paying living wages, and creating pieces that lend themselves to a capsule wardrobe has made them a rising favorite among the fashion set and a brand you should be shopping.

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2. Staud

If you were to check the Slack messages between my fellow editors and me, you’d realize that we have an obsession with Staud. Can you blame us? Founded in 2015 by Sarah Staudinger and George Augusto, the contemporary ready-to-wear label has become eponymous for its exceptional spin on wardrobe staples. For example, the classic baguette is beaded with an almost mosaic-like print or the classic tiered maxi dress comes ins a confection of colors. The small details that Staud adds to each piece make them favorites among our editorial team and beyond.

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3. Tove

Before you buy something, are you one of those people who asks yourself how much you’ll wear it? That was the driving force behind the design duo Camille Perry and Holly Wright in creating Tove. The London-based founders started their label to fill the gap they felt the market had: sleek pieces that are intentionally made, priced, and designed for women of different backgrounds and sizes. The result is a collection of minimalistic pieces with a pinch of femininity that not only fit into a capsule wardrobe but also use Global Organic Textile Standard–certified fabrics. So whatever you buy from this female-founded fashion brand, you can feel good about it for years to come.

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La Femme Apéro

As an editor, I can tell you it’s rare to find pieces you want to wear all the time, but La Femme Apéro has created plenty of them. Founded by the French duo Léa Enderlin and Sarah Lequimener in 2019, the NYC-based label has slowly carved out a space in the industry as a must-watch brand for its sustainably made classic pieces. The designers are all about creating pieces that "transcend trends,” which is apparent in their traditional floral slip dresses and printed mesh second-skin tops. The intentionality of their work extends beyond the collection itself; it’s how it’s made. They partner with a woman-owned factory in Istanbul, Turkey, to ensure fair wages. And they use GRS-certified recycled fabrics to ensure each piece is not only timeless but thoughtful so that you can spend less time thinking about the impact of your clothing or what to wear and more time enjoying your closet.

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5. Abacaxi

For most designers, the onset of the pandemic didn’t equate with business growth, but for Sheena Sood, it allowed her brand to bloom. While the South Asian American designer’s handmade tie-dye face masks may have gone viral in 2020, she’s been in the industry for much longer than that. Sood spent years as a textile designer, freelancing for labels like Cole Haan and Anthropologie until she founded her label, Abacaxi, in 2013. Since then, she’s carved out a space for herself in the industry because the brand has championed rare textile techniques used in India and Peru. But what’s genuinely made it a budding It brand all goes back to how magical the small-batch pieces are. You’re not only going to own a hand-crafted piece with something like an Indian beading technique known as shisha (or mirror work), but you’ll also be supporting a female-founded business, which makes it all the more special.

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6. Miaou

Do you ever go vintage shopping and wonder why on earth you can’t find the same cute pieces on the rack now? Well, that’s what compelled Alexia Elkaim to launch her label, Miaou, back in 2017. After finding the perfect pair of pants in Paris, she was inspired to create contemporary pieces with vintage details. This approach is visible through a collection of pinched-waist A-line dresses and boned corsets with matching miniskirts, all in modern prints. It’s her truly unique pieces that have garnered a dedicated following (including the likes of Lady Gaga, Paloma Elsesser, and Alexa Demie) and a place in the hearts of the fashion community around the world.

7. Andrea Iyamah

Close your eyes and dream of a far-off destination. Where are you going, and more importantly, what are you wearing? My guess is you’re dreaming of something that looks like a piece from Andrea Iyamah. The resort-wear label was founded by Nigerian fashion designer Andrea Dumebi Iyamah back in 2011. It’s built a devoted following because of its swimwear with aplacé embroidery and its breezy draped RTW pieces made for looking fabulous and catching flights.

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8. Aya Muse

Do you ever wish you had something you could easily throw on that would instantly make you feel va-va-voom? Enter Aya Muse. Founded in 2018 by Tina Rodiou the sustainable label began with a simple pair of biker shorts (that just so happened to catch the eyes of Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski). Since then, the brand has become beloved beyond the modeling crowd for its fusion of minimalistic pieces with sultry details like cutouts and plunging necklines, all in neutral hues made from sustainably sourced fabrics.

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9. Kim Shui

Long before everyone was clamoring to embrace the hot girl aesthetic (aka, those risqué trends like micro miniskirts and cutouts), designer Kim Shui set the industry's blueprint. While the female founder launched her NYC-based label back in 2016, she’s built a fan base (including celebrities like Rico Nasty and Solange) not based on her time in the industry but on her approach to design. Shui’s fusion of traditional Chinese motifs with contemporary hemlines and fabrics (e.g., mesh tanks adorned with sequin dragons or minidresses in traditional brocade fabric) brought sex appeal back to fashion. 

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10. Ciao Lucia

Let me paint a picture for you. You’re sitting at a café in Positano overlooking the water, the sun is out, fresh pasta is on the way, and you’re wearing the perfect outfit. Ideally, what you packed would be from the fashion brand Ciao Lucia. Founded by Lucy Akin in 2017, the Los Angeles–based brand’s idyllic resort wear has become a must-pack for any trip. Its romantic pieces (like cotton ruched stops and puff-sleeve dresses) are the perfect balance of dreamy and practical and make embodying la dolce vita much easier.

