French Open Bans Serena Williams From Wearing Life-Saving, Anti-Blood Clot Catsuit

French Open Bans Serena Williams From Wearing Life-Saving, Anti-Blood Clot Catsuit

Serena Williams wasn't trying to be some slutty woman of color when she wore her black Nike catsuit before dropping out of the 2018 French Open with an injury. Williams dealt with a life-threatening, post-pregnancy blot clot scare in 2017.  The G.O.A.T. dedicated her ultimate power suit to "all the moms out there who had a tough recovery from pregnancy" on Instagram. 

Serena agreed that the design was a partial nod to 'Black Panther'. "I call it, like, my Wakanda-inspired catsuit." The French Tennis Federation will have no more Wakanda-inspired dress on its professional tennis courts, banning Serena -- or any of her wannabes -- from wearing similar sartorial outfits in the future.

Bernard Giudicelli, the president of the French Tennis Federation, told Tennis magazine her catsuit was specifically a problem. “It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place,” he said. “I think that sometimes we’ve gone too far.”

Just to be clear, Williams' suit had a potentially live-saving functionality. As a full-body compression garment, it was designed to help with blood clots, a life-threatening health issue Serena's dealt with frequently. Williams was sidelined for a year, with several blod clots in both lungs in 2011. And when she was giving birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, last year, she had a pulmonary embolism that could have killed her. It was only her own knowledge of these life-threatening problems that demanded medical action when doctors and nurses were oblivious to what was happening.

“I had a lot of problems with my blood clots, and, God, I don’t know how many I have had in the past 12 months. So it is definitely a little functionality to it,” Williams said of the suit. “I have been wearing pants in general a lot when I play, so I can keep the blood circulation going. It’s a fun suit but it’s also functional, so I can be able to play without any problems.”

Giudicelli said the rules won’t be as strict as Wimbledon, which makes everyone wear white, but they will be asking designers to give them an advance look at designs for players and will “impose certain limits.”

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia Al Faraj,  also known as Ascia AKF, is a leader of the pack of influencers promoting modest fashion with a streetwear edge. Writing for Fashionista, Whitney Bauck talks frankly with Ascia about redefining Muslim fashion, how K-beauty changed her life and what the West doesn't understand about Arab women.

With 2.3 million followers on Instagram, Faraj strikes "the coveted perfect balance between aspirational and relatable" writes Bauck. She is a true global citizen, raised by a Kuwaiti father and American mother. Signing on to her original blog 'The Hybrids', we meet the message 'Let's talk eating disorders', confirming that Faraj is willing to deal with complex topics head-on.

In what is an excellent interview and not a hits-generating puff piece, Bauck and Faraj explore serious questions, including a common one about covering your head as a Muslim woman.  AOC has written about modest fashion, hijabs and burqas for years, and we learned some new facts in their exchange.

How did you start covering your head, and when? I noticed your mom doesn't cover hers.

Eye: Carine Roitfeld & Halima Aden Talk Modesty, Provocation & The New Nike Pro Hijab

Eye: Carine Roitfeld & Halima Aden Talk Modesty, Provocation & The New Nike Pro Hijab

Carine Roitfeld joined model Halima Aden for a conversation about modest dressing at the Business of Fashion's annual Voices conference last week.

Aden was born in a Kenyan refugee camp and later naturalized as an American when her family moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota when she was seven years old. Aden first made headlines as a teen when she became her American town's first Muslim homecoming queen. After competing in the state's Miss USA pageant in 2016, she caught Carine's eye, and, a year later—at 19 years of age— Halima Aden covered CR Fashion Book Issue 10. Equally exciting, Halima was interviewed by her life-inspiring role model Imam. 

Halima Aden aspires to be a UN Goodwill Ambassador. Until then, listen to Carine Roitfeld, Halima Aden and Tim Blanks discuss modesty at the BofF VOICES 2017 conference. 

Bible Verses Cast Scourge On Women's Vile & Disgusting Nature

Vogue Italia is always topical and often irreverent in politically incorrect ways. Posting just now the veiled Clara McNair lensed by Léa Nielsen for the December issue -- coming minutes after hearing the American Muslim father-in-law of San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik said that he had never seen her face, or even met her -- I remembered earlier Anne writing. Malik always lived under her burka. 

Anne of Carversville is filled with essays about the demands of religious men that they control women's bodies and public personas. As Paris and California, Egypt and Tunisia, Nigeria and Yemen reel from recent terrorist attacks, it might be time for a Bible lesson, one that I wrote on Feb. 25, 2010 called Bound Tightly By the Good Book & God's Will. 

Religious fundamentalism dominates women worldwide, not only Muslim women. In order to maintain perspective, it's important to quote from Christianity's Holy book.. Recently, two Dutch 'pranksters' have scored a YouTube sensation in which they asked members of the public to respond to verses in the Qur'an. Reality is that the duo was quoting from the Bible. 

I share also a followup article written by Lisa Brown Women's Bodies Suffer Under the Immoral Gazes of Righteous Men, written March 8, 2011. 

The provocative fashion editorial images used here were shot by Herring & Herring and styed by Mykel C. Smith. Models in ‘Bound’ include: Damaris Lewis, Julia Goncharenko, Anais Pouliot and Clara Settje.

Israeli Newspapers Photoshop Out Women Leaders From Paris March

Israeli Newspapers Photoshop Out Women Leaders From Paris March

The actual photo from Sunday that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and EU foreign affairs, security chief Frederica Mogherini and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.