Carol's Daughter

Solange Knowles is fashion's quintessential cool girl. She DJ's at fashion fêtes, loves her some BBQ Kettle chips, has impeccable personal style, and rocks a fab 'fro we all want to nestle our faces in. But not everyone is as in love with her tresses as we are. Natural hair blog Curly Nikki posted an excerpt from an interview with Ms. Knowles in the June issue of Essence about her hair secrets. While some commenters responded positively to the piece, there were many who, well, didn't (this is the internet, after all). Here's what they had to say:

OK, we know that Solange is Beyoncé’s younger sister. She’s been compared to her a lot, as is the case with any siblings--their comparisons just happen to take place in the spotlight of the media. Solange has had a moderately successful music and acting career. She’s dabbled in modeling, as the face of Armani Jeans, and for her family’s clothing line, House of Deréon. She got married at the age of 17, had a child, and ultimately got divorced; all this personal drama certainly affected her career a bit. She’s never really come out from her sister’s shadow...until recently. Solange’s look has changed dramatically, first of all. She used to favor long soft diva locks, lots of makeup, and pretty dresses. She skews decidedly more hipster lately: natural hair in a giant afro, less makeup, playing up her less-hourglass-than-Beyoncé’s frame. It seems to be working, because the industry has come calling.

This morning, at the ungodly hour of 7:30, the 8th Annual “WWD Beauty Biz Awards" took place at the Four Seasons Restaurant in NYC. Being consummate beauty professionals, everyone in attendance looked refreshed and chic, with lots of Chanel bags and perfectly applied lipstick. Gina Sanders, the president and CEO of Fairchild Fashion Group, started off the presentation by dishing about changes coming to WWD and Style.com (now owned by Fairchild, of course). WWD is getting an overall architecture redesign in 2011, and an eight page section called “WWD Style” will be introduced; it will provide deeper “business insight, analysis, and fun.” The men’s coverage will be increased, with new beefier quarterly sections and more weekly coverage. The Beauty Biz insert will also be overhauled. And finally, an iPad application is coming. Gina was more vague about Style.com-- “Like ladies having work done, we don’t want to reveal too much," she said--but big changes are clearly afoot. She mentioned the potential to reach millions of fanatic fashion and beauty consumers through the site. We will be watching closely. Now onto the awards.