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11. Rotate Birger Christensen

Some of the best talent comes from Copenhagen at the moment. Case in point: the female-founded fashion brand Rotate Birger Christensen. Founded by former Danish stylists Jeanette Madsen and Thora Valdimars in 2018, the brand has carved out a space for itself due to its unique approach to evening wear. Unlike other brands looking to the aughts for inspiration, this brand draws from the ’80s—most notably seen in design details like oversize puff sleeves, fringe, and sequins. The result is a collection of pieces that are primed for a night out on the town.

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Danielle Guizio

Did you happen to watch Euphoria this past season? Then you most likely would have spotted the female-owned fashion brand Danielle Guizio. It only makes sense that Guizio’s sultry designs would find their way on to this show, but beyond being on-screen, what makes this label so special is in between the seams. Guizio founded it in New York City in 2014, and it has become beloved for its sensuous designs. Think miniskirt suit sets, micro-cardigans with faux fur, and black dresses with cutouts. Basically, Guizio is out here giving us our very own form of euphoria through clothing, ofc.

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Hansen&Gretel

Some of the best contemporary female-founded fashion brands have come from Down Under, and Hansen&Gretel is one of them. The ready-to-wear label was founded by Ainsley Hansen in 2012 and has since blown up globally for its playful yet feminine pieces. With everything from knitwear sets incorporating cutouts and tie-up details to classic slip dresses with exposed seams and sheer pleated tops, this brand is feeding the fashion set just what they’re craving. 

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14. Cult Gaia

Few brands can really take all my money—Cult Gaia happens to be one of them. Founded by Los Angeles–based designer Jasmin Larian in 2012, the ready-to-wear label first garnered attention through its sculptural handbags. Since then, Cult Gaia has been able to keep the fashion world's attention through its downright dreamy approach to design. You can find everything from pink feather-adorned halter dresses to plissé sets and cutout knit dresses. These pieces put the fantasy back in fashion.

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15. Musier Paris

What happens when a French influencer launches a fashion brand? You get Musier Paris. Founded by Anne-Laure Mais in 2018, the brand has set itself apart from other influencer-founded brands for its melding of French aesthetics with timeless, vintage-inspired staples. You can find everything from traditional linen skirts adorned with tie-up waistlines to ribbed knit tops embellished with pearls, so each piece melds the effortless je ne sais quoi of French style while also creating something truly unique. If that’s not enough to sell you on this brand, its partnership with sustainable fabric mills in Paris makes it a must-stop for anyone who wants to build a more sustainable wardrobe. 

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16. Sandy Liang

Every New Yorker knows and loves one brand: Sandy Liang. When you think of quintessential Lower East Side style, it’s likely been defined by Liang’s eponymous label. She founded the business back in 2014 and has since taken the fashion world by storm due to her fusion of traditionally feminine pieces with tomboy aesthetics. After all, not many other designers will release a collection where boldly hued fleas live alongside cutout babydoll dresses and Peter Pan–collared coats. It’s Liang’s one-of-a-kind approach to design that’s garnered her accolades such as being a 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist and a beloved designer among the fashion set.

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17. House of Aama

Not everyone can successfully start a family-owned business much less pay homage to their lineage through their work—but then again, most people aren’t Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka. The mother-daughter duo began House of Aama back in 2015, sparked by their love for remaking and updating thrifted pieces. What started as a passion project for them turned into a label that dedicates each collection to exploring the history of the Black experience through extensive research, thoughtful storytelling, and timeless pieces. Their work not only won them the 2021 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award but also established them in the industry as a brand that’s teaching history one thread at a time and changing it too.

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18. Bevza

It’s not a new concept for a designer to explore and pay homage to their heritage through their work, but for the designer, Svitlana Bevza, it’s more important than ever. The Ukrainian designer is based in Kyiv and founded her label, Bevza back in 2006. Since then, the world has changed dramatically, but the designer’s work pays homage to her heritage by reimagining ethnic symbols through softly hued pieces with clean silhouettes and sharp tailoring. The result? It is a collection that is as brave and beautiful as the country it’s inspired by.

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Next: 31 Female-Founded Fashion Brands We're Shopping

When people think about fashion, they might not consider it serious, but this billion-dollar industry isn’t frivolous. In fact, the fashion industry accounts for 1.8 million jobs in the United States alone, making its economic, environmental, and social impact truly astronomical. The industry’s influence isn’t just setting this season’s trends; it’s more than that. Fashion reflects the value society places on women and labor. Despite the fact that fashion is predominantly female, with a workforce made up of 70% of women, women in the fashion industry hold less than 25% of leadership positions in top fashion companies. This discrepancy, of course, is a microcosm of the wider issue of gender equality in society.

