Serving a déjà vu of her world namesake hit observe with Wizkid, Naija’s star lady Tems covers the most recent style challenge of ESSENCE.
The award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter, who simply accomplished her Born in The Wild tour, seems each bit beautiful in a golden satin headwrap, her face flawlessly glammed together with her signature facebeat — straight 90s forehead, cocoa-lined shiny lips, poppin’ eyes and a fabulously irresistible gaze — on the September/October challenge.
You have to be your self even when one thing else is anticipated of you.
— Tems
She sits with style editor and the primary black girl to type a Vogue cowl, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, to debate greater than type and music. Tems unpacks staying true to herself whereas navigating the pressures of fame and constructing the life she desires.
You win, mechanically, when you find yourself your self, it doesn’t matter what that appears like. That’s why there’s selection. We’re completely different and should not all meant to be the identical. And I do know there’s a normal, however there shouldn’t be one.
There shouldn’t be a normal of what individuals ought to gown like in the event that they’re artists, or what individuals ought to gown like in the event that they’re girls. I simply really feel like we’re all distinctive. There shouldn’t be a requirement. That’s what I imply by normal. There shouldn’t be a requirement or some form of expectation that you simply gown a sure approach.
— Tems
Leather-based, feathers, fur and extra, swipe by means of the carousel under to see a few of her seems:
I’m only a lady. I can’t get up each morning fascinated with what individuals count on of me. The higher query is: What’s it that I count on of myself? What’s it that God expects of me? Why did I get up, and why was I born into this world?
Let’s begin there, relatively than fascinated with different human beings. No one has it discovered. You must dwell your life in a approach that’s actual.
— Tems
In keeping with ESSENCE, “Karefa-Johnson’s groundbreaking function as the primary Black girl to type a Vogue cowl, paired with Tems’s speedy ascent within the music trade, highlights the distinctive challenges and triumphs that trailblazing girls expertise.
As the 2 share and join on the specifics of their journeys, they reveal the resilience that propels Black and diasporic girls ahead, inspiring us to comply with our personal paths with comparable braveness and fervour.”
I simply wish to know the place that impulse to guard that identification got here from. Methods during which you lean into displaying up as a Nigerian girl. Methods during which that’s profitable in your style.
— Gabriella Karefa-Johnson
I really feel like now, on this planet, everyone wears many alternative issues from completely different locations. We’re not all the time sporting our conventional clothes that we’re used to sporting, from the place we got here from. However it doesn’t change who we’re.
I’m all the time going to be Nigerian. You must present up as who you actually are, in your blood. I do know my tradition: I’m Yoruba. And I do know—if I used to be to get married tomorrow, I do know the apparel that we’re all sporting as a household. And something that has to do with representing Nigeria all the time must replicate that.
As a Nigerian, I really feel emotional, which is what I feel artwork needs to be. Artwork is emotion expressed.
— Tems
ESSENCE’s September/October Style Challenge hits newsstands on August twenty sixth. Learn the complete cowl story with Tems here
CREDITS
Expertise: @temsbaby
Photographer: @lizjohnsonartur
Stylist: @gabriellak_j
Hair: @am_stagrams
Make-up: @kaylaaperez_
Nails: @tinubellomanicurist
Set Design: @the_setstylist
Tailor: @laima_andrijauskaite
Publish Manufacturing: @onehundredberlin
Location: @sunsetstudioslondon
Particular Thanks: @rosewoodlondon
Manufacturing: @themorrisongroup
ESSENCE, SVP, Artistic: @coreytstokes
ESSENCE, VP, Content material: @itsnandibby
ESSENCE, Visible Director: @_mq______
ESSENCE, Design Director: @anthonybones_
