International Women's Day: Style Icons

The Style Editors discuss inspirational women in style

By Laura Mallinson, Style Sub-Editor, Jemima Carr-Jones, Style Deputy Editor and India Harrison Peppe, Style Editor

Sub-Editor Laura Mallinson applauds the courageous voice of Adwoa Aboah

London based model, stylist and creative Adwoa Aboah has obliterated the stigma that models are ‘just a pretty face’. Reaching beyond the catwalk, Adwoa’s frank and compassionate discussions surrounding mental health, addiction and diversity have had global success. Her podcast Gurls Talk provides a community for fierce female chat featuring a unique range of guests and topics. Adowa’s aim? To encourage us all to talk, share and listen as we take control of our lives. I want to celebrate Adwoa’s own boldly public regain of control, reflecting on her own struggles with suicide and addiction. She candidly admits it’s not always plain sailing, but she’s committed to increasing conversation around these illnesses and pledges to ‘give the unheard a voice whenever I can’. An icon who helps inspire girls to be anyone they want to be, Adwoa is admired on this International Woman’s Day by be recreated as a Barbie ‘Shero’ – like life-size Adwoa, she’ll be a flawlessly beautiful celebration of female power and inclusivity – adorned in the outfit Adwoa wore to collect her 2017 Model of the Year Award. Adwoa’s impact both today, and on the next generation, will help raise girls up, close the Dream Gap and encourage us to celebrate being smart, brave and beautiful.

Deputy Style Editor Jemima Carr-Jones celebrates body-positivity icon Jameela Jamil

Jameela Jamil, the no.1 advocate of women’s body positivity, has just won the Stylist magazine award for Woman of the Year. From a mere one instagram post that received an insane reaction from women across the platform she has started an immensely successful movement - pioneering the account i_weigh which now has over 1.3 million followers. The movement seeks to cull body shame and negativity, the message being: You are worth so much more than the number on the scales; the important things in life cannot be quantified in KG. There have been over two thousand posts on this page, showcasing women from all over the world, exclaiming what makes them strong, drawing on their wide range attributes and experiences. Jameela, and in fact every woman featured, are inspiring and each post is a little step in the right direction for the industry.

“I’m fucking tired of seeing women just ignore what’s amazing about them and their lives and their achievements, just because they don’t have a bloody thigh gap…. please follow the account so we can start this revolution properly and make the fashion and media industry see how many of us are DONE with this shit.”- Jameela Jamil

Style Editor India Harrison-Peppe offers an alternative praise to all womenkind

International Women's day can often end up with us singling out individual women; placing them on a pedestal, enshrining their faces on Instagram stories with a glib hashtag and an emoji. We declare these women as pinnacles of feminism in the fashion industry, 'this is the face of a stylish and savvy woman', we roar!

So today, in a very Cady Heron-esque, sharing out her crown kind of way, I want to celebrate all of us. Celebrate the fact that you navigate the onslaught of images of perfection we get chucked at us, that you get yourself dressed day-to-day. Be happy for the times that you wear trackies, for the times that you wear lingerie, for laughing when they someone implies that body signifies worth, or challenging someone when they say that wearing a provocative outfit means ‘you're asking for it’.

It’s times like these where, rather than continuing to look towards people in the fashion industry, we can look back at ourselves and feel some sort of satisfaction that as the demographic to which most of this crap is geared towards, we have survived it all. Yet, however we dress or look, we are still all bloody fantastic.

Featured Image: Adwoa Aboah / Instagram

'Who is your style icon? We want to hear about them!'

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