Coreen Simpson and The Black Cameo

Monday, May 18, 2009 | |


Photographer and accessories designer Coreen Simpson talks with The FADER about her new book, The Black Cameo in a great Q+A!

We first came across Coreen Simpson via her iconic collection of street style portraits of impossibly stylish black men and women on the NYC nightlife scene of the 1980s that we published back in FADER #33. Simpson also happens to have a good helping of style herself, working as a jewelry designer throughout her photography career. Her new book, The Black Cameo, pays homage to the accessories sensation she started back in the late '80s—chic black and white cameos with the profile of a black woman. Before her pieces, black images on jewelry of this kind were pretty much unheard of, and when her collection launched at the Studio Museum of Harlem there were literally hoards of women lining up to get them. We chatted with Simpson about her days street-vending on 57th street, about the origins of the cameo and why, in her opinion, personal style is the only thing that we really own.

Read the full interview here.

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