Unless we begin to actually address the problem, nothing will change, so we spoke with four leaders who have agreed to be part of Tresemmé and Vital Voices' campaign Women Lead the Way. Tresemmé and designers such as Rebecca Minkoff, Cushnie, Jonathan Simkhai, Jason Wu, and Studio One Eighty Nine have pledged to use their work and their leadership to strive for gender equality in the fashion industry through mentoring, hiring, and promoting women into leadership positions. Because there’s no "just sticking to fashion” anymore. Not caring isn’t stylish. If we start to break the glass ceiling within the fashion industry, maybe it will catch on.

Carly Cushnie, Creative Director and CEO of Cushnie

You’ve agreed to be part of Tresemmé’s Women Lead the Way campaign. What compelled you to sign on to the pledge? And how will you be upholding this pledge?

As a female CEO and business owner in this industry, I feel committed to using my platform to support and foster female talent from the start of their careers and beyond. I’ve always felt that there was a drastic gap between the number of women working within the industry, and the number of women at the executive level and at the top of design houses, and the statistics really bring that truth to light. I am thrilled that Tresemmé is taking the initiative to push the conversation forward and promote change from the top down, and I look forward to upholding this pledge.

You recently were named one of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s newest board members. What is your role on the board, and what do you hope to achieve as one of the board’s female leaders?

In 2013, I was nominated for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent, and I was surprised to learn that I was the first woman of color to be nominated in that category. Now, to be given a seat on the CFDA’s Board of Directors is truly an honor, as it gives me a platform to evoke change and to be a voice for young designers and women within the industry.

Sep 10, 2019 at 5:59pm PDT

Your S/S 20 collection was inspired by the women who inspire you. Could you give us a little background as to why you wanted to highlight these women and what you hope the collection tells the world? 

This season, in lieu of a runway show, I wanted to focus on a narrative close to my heart. As a new mother myself, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight and celebrate the incredible mothers that I admire: women who are not only amazing mothers but who are also at the top of their game and are just completely courageous and badass examples to women everywhere. I think this project celebrates the truth that women can be both successful mothers as well as successful in their work. No one path is the same, and I think that as women, it’s important to lift each other up and support one another.

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Rebecca Minkoff, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Rebecca Minkoff 

When it comes to the conversation around women in leadership roles, there often can be a lack of comprehension and acknowledgment around the intersectional barriers that prohibit women of color from assuming roles in the fashion industry as well. How do you think we can combat this issue and make it so everyone has the opportunity to lead based on merit rather than nepotism or bias?

I talk about it a lot, but you have to make sure who you have at the table at every level of the organization doesn’t look like you and consistently strive for your executive team, your management team, layers within the company, all need a diverse set of people. It’s easier said than done. Just as most companies have to go out of their way to pull in more women in leadership, sometimes you have to go out of your way to find women of color and make sure they have a path within the organization. 

You recently established the Female Founder Collective. Can you tell us a little bit about why you found it necessary to start the network? 

Women have the power to change the world. From our purchasing decisions as consumers to the leadership and employment opportunities we offer as business owners, women are an incredible and undeniable force. More than 11.6 million firms are owned by women, which translates into 9 million jobs and $1.7 trillion in sales. Women reinvest income in their families and communities at higher rates than men.

As a mother, and a founder, what are your thoughts on the Family and Medical Leave Act? Obviously, it’s the law that companies honor employees’ rights to time off and not practice discriminatory hiring practices against pregnant women, but that’s not always the case, even in an industry made up of predominantly women. So how can founders and the fashion industry lead the way in combating and changing this issue? 

Henry Ford invented the modern workday of 9-to-5. But how do we as women begin to think about shifting this formula? I’m still trying to figure out. How do you have a company that can do its job but then also allow for women to be in leadership positions and still feel some sense of "balance”? I also think women need to be more vocal when they are discriminated against. I think more people need to speak up rather than taking the "this happened to me” approach. It’s like, no, I’m going to be the change I want to see, and becoming vocal about the things you want within your company because it’ll never change unless we all talk about it. 

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Abrima Erwiah, Co-Founder and President of Studio One Eighty Nine

You’ve agreed to be a part of Tresemmé’s Women Lead the Way campaign. What compelled you to sign on to the pledge? And how will you be upholding this pledge?

I believe in the power of women and the importance of creating more opportunities for women to enter the workplace and to thrive in the workplace. It is proven that the root-out of poverty and the wealth of nations are fueled by women. Women are the backbone of society. This should be reflected in the structure of an organization, particularly at the level of leadership. Organizations should create and hire leadership that are more representative of the multitude of backgrounds and cultures of the communities they serve. We signed the pledge because we wanted to lend our voice to this movement. 

One of the things that makes Studio One Eighty Nine special is that it partners with artisanal communities in Ghana, Africa, to create its sustainable products. What was the intention behind that? 

