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00:00Good evening Essence Fashion House. How y'all doing tonight? I like the energy, yeah! I like that.
00:12I'm Kelly Augustine and I am so excited to be here with y'all for our final conversation
00:20and who better to do it with than these three pioneers, beautiful women just embracing who
00:29they are. So let's get started. Please join me in welcoming personality and actress, the
00:41fabulous Takara Jones, model and actress Chasity Saunders, and model and writer Simi Moonlight.
00:53Welcome ladies, welcome y'all. Thank you for being here with us tonight. I think we're
01:01ready to get this combo going. Okay. I'd like to start by asking each of you, when did you
01:08fall in love with the woman that you are? When did you really just start embracing your body
01:15and your personality and really figuring out yourself? Takara, I'm starting with you first.
01:21Okay. Hey everyone. So let's see. When I was about 14 years old, that's when I really got
01:36interested in modeling and I wanted to become a model. But at 14, I was a thinner girl. I was
01:43coming into myself. I was big breasted, but I wasn't full in all the other parts. But I would
01:50come to New York every summer and I would go to the agencies and the agencies really didn't look at
01:55me because I wasn't the hanger type. You know, I wasn't a straight up and down, you know, I'm a black
02:00girl and I got curves. Even if I'm thin, they were still a little too curvy for the fashion world.
02:07So when I turned about 17, 18 years old, I got on the Depo shop, the Depo Vera shop.
02:14Really? And it blew me up, honey. I went from a size 4, 6 to a size 12, 14.
02:24She'll do that.
02:25Quick. And I mean, I was busting, literally like ripping the inside of my jeans. Like I felt like
02:32I was the incredible hawk, how I was busting out of my clothes. It was serious, honey. And
02:38one of my