Char Ellesse has garnered a community through fashion with her superb “fit checks” —that experiment with color theory and play with proportions and the notion of gender binary. Alongside her stylish TikTok platform, she has kept the momentum with her storytelling platform entitled “Girls Will Be Boys,” which poses the question for all, “Is it always binary?” In addition, her podcast, Say It With Your Chest, spotlights the day-to-day of being a dark-skinned queer Black woman, the notions of masculinity and femininity, and how they intersect with her Blackness and queerness. It’s so refreshing to see a Black woman dress in this way because, too often, there is a binary that we all feel we have to adhere to, and that just isn’t the case for our white counterparts.
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From playing with suiting, mastering athleisure, and mixing and matching cool accessories from Diesel and Telfar, etc., one thing about this creator is that authenticity is a throughline in all that she does. Her style truly reflects the person she is, as she’s not afraid of self-expression, and it’s a healing tactic in reality. To be able to express yourself freely and not fear or overthink how you are being perceived is a type of freedom that many Black women want to experience and should. Char is definitely worth following because, personally, as a Black woman, when I see other Black women living wholeheartedly in their truth unapologetically, there’s an immediate connection I feel, and I must see where her journey takes her.