My now business partner, Rosario Dawson invited me on the most amazing trip in 2011 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the opening of the City of Joy. At the opening, we met women who had been the victim of rape and sexual violence. Despite their horrific experiences, the women built this City of Joy, where they could learn skills and re-learn skills as a way of taking control over their destiny and "turning their pay to power.” They would make small crafts, sell them to take proceeds, buy farmland, farm and use the produce to feed their children or sell the produce to take the money and send their children to school. It was a beautiful circle of sustainability, and it became clear to us what happens when you empower a woman. Motivated and inspired by the tenacious women and men we met in the DRC, we decided to write a plan to create a platform and a space to support the development of local artisans and the empowerment of women. We set our mission to use fashion as an agent of social change and launched in 2013. We believe that if the infrastructure can be developed and supply chains created, then the economic value can be created for communities that are bigger than a form of aid.

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Jessica Grigoriou, Brand Engagement Director of Tresemmé

How do you think we can address the lack of female leaders in the industry? 

Companies need to provide access to opportunities to help support and propel women who are in the pipeline forward. We will work with pledge participants to provide women with access to the resources, training, and mentorship needed to drive them toward leadership opportunities and help ensure they can succeed there. 

What’s the single piece of advice you’d give to any woman in the fashion industry or beyond struggling to grow within her career? 

Find a mentor, build your network, and no matter your role, remember that your voice matters and should be heard. For individuals interested in encouraging employers to take action to support all women leaders, visit tresemme.com/pledge for more information and to access a letter template that can be filled out and issued to employers. 

When it comes to the conversation around women in leadership roles, there often can be a lack of comprehension and acknowledgment around the intersectional barriers that prohibit women of color from assuming roles in the fashion industry as well. How do you think we can combat this issue and make it so everyone has the opportunity to lead-based on merit rather than nepotism or bias? 

Our goal as a brand is to inspire change and create opportunities for all women. Sometimes efforts for women are progressive but not always inclusive, so with our pledge, we are committing to making a change for all women who strive for leadership positions. The #WomenLeadTheWay pledge is about creating opportunities for all women at the leadership level and giving women a platform to be seen and heard. However, this is just the beginning of a long-term commitment for the brand, and we will remain committed to providing women with opportunities to overcome biases such as investment, resources, and networking they need to succeed as leaders. 

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Next: 10 Designers Speak Candidly on Why the Industry Is Plus-Averse

This post was originally published at an earlier date. Since our support for women's rights is a forever kind of thing, we thought we'd update this story and any sold-out products to make it easier to support the cause.

Some might say that style and politics are mutually exclusive. We'd beg to differ. Sure, how you dress can seem frivolous compared to the tragedies happening in the world, but the truth is that style has been and continues to be a tool for marginalized communities and a form of visual dissent. As we celebrate Women's History Month and reflect on the history of how women fought for their right to participate in democracy (while wearing all white, might we add), let us note the role style can play in the fight for the rights of all marginalized groups.

Let us be clear. We aren't looking to diminish the message of any movement, especially when we're witnessing a movement underway to undermine democracy, human rights, and bodily autonomy by using the judicial branch to discredit hallmark civil rights cases—e.g., the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Fashion, however, doesn't have to take away from the message or the fight. It can add to it.

How you choose to dress can speak to your beliefs and your gender identity. The slogan T-shirt you choose to wear says way more than what's just on the surface—every purchase you make impacts the environment and the communities that are producing the products you buy. But you don't have to take our word for it. Ahead, we've tapped fashion historian Laura McLaws Helms to speak to the intersection between style and politics and how style can be a form of dissent. 

Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you study? 

I grew up in New York City and London. I got my BFA in photography at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and then went on to get my masters from FIT in fashion and textile studies. Afterward, I did two years toward a Ph.D. in fashion history at LCF. Even as a little child, I was interested in fashion and especially historic fashion—poring over old photo albums, digging through trunks in my grandparents' attic, obsessing over paper dolls based on past eras. As soon as I could read, I was learning about fashion, and then I started collecting vintage from secondhand shops and car boot sales when I was a pre-teen, so it is unsurprising that I made fashion history my career.

As a fashion historian, how would you describe your job to those who don't know what that is? 

I study, research, and write about the interconnections between fashion and culture throughout history—looking to situate dress as an integral part of the culture, both shaping and shaped by how we live our lives. Most of my work currently is writing articles and consulting with brands about fashion history, but I've also curated museum exhibitions, written books, and given talks/seminars about fashion and cultural history.

You have a serious vintage collection. What era of clothing do you personally love and collect the most?

I really adore 1967 to 1973. It was an era of real fantasy in fashion. Historic revivalism met Bohemian luxe in a theatrical ode to times past and far-off places.

Why do you think that in spaces of academia, and wider society, people are quick to dismiss the importance of fashion and its role in both historical movements and the cultural zeitgeist? 

For centuries, society has seen fashion as frivolous and the purview of bored women with brains only for feathers and furbelows. While academic publications that have centered dress as a vital aspect of culture have begun to shift attitudes, it has been a very slow process over the last 60 years—though I've definitely seen an increase in acceptance and understanding of the value of fashion history and fashion itself in the last 10 years.

From a historical lens, what examples would you give to shed light on the fact that marginalized communities use style as a visual indicator of their dissent against the political systems and societal "norms" that oppress them? 

