Black History Fashion Icons: Jody Watley
For this edition of Black History Fashion Icons I will be focusing on one of my fashion icons, Jody Watley!
Jody Watley started off her career at just 14 being a dancer on the hit tv show, Soul Train, as a dancer. Jody fast became popular on the show for her killer moves and her trendsetting style even featuring her in Ebony magazine in 1977 apart of the “The New Generation” story. After the success of being a dancer on Soul Train, she was choosen to be apart of a new music group called Shalamar! The group had major success with hits songs such as “For The Lover In You”, “Night To Remember”, and “Second Time Around”.
With the success of Shalamar, Jody Watley decided to go solo creating a new style, image, and sound for herself! Being dubbed “The Black Madonna”, Jody was known for her spunky style during the 80’s and 90’s! Leather corsets paired with tulle skirts and jeans, over-sized embroidered leather jackets and funky hair accessories, Jody Watley set trends and even took some popular trends and made them her own. Jody Watley was known for mixing high fashion with a urban twist, giving the world a new style to follow. With every music video she made Jody Watley made bold fashion statements, in such videos like “Real Love”, “Some Kind Of Lover” and “I’m Looking For A New Love”.
Jody Watley was also featured in the first celebrity ad for Gap, and known for posing in top fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Italia, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair, something that alot of black popstars was not able to achieve! Jody Watley has also worked with many icons in fashion such as famous photographers Steven Meisel and Victor Skrebneski.
Jody Watley has achieved alot with her role in music and has become a legend in pop culture history! She opened the doors for many black pop stars today and set a path that manys pop stars from this generation is following. Not only has she become an icon in pop culture but in black history as well.
