Kala GarnerGreetings! My name is Kala Garner but I also go by KG. I’m from sunny San Diego, California and I love natural curly-kinky-coily hair! So much so that I created a site dedicated to being fabulously fashion forward while embracing and loving our tresses called BlackHairPower.com. I also blog whatever my heart desires at thekgtheory.com and vlog on my YouTube channel. When I’m not bloggin’ or vloggin’ I work as a Circuit Designer in the network engineering field. I recently moved to Detroit, Michigan for work, and am often homesick for the lovely Pacific Ocean. My eleven year-old turtle named Leo Jr. keeps me company on those days. In my free-time I love to cook, shop, enjoy the Detroit River Front or when in Cali take long walks on the beach…no really, I do!
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My pass to fashion wonderland!I found out about the fabulous Beautiful Textures Fashion Week Adventure contest through the Curly Nikki email newsletter “The Scoop.” I saw ‘Fashion Week’ and ‘New York City’ in the email and went to enter the contest right away!
Why I Wanted to Win
I am fashion obsessed! Creating fabulous fashion forward outfits is one of my creative outlets. I try to inspire others with my fashion just as I am inspired by other fashionistas. I believe that if you’re wearing something you feel looks fabulous, you will be fabulous! Some of the season’s hottest trends start on the runway, so seeing a show during Fashion Week was a huge goal for me! One thing I am passionate about is curly-kinky-coily hair on the runway and in media. Popular beauty magazines, commercials, etc. almost never display textured hair. My goal as a blogger is to help usher in textured hair for high fashion on the runway. Being picked would place me at the premier event to help do this. You can only imagine how exciting it was for me when I heard I was picked as the winner of the Beautiful Textures Fashion Week Adventure!
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A V.I.P. trip to Bloomingdales!A FAB Makeover
One of my favorite experiences from the entire week was the Beautiful Textures Makeover! After checking into my beautiful room at Hotel Beacon I was swept away to Bloomingdales for my appointment with my personal shopper. Oh yeah! Can you say shopping spree?! When I walked in, I was greeted by Nicole Garner of The Garner Circle PR Firm and a complete camera crew! They were there to catch my entire shopping experience on camera. As I listened to Lavaughn (my personal shopper”> talk about some of the newest chic cocktail dresses I was in awe at all of the choices. We collaborated on what would look perfect on me to host Curl Couture that evening. After trying on a few dresses in my private dressing room (yeah, I felt pretty V.I.P.”>, I decided on an indigo blue French Connection dress and Calvin Klein shoes. Outfit? Check!
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The finished look at the end of the night.Beautiful Textures Hair and Makeup Transformation
With outfit in hand, I arrived at the venue for the event ready to get my makeup and hair done. When we pulled up I saw huge Beautiful Textures banners and a line of people already waiting to get in! I was beyond excited. First, my makeup was done to compliment the style and color of my dress. The transformation was amazing! Then I sat in hair stylist Derek Scully’s chair to have my hair done.
I had prepped my hair the night before by washing with Beautiful Textures Tangle Taming Moisturizing Shampoo and conditioned with their Rapid Repair Deep Conditioner. Derek took my now dry, clean hair and created an amazing style. Using a curling iron like a curling wand he created spirals. My hair was not brushed or combed or blow dried, which I appreciated. Just a curling iron and 20 minutes of work from Derek and his assistants and I was a new me! I was more than ready to co-host Curl Couture looking fabulous from my makeover!
After walking in I met and chatted with Lexi and AfroBella, two of my biggest inspirations! The experience was amazing as I interviewed, took pictures and enjoyed the night with fellow textured fashionistas!
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Another tall textured lady in the Media Box!At the Runway Shows
Curly hair on the runway? Not so much. Having a backstage pass to shows like Christian Siriano and Charlotte Bronson was phenomenal, but the hairstyles lacked texture. I was in fashion heaven while being somewhat disappointed with the texture-less styles I saw being created. I would have loved to see some of Lela Roses’ models sporting curly bobs or even Jill Stuarts’ models with a curly top bun. The fashion was fierce, so I took notes on which styles would look best with a textured look.
Being in the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Media Box was a completely different experience! Texture was everywhere and I was loving it! The hottest trend was the messy curly bun. Most days the weather was hot and humid, so most of the fashion forward curly girls I saw with curly hair wore buns or ponytails. A few photographers even asked to snap some shots of my style with my spirals (from the night before”> pinned up and out of the way. Michelle Breyer and I noticed that a number of shows styled their models in small “bed head” buns. The trend inspired street style and the “model bun” went curly inside and out of the Media Box. I saw lots of curly bobs and free flowing curly hair too!
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To the Community
As a member of the natural hair community, I think it’s important to embrace our curly hair. Constant manipulation to our tresses can be damaging to our hair and our spirit. By consistently rejecting our textured hair we are teaching curly girls that the hair they were born with isn’t good enough. I’m all for changing it up and I love using hair as an accessory, but without seeing virtually ANY texture on the runway for the shows I attended during the Mercedes–Benz New York Fashion Week, I can see us curly girls have a lot of work to do! By sporting curly buns and other fashion forward curly hairstyles we can help usher in more curly styles for the runway and inspire curly girls and women everywhere!
I would like to sincerely thank Beautiful Textures and NaturallyCurly for picking me as their correspondent for the New York Fashion Week Adventure! The experience was unlike any other I have ever had. Opportunities to help keep curly-kinky-coily hair in the forefront of fashion keep coming my way because of this experience and I’m so grateful! This is only the beginning!
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