Often as a form of dissent, marginalized groups take aspects of their oppressor's dress and subvert it. This can be very clearly seen by feminists over the years that have adopted masculine clothes—playing with androgyny, hinting at homosexuality, covered up in a suit or pants yet skirting the edges of what was considered "proper" and "appropriate" for a woman to wear. Lesbians like Romaine Brooks and her partners Natalie Barney and Lily de Gramont wore variations of masculine dress not in an attempt to pass as men but as a signal—a way of making their sexuality manifest. While gender fluidity and sexual freedom are accepted and understood (by most) today, in earlier decades, they were viewed with panic and as morally wrong.

Zoot suits were another form of subversive dress and bricolage. They were developed and popularized in African American and Mexican American communities in the 1940s, and for the wearers, the extravagantly flamboyant suits were a repudiation of the constrained and boring suits (and lives) of white society as well as a declaration of freedom and self-determination. The rebellion inherent in their exaggerated proportions led them to be associated in the media with delinquency, and many considered their voluminous use of fabric as wasteful and unpatriotic in light of textile rationing during World War II. The Zoot Suit Riots occurred in Los Angeles in 1943 when American servicemen and white civilians attacked and stripped primarily Mexican American youths clad in zoot suits; rooted in racism, white Americans viewed the zoot suits as an affront on traditional American values.

Though we're living in the modern age, there are a lot of misconceptions about feminism, specifically how it impacts the clothing women who identify as such choose to wear. Why do you think society as a whole tends to think a feminist can't dress in a "feminine" way? 

Often, the media has depicted feminism as a total rejection of femininity and sexual orientation instead of a push for equality and a rejection of patriarchal dominance. While there have definitely been feminists who have rejected femininity and all its associated worlds (fashion, beauty, etc.), most have sought to remove the traditional strictures put on feminine life—the idea that women's place was in the home, solely devoted to raising children and doing housework, all while looking fresh and beautiful for their husband. The happy homemaker, as she was so lovingly glorified at the time. Femininity and feminism do not have to be mutually exclusive, though they are often considered that way. And furthermore, identifying as a feminist doesn't determine your sexual orientation.

How has the way a typical "feminist" dresses evolved, and why do you think it's so hard for society to believe that a woman can be both a feminist and still love fashion?

I don't believe that there is a typical feminist or typical feminist dress. One of the greatest shifts to happen during the tumultuous changes of the 1960s was the breaking down of the idea that there is a single acceptable way for a woman to dress. Once any style is available and acceptable (jeans, suits, flowing dresses, etc.), the need to use dress to broadcast one's beliefs and political alignments becomes less necessary (though still a totally valid mode of expression). A feminist can wear whatever she pleases today. I think in general, society is becoming more understanding that feminism does not equate to anti-feminine.

In terms of trends, which era indicated the greatest shift in women's role within society? 

The greatest shift in a woman's role in society probably occurred in the 1960s. While the whole 20th century was full of advances in women's rights and shifts in status, the 1960s was a decade of dramatic changes in women's lives and also in their dress. At the turn of the decade, women were still expected to wear gloves, stay home, be docile, not enjoy sex. The pill was approved by the FDA in 1960, dramatically changing women's sex lives and allowing women the opportunity to postpone children while pursuing careers. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin at the same time that miniskirts began to unveil women's legs, for the first time not on a beach. All of the advancements in the women's liberation movement and civil rights were so deeply connected with the opening up of women's dress. In 10 years, women went from girdles, stockings, and gloves to no bras, pantyhose (first introduced in 1959 with the first seamless ones appearing in 1965), miniskirts, and jeans for everyday wear. 

How do you feel culture uses style now as a political statement? 

For the last few years, we have seen many fashion designers sending down their catwalks pieces that state in bold text grand political statements. Drawing clearly on Katharine Hamnett's iconic mid-1980s political slogan T-shirts, designers like Pyer Moss and Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior have used their platforms to make clear political messages. These kinds of political slogan tees can be worn to boldly show any political allegiance, and a quick search online shows how omnipresent they are. Many elements of style that started as a sign of resistance and as a clear political signifier—like the LGBTQ+ rainbow—have now been commercialized by big business. They still have the same meaning but by becoming such a mass symbol have lost some of their anger and power.

In conclusion, style has had a place in our closets and our cultural movements. It has been an integral part of every movement, from civil rights to LGBQT+ rights, and continues to be. There's power in choosing to let your personal style break societal gender norms or choosing to buy sustainable, ethically made pieces. But ultimately, the biggest power is speaking up; you can wear your feminist T-shirt, but if you're not showing up to the marches or the polls, if you're not educating yourself on the plights of other marginalized communities, or if you're not having difficult conversations with family members, then you're just wearing a T-shirt. Style is only truly radical when put into action.

Below, shop items that support the causes you care for…

Happy International Women’s Day, readers! In case you didn’t know (or haven't been on Instagram yet this morning), today is the big day. A day to use your time, voice, and skills to champion women of all ages, races, and walks of life. In fact, March is actually Women's History Month, so beyond today, this month offers a chance to celebrate and champion strong women and the causes and organizations that support and advocate for them.

