Jihan Forbes

Stories By This Author

Style

Eva Chen Talks Social Media Strategy and Lucky's New Hires

Lucky Magazine held the first day of its sixth Fashion and Beauty Blog Conference yesterday and we got a chance to chat with new EIC Eva Chen about her favorite blogs, her own social media strategy, Lucky’s new staffers (including the one she sort of stole from us--no hard feelings :)), and executing her vision for her very first Lucky FABB effort.

Business

Why Fashion Brands Should Be Marketing to Black People

You wouldn’t believe it if you looked on the runway, at an ad campaign, or heck...anywhere, but people of color are buying more luxury goods than ever. Nielsen just released its consumer report on black Americans, and the market research firm's findings were, to say the very least, quite eye-opening. With black buying power expected to to reach $1.7 trillion by 2017, the report notes how increasingly important it's become for brands to market to black people. Sadly, getting companies to realize this has been a struggle. According to the report, $75 billion dollars was spent last year on television, magazine, internet, and radio advertising, yet only $2.24 billion was spent on media focused on black audiences. A puzzling figure indeed.

Style

Kaufmanfranco Spring 2014: Body of Work

Although Ken Kaufman and Isaac Franco say they looked to anatomy and musculature to inform their designs for Spring 2014, at first glance, the pared-down pieces tell a different story. The offerings were decidedly no-fuss--certainly not like the complex vessel the human body is, and at times skewed a little clinical (in the best of ways). But look a little closer and you'll notice embossed leather striations, blocked stripe motifs, and mosaic paillettes mimicking the texture of muscles and bone.

Style

Sass & Bide Spring 2014: A Global Mélange

It was truly a global affair at Sass & Bide this season. The show notes declared the collection “Free Town,” in which designer Heidi Middleton imagined a sort of universal borderlands, at which cultural influences meld together in a cohesive unit. “I really wanted this [collection] to not be easily definable,” she told us post-show. “It’s really a tale of many worlds, it was inspiration that had come from many places we visited.”

Business

How I Solved My Skin's Quarter-Life Crisis

I have your run-of-the-mill combination skin. As a teenager, I got my share of pimples, but as I grew out of puberty, things seemed progress quite nicely. I wasn’t getting as many breakouts, and my skin looked pretty even. But then, one day in early April of this year, completely out of left field, I broke out into a million pimples all over my forehead, the side of my face, and most peculiarly, my cheeks—where I never got any major pimples before. It was weird. It was gross. I felt like my 14-year-old self. But I'm 25. WTF was going on?

Beauty

LiSi Cosmetics: The High-End Makeup Brand You Can Actually Afford

Full disclosure: I rarely wear makeup and, like many women out there, I hardly ever stray from the cosmetics brands I already know and love. So, back in November, when blogger Christina Brown of Love Brown Sugar invited me to the launch of a nail polish she collaborated on with new beauty brand LiSi Cosmetics, I was a little skeptical. She raved about the product, the amazing quality and even more amazing price point (everything is under $15!)--but, I had to see for myself. And when I did, well, I was sold. Read on to get the scoop on the new brand, which aims to "bridge the gap between high-end quality products and affordable prices and caters to women of all ethnicities."