June Ambrose: Stylist to the stars and fairy fashion godmother in our heads.
When she isn’t dressing our favorite celebrities or chronicling her cooking on Instagram, she’s a “rock mom” to her two young children, Chance and Summer. And Summer is already following in June’s stylish footsteps. It isn’t very often we find ourselves envious of the life of a nine-year-old, but we’re jealous of anyone who gets to accompany June to market appointments and sit alongside her for every front row of fashion week.
The Cut recently caught up with tastemaker/businesswoman/supermom June to talk about her daughter’s styling sensibility, the power of fashion, and a rising power player in Hollywood: Lupita Nyong’o. Keep on reading for some excerpts of her interview.
On Summer’s wardrobe:
“I create a closet that doesn’t allow her to be too crazy. I allow her to discover her body. She’s not comfortable in tight clothes. She’s growing; she’s figuring out what works for her body type. She’s very athletic. I think it’s important that young girls know early to accept that, “This is what I am” and we’re really working on that now. No poon-poon shorts in the closet. No hottie shorts.”
On Lupita’s role in fashion:
“I think that she’s the poster child for better times. In terms of color and being fearless and celebrating loving color, it’s really meaningful. Honestly, she could wear anything she wants. She’s a straight up-and-down girl. She’s model-like. But you can tell that there’s an honest connection with everything that she’s wearing. It’s been a very provocative time. Especially in the world of editorial, where there’s this fight, and on the runways, to see more women of color. I like that she’s unafraid to be vocal about it. That’s what life and style is about. It’s a common conversation. To me, it’s a conversation we can all have. Fashion breaks down every barrier, in my opinion. We can all talk about fashion.”
Breaking down economic barriers with fashion:
“Well, when you look at like a magazine like Essence magazine — the economics of the household income is $45,000 to $75,000, so you know who your demo is. You’re not going to shoot couture. When you start to break it down in terms of race or who’s buying the publication, you have statistics and numbers there. But what I’m saying with that is, Fuck the statistics. Everyone should be represented. I don’t care about the numbers and I know from doing editorial and being on the other side that I’m not making the demographic part up. We need to stop it, you know. I never allowed it to become an issue for me, but when you have young people who are coming up and they don’t see enough of themselves, that’s a problem. I’m more concerned about them, because as an adult we have overcome it to some extent, but now it’s our time to fight the fight for them.”