Since you clicked into this story, I'm guessing that, like me, the thought of participation stresses you out way more than the act itself, and you're in need of a little push. Not to worry, because I've broken down eight ways you can celebrate and support women both today and all month long, and maybe even create some habits that have you making a difference your-round. Whether you only have a second or you can spare a few hours, keep scrolling for some things you can do to help. 

Follow a few organizations or fellow women on Instagram that champion and support others year-round. Something as simple as a follow not only helps you personally get more informed over time, but also helps these people and groups gain much-deserved awareness for their causes. If you see something you like, share it to your stories every once in a while so that others can learn about it too.

Donate even a small amount to a worthy charitable organization. While your contribution on its own may seem inconsequential to you, imagine if everyone reading this donated even a dollar to a worthy cause… Every little bit helps, and there are thousands of groups out there who are doing extraordinary things for women every day. Just some include Dress for Success, Planned Parenthood, and Catalyst, but you can research more here and here.

Subscribe to newsletters that can keep you informed and up to date all year. Whether it’s something news-focused and female-founded such as The Skimm, or that of an organization such as Women Deliver, which champions gender equality and women’s health around the world, or Create & Cultivate, where you can get career tips to help make your own aspirations come true—there’s always something to be learned, so set yourself up to do so.

Consider swapping some of your go-to fashion and beauty purchases for ones by brands founded by, owned, benefiting, operated by, and/or created to help women. We actually put up a big, beautiful list of such labels today, so be sure to check it out when you’re done reading this. For now, shop a few of my favorites below.

Catch up on the news! Read a few articles or a magazine that focus on Women’s History Month specifically, or even just women and female empowerment in general. This counts, and so does this, so you can check two off your list. Womankind Mag is also a trove, Porter Magazine is always celebrating incredible women, and you can bet there’s no shortage of inspiration on the International Women’s Day website itself.

It’s podcast time. Did you know our co-founder Hillary Kerr has a weekly podcast called Second Life focusing on career changes that can come at any age and stage of life? Just some of her all-female guests in the last year have included Jennifer Lopez, chef Nancy Silverton, Revolve exec Raissa Gerona, Jessica Alba, Busy Philipps, and Drybar founder Alli Webb.

Dive into a book. Said book can be anything from something written about or by a female historian to an inspirational memoir to a coffee table book rife with empowering imagery. If you want to take it one step further, start a book club.

Consider volunteering at a local women’s health clinic or foundation, or any of the organizations mentioned above. Whether it’s through a helpline or in person, even giving your time once this month can help someone in your community or across the country. You may even find the experience so rewarding that you’re inspired to volunteer regularly. Volunteermatch is a nonprofit that can help you find somewhere in your city that suits your skills and schedule.

Up next? Shop our roundup of brands and items that empower women with every purchase.

If you’ve been on the lookout for some dainty jewellery to add to your collection, look no further. We just found the prettiest pinky rings, and to make things better, buying one will support other women. What better excuse to shop on International Women's Day? If not for yourself, you can't deny that this would make the perfect gift for any woman in your life.

The Duet Pinky Ring, by US brand Shiffon, was designed to symbolise a pinky promise between women to look out for each other. As if that wasn’t inspirational in itself, 50 percent of the profits from the Duet Pinky Ring go towards grants that empower women. So not only do these rings look amazing, and stand for something amazing… by buying one you’re actually doing something amazing: Helping other women.

According to the brand’s website, “We had fantastic female role models from day one and realised that Shiffon only existed and flourished because of this strong network of women who supported us.” They go on to say “giving back is the new luxury” and the brand constantly works to empower women through their Startup Girl Foundation.

“Wear the change you want to see” is the motto. And that’s something we can get behind. If what you wear is a way to represent who you are to the world, why not wear pieces that support your fellow females?

Oh, and did we mention that Nicole Kidman wore this ring at last year's Emmy Awards? We don’t know about you, but that’s all the convincing we need to add this adorable ring to our collection.

Related: By Shopping on This Site, You Will Provide Sustainable Jobs For Women

In anticipation of International Women’s Day on March 8, we’re dedicating this month to celebrating unapologetic women. By standing up for what she believes in without fear, our ideal “unapologetic woman” makes a difference in her life and the lives of those around her.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of wonderful women who are changing our world. Just take a look around you, and we’re sure you’ll find that you know many unapologetic women whether they’re your friends, family, or colleagues.

One such woman who’s having an impact on us recently is Elle Ferguson—and her latest business endeavour, Elle Effect, is just one reason. As an influencer and entrepreneur, there’s no question whether Ferguson is hard working woman. Just take a look at what her average morning and it’s obvious that she doesn't waste a minute of the day. 

It’s not just us who is inspired by Ferguson and her go-getter ways. After all, you don’t get over 600 thousand Instagram followers by doing nothing. Ferguson is definitely an unapologetic woman, so we had to know… what does being a woman mean to her? Keep reading to see the interview below.

What does being a woman mean to you?

Being a woman means I can be anything I want to be. No dream is to big... I am the master of my own destiny.

