Brown Girl Bosses: These Roomies Are Your Squad Goals #MyMagicIs
Londyn Douglas is a woman who always held a deep inner knowing that fashion is a wonderful outlet for women to express their individual creativity. Starting off by modeling and crafting jewelry and handbags, she eventually discovered her passion for styling and vintage pieces. While the abundance of clean cut looks in Washington D.C. had some influence on her personal taste, Douglas knew it wasn't the right environment for a progressive fashionista, and traded in her safety net of the corporate life for entrepreneurship in L.A. She admits that L.A. was a bit frightening at first after living her whole life in the DMV area. In less than two years she developed an impressive portfolio as an independent stylist working on various film and music video sets, and created her own vintage boutique, the-club: #coolvintageforcoolbabe. Her first collection features an array of Japanese inspired patterns and delicate fabrics, particularly silk. Wanting to take her career even further, she moved cross-country again this past winter, and teamed up with her friend and current roommate Angelique Smith in Brooklyn. Douglas attributes her growth to keeping her focus narrowed down to her goals and only engaging in activities that pertain to her interests. She is known for her signature minimalistic looks accentuated by colorful embellished accessories and shoes. Douglas’ work has been featured in Hypebae, Madhouse Studio, and Vulkan Mag.
"My Magic is my creativity.
I have the power to turn a white canvas into a bomb piece of art! Whether it’s through styling a fashion editorial or curating vintage for the cool babes.”
A Brown Girl Boss whose magic inspires me is: Solange Knowles.
She is a artist, mother, trendsetter, leader and overall bad ass woman! She isn't afraid to speak her mind and she doesn't care about anyone's opinion. She has always created her own lane and is super humble. She is the epitome of a brown girl bawse!
Angelique Smith is a bit of an anomaly, considering that her growing career as a ballerina took off in her mid twenties, a time when many dancers have already hung up their slippers. Dancing since the age of four, she was disappointed when she wasn’t selected after auditioning for the dance program at her college. She took on retail jobs and continued to dance, using her earnings for adult dance classes for five years. After graduating she ditched retail, and quickly climbed up the corporate ladder. She found her mundane work life to be unfulfilling and says she felt empty without dance and distanced from her dreams. She impulsively left the corporate life for good in June 2016 without a backup plan, investing all her time into dance once again, and building back up her physical agility. After just two weeks of adult classes at the acclaimed Brooklyn Ballet, she was asked to be apart of the company’s upcoming Nutcracker season. Smith also models and took part in NYFW’s Yeezy Season 4 last year. Although her parents were originally concerned with her decision to trade in traditional stability for the unpredictable dance world, she says her parents still threw in their full support of her choice because they understood her passion for ballet. She believes this is only the beginning of her journey as ballerina, and plans to stay committed to perfecting her gifts and physical capacity.
My Magic is my strength & my individuality.
“I looked up the word “magic” recently and it means the use of special powers to make things happen that would usually be impossible. It is the very thing that makes the impossible-possible. My experience as a dancer, a model and a black woman has aided in developing my magic and over time I am excited to see how far being strong and being different takes me.”
A Brown Girl Boss whose magic inspires me is: Misty Copeland.
No question. She is a perfect depiction of everything I want to do for myself, do for my community, and do for the next generation. Someone like Misty never conformed to the idea of a ballerina. Instead, she created a new norm for ballerinas—brown ballerinas. That’s a boss.” As roomies, these two Brown Girl Bosses consistently motivate and challenge each other, clearing out at least one day a week to write down and discuss their goals. To say that black women don’t support each other is a false narrative shattered by two persistent ambitious brown risk takers, living out their dreams in NYC. Together Douglas and Smith hope to leave a lasting imprint of inspiration for other young brown women to follow while taking their mediums to new heights.
Written by: Melaika Campbell @laik_c
Photos Credit: Talya Brott @Tayabroot
