The Interview
themselves until maybe about 70 and even then you can surprise yourself so my album also re- flects how I have evolved since my first albums. At this point in my life I now realise who I am as a 31-year-old woman and I’m really happy and love it! I’ve been looking around me and feeling and taking time out so I can write about it. My album is a composition about what’s been happening, my feelings and where I am today.
Q If you could use your music as a tool to create change what three things would
you most like to highlight for women? I think it’s about time that we reassert and reas- sess who we are as women and what we stand for. I’m very passionate about women being true to who they are and speaking their minds. I touch on this on my album with a song that is called ‘Speak Your Mind’. Tere are still so many women who feel they have to be a certain way around men to get what they want, which is wrong and so disempowering. We have to learn to be proud of who we are and stop compromis- ing and thinking that we have to be sexy to get doors opened. Tere is nothing wrong with be- ing sexy but I think for a lot of us we have got stuck on that side and there is so much more to us as women then being just sexy. I want my music to educate and inspire women to accept who they are – just as human beings making mistakes and not always trying so hard to over achieve all the time in every aspect to the point that their dignity becomes compromised and the person that they really are becomes shadowed - the good person. I always find it frustrating seeing so many women doing so many things just to get ahead not realising they are not going to be happy at the end of it; it’s time to reassess that kind of thought pattern. Also it’s time for us women to have fun again! Doing things that make you smile, make your soul smile – let your inside smile. Nothing calculating or scary! Us women need to learn to have a good old-fashioned laugh and learn to love and appreciate ourselves.
My aim is to always use my music to em- power and inspire women to be strong!
Being a citizen of the world and coming Q from a rich culture of mixed heritage, how do you view yourself as a ‘new African woman’?
I have always seen myself as an African woman. My mum raised me as an African woman. I definitely got my lessons on my West Indian culture but I was raised as an African child so I have never not looked at myself as an African woman. Te word ‘new’ African woman speaks to me as a global citizen travelling the world and representing my African culture and it’s amazing to watch and be a part of that new
10 | NEW AFRICAN WOMAN | AUTUMN 2011
“I just love shoes,” says Estelle. “Because they make you feel strong and sexy at the same time”
movement because when I was growing up there were different expectations for African women. Women like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf truly inspire me as an African woman because she has helped to break so many disempowering stereotypes about women. She’s incredible to me and represents a true image of a new African woman, to what I aspire to as an artist. Genevieve Nnaji is another woman that I really respect. It’s that time again when us African women will be running the world again!
Q Do you have a favourite African saying that you learnt as a child and continue to uphold?
Yes! My mum always said, “Beauty is pain”. I can re- member as a child, when I used to have to sit and get my hair combed, which was a painful experience, I used to get my fingers slapped whenever I used to try and touch my hair as it was being plaited. I would wrench, tug, twist and moan, but the out- come was always a wow factor. I learnt very early that as an African woman you have to go through a process which can be sometimes unpleasant to get to that end goal.
Q How does it feel to be a fashion beauty icon? It makes me laugh! I wear clothes and put the
things I like to wear the way I do because I enjoy it, I don’t wear them because I am an icon or any- thing. I am like any other girl who likes to dress up and feel good about the clothes I’m wearing. When people comment that I look amazing, I’m like, wow …thank you! When I won an award for being one of the most stylish women in New York, I was shocked because I am not from New York, but I was ever thankful and really appreciative that they thought I was stylish. I suppose you can say I have not been dressing in vain.
Q Who are your favourite fashion names? At the high end I love Fendi, Chanel, Louis
Vuitton because their collections are designed to make women feel both fabulous and feminine. However, I also love designers like Gavin Douglas, who is a British Jamaican designer from the UK. I wore his collection for BET (Black Entertainment Television) ‘Ri
p th uwy’ because his style is so e Rn a
refreshing and edgy and I also love Korto Momolu, who I wore during Arise Fashion Week in Nigeria. She is so dope! I love her as a designer. We have some amazing talent, within our community and I always feel honoured to wear their collection and fly their flag as black African fashion designers.
It’s very much about being comfortable in what I am wearing and also how I am feeling about my body at that moment. If I do wear a trend you will probably only see me that one time in that
Q How would you describe your own style?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100