What’s one thing you wish more women gave themselves credit for?

Being capable. Women are such amazing humans and I really believe we don't take the time to give ourselves the credit for being so capable.

What changes do you hope to see towards women’s rights for 2018?

I'd love to see another woman president take the spotlight. I'd also like to see more women in positions of power. Our time is now. 

What’s the one mantra you’re telling yourself this year?

Have courage and be kind. And also listen! 

Every year since 1909, women around the world have celebrated International Women's Day in an effort to, as the organization's website states, "celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievement of women." Of course, advocating for the rights and empowerment of other women isn't something that starts and ends with International Women's Day, but since the mid-1970s, the UN has formally recognized March 8 as a time to call attention to it, and thousands of brands, nonprofits, and individuals use the event as an opportunity to jump-start women's rights initiatives. This is all wonderful, obviously, but these ideas are also very big, and sometimes the overwhelming concept of "how to support women's rights" can be hard to wrap your head around. On an occasion as largescale as International Women's Day, how can everyday women figure out where to focus their energy and how to lend their support to the sisterhood in a way that makes sense for them?

For some guidance, we got in touch with 11 inspiring women across the globe—from Argentina, Kenya, Israeli, Haiti, Australia, and beyond—and asked them to share with us the efforts they make in their daily lives, both big and small, to help empower other women. Some of their actions are as grand as starting nonprofit organizations (which you can totally donate to!) and some are as simple as lending daily support to fellow women through verbal affirmations. Whatever commitments you're able to make to female empowerment, we hope you find some inspiration here.

WHAT FEMALE EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE AROUND THE WORLD

1. Fighting for women's reproductive health in India.

"Giving girls autonomy over their bodies and the power to make decisions related to their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is one of the most significant ways to empower them. Knowledge of SRH is key for girls to achieve this self-sufficiency.

"Unfortunately, in India, the conversation around SRH is limited due to the nature of the subject, which is still tabooed and stigmatized in India. For example, menstruation continues to be considered an impure event, and conversation about contraceptives is still hushed. These challenges put Indian girls in precarious positions that sometimes leads them to drop out of school, have an early marriage, or have an unplanned pregnancy.

"Working on the Kissa Kahani project [spearheaded by University of Chicago] in India motivates and inspires me to continue investing my efforts to educate girls in my community with SRH information. The project is working toward bridging the information gap and empowering young girls to reach their full potential. The efforts of myself and the entire Kissa Kahani team are aimed at ensuring that all young women and girls have the ability to make informed sexual and reproductive health decisions that allow them to take control of their own bodies and lives." — Simeen Kaleem, New Dehli, India

2. Enhancing elderly women's quality of life in Mexico.

"I'm an international development professional living in Oaxaca, and I'm committed to ensuring the quality and success of the everyday work being done for the elderly in Santo Domingo Tonalá with an organization I founded called Nija'nu. I developed all the project activities in our organization. I do most of the fundraising, train our team, network with the local government, we put together awareness-raising events on the plight of elderly, and more.

"We've been able to make quite a difference in many elders' lives, bringing sunshine to homes and lives that were sad and dark. Elders love coming to our activities. With having enough food on their plate (due to the food aid we provide), they can now take care of their hearts and health through us." — Karen Rasmussen, Oaxaca, Mexico

3. Advocating for women's hearing health in Kenya.

"For decades now, women in Africa were viewed as the weaker sex; in fact, in many communities, women were counted as children. Women never had their own voice nor did they use their own mind, as decision-making was a 'man's' job, with the female being handed tasks that involved being in the home and childbearing. Eventually, change did come but not without challenges, and the struggle to emancipate us from these beliefs and empower women faced numerous challenges from both men and a section of women.

"As a country coordinator with Starkey Hearing Foundation [a global foundation that provides complimentary hearing aids to people in need] in my home country of Kenya, my path has crossed with women both within the workplace as well as with the patients we provide the gift of hearing to. Hearing loss is not visible nor does it hurt, and thus, women living with this impairment have previously not been given the attention they deserve … [but] it is evident in the patients who walk through our doors that something has been amiss. The women we work with are the ones we see mostly coming back to the center for follow-up even just to have their hearing aids checked because the thought of being relegated back to a world of no sound is a place they have vowed not to return to for they are that pillar holding everyone together in the home." — Perez Onduru, Nairobi, Kenya

4. Making period products available to homeless women in Australia.

"Domestic and family violence is the principal cause of homelessness for women and their children in Australia. There are thousands of women and young girls living in shelters across Australia that have little money and consequently cannot afford to purchase feminine hygiene products. I launched Modibodi [a period-proof underwear brand] in my native Australia to help women across the globe, and we wanted to create a program that would allow for others to join us and help impact the lives of women. This year, Modibodi launched Give a Pair, allowing for shoppers to purchase virtual panties that would be donated to shelters across Australia. Every $20 that is given equals one virtual pair of Modibodi underwear, and for every 'virtual pair' purchased, Modibodi will donate two pairs of physical underwear to shelters and to women in need across Australia." — Kristy Chong, New South Wales, Australia

