Thursday morning, Beyoncè released Ivy Park Heart, the latest capsule collection for her athleisure brand with Adidas. The collection, “inspired by love,” takes the Valentine’s Day colors of red and pink and interpolates them over materials of faux leather, fur, latex, and snake skin to create the perfect streetwear collection for February 14.
Compared to previous editions, the campaign features a roster of influential Asian and Asian American entertainers: Chinese supermodel Shu Pei, male supermodel Tyson Beckford, and actor Karrueche Tran. The campaign is a first for Beyonce’s personal stylist, the Dallas native KJ Moody, who previously spoke to D Magazine about his experiences as a celebrity stylist for Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, and Solange.
“My dream is to be one of these people; to be a Solange, to be a Beyonce, to be a Kelly, to be a June Ambrose,” he told us in 2019. “I’m working my ass off, and I’m really trying to stay inspired, and stay creative, and to stay online, and to stay looking, and just finding inspiration. I think that’s what’s going to help me to keep going.”
Looks like that work paid off.
Marsai Martin and her family relocated to Los Angeles from Dallas less than a decade ago. They moved to help Martin pursue aspirations as an entertainer, and, by 2019, she had made history as a the youngest person to produce a movie. Little featured Issa Rae and Regina Hall.
She has now co-founded Genius Entertainment with her father. The production company will produce films and TV for Disney and other heavyweights, which further cements as one of the next generations of hyphenate creators, like Issa Rae and Mindy Kaling.
Martin speaks about Gen Z tenacity to Mic: ”My peers and girls my age? We are pushing the narrative. We are trying to change the game and make people see that there are totally different stories to be told and so many different voices to be heard. … Behind the camera and wardrobe, or hair and makeup, there are things that need to be changed and I think this generation knows that.”
If this Quen looks familiar to you, it is likely because you saw them on Vine. Since the early 2010s, the social media personality and content creator has bewitched millions of users across social media for her unique, person-centered, narrative comedy. My personal favorite is a TikTok where Blackwell walks to a local fire station to ask for assistance in removing a ring from her overly swollen finger.
Like many of her Internet-friendly peers, Blackwell has remained a constant throughout social media’s evolution. The Dallas native has bounced from Vine to Twitter to Musical.y to TikTok, where she reigns as one of the followed most creators on the platform. Which makes her transition as the featured lead in a national campaign for Beats a lil’ bit sweeter—and makes me feel a tad bit older.
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