5. Promoting body inclusivity in Argentina.

"I’ve been a body image activist for several years. The catalyst for my career in activism? Residing in Buenos Aires. After leaving my province of Canada and settling in Argentina, I realized that size discrimination runs rampant throughout the Argentine fashion industry, with most retailers choosing to cater to small-size clientele. As an average-size woman, I have experienced what larger bodies have always had to contend with: being excluded from the world of fashion for being ‘too fat.’ Consequently, in 2011, I founded the NGO AnyBody Argentina, the Argentine chapter of Endangered Bodies, an international movement that challenges the culture that foments body hatred. Since then, my team of volunteers and I have created countrywide campaigns that have paved the way for ongoing collaborations with international, national, and local clothing brands that encourage and support a more inclusive fashion industry. We have also collaborated with lawmakers in an attempt to legislate against sizeist practices in the world of fashion, in addition to engaging in educational activities with the public to spread the message of body acceptance among all Argentines, especially girls and women." — Sharon Haywood, Buenos Aires, Argentina

6. Lifting up women's voices in Israel.

"I am active in Women Wage Peace, a grassroots movement to promote a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians and ensure women's participation in matters of security and peace. And on a completely different level: When I teach human rights in elementary and high schools here, disproportionately, it's boys who raise their hands to talk in class; I make sure that girls also take part in the discussion." — Jessica Montell, Jerusalem, Israel

7. Shopping for ethically made fashion in Canada.

"One incredible way women can empower other women is by supporting fair trade and ethical fashion. Roughly 80% of garment workers are women, and many are the main income earner in their family. Clothing factories also have many issues with discrimination, harassment, and abuse, and many women, unfortunately, experience sexual violence from male supervisors.

"However there are also wonderful brands who pay fair, living wages, have ethical policies to protect employees, and work to empower women and their communities. By supporting brands like this, you are helping provide safe and fair employment to women around the world! Raven + Lily, Naja, People Tree, and Studio JUX are just a few examples of the many incredible brands." — Verena Erin Polowy, Vancouver, Canada

8. Providing women with jobs in Haiti.

"I moved to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to volunteer with the earthquake recovery efforts. I learned quickly from the women of Haiti that they did not want tents or bottles of water—they wanted jobs.

"After years of working together, my Haitian colleagues and I set up a fashion brand, Deux Mains. The company is 88% women-owned and -managed. By allowing women the power to make decisions, especially business decisions, we are able to watch everything from home life to economic stability in an entire community change.

"We also found that when women of the world are empowered to buy things that they are going to buy anyway (handbags, shoes, accessories) yet they are given the option to buy them with dignity from a place where other women are empowered, they will make that choice nearly every time. This is how women will build a more just and equitable world." — Julie Colombino, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

9. Volunteering for the Girl Scouts in South Africa.

"The best thing you can do to empower women is to try to help uplift them, to stop judging each other, and to help them see their own true potential. I volunteer my time as a den leader for Teddies (the baby Girl Guides, aged 4 1/2 to 7 years) in South Africa. It's really amazing how capable little girls are from such an early age. With a little bit of guidance, some support, and lots of love, the girls really do grow into very confident, capable young ladies. I am proud to be part of something that can help so many young girls to grow into strong women. I started doing it to help with my daughter, but I have stayed because of my love for all of my girls. The earlier we start to build up our little girls, the more confident and capable they will be as adults. We need to teach our daughters that they can achieve anything if they persevere and work hard. No more body/gender/mom shaming. Being judged all the time will do nothing but break us down. But if we teach each other how to see what makes us wonderful and unique and we support and care for each other, we will have come a long way." — Belinda Webster, Johannesburg, South Africa

10. Supporting other women's parenting styles in Germany.

"I live in Germany, and I have made the decision that when I see mothers doing things I do not necessarily agree with, I do not criticize them. In this culture, people are very direct and often criticize others, especially mothers. Many elderly people grew up with the idea that children should be seen and not heard and will call you out if your children make noise. I have come to accept that every women mothers their children differently and we all have our own strength as mothers. I try every day to praise the good things I see mothers doing for their kids." — Leslie Fischer, Mainz, Germany

11. Offering words of affirmation in Australia.

"The thing I always make a conscious effort to do to empower other women is so extremely simple yet so powerful. I go out of my way to compliment other women. And yes, if I don't know them and see them in the street, then it may be something visual like, 'What a beautiful dress' or 'I love your shoes.'

"But when talking to women, I try to compliment them on something deeper: 'Wow you are a really kind person,' or 'You are so smart.'

"This is a genuine compliment—something I truly loved about that person—not something you make up just for the sake of giving a compliment. It's not hard to find something truly spectacular about each and every woman you encounter." — Chelsea Valentino, Dalyellup, Australia

We hope these impressive women provided you with some inspiration for how you can get involved this International Women's Day. Have a story of female empowerment to share of your own? Leave a comment over on our Instagram.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used in the place of advice of your physician or other medical professionals. You should always consult with your doctor or healthcare provider first with any health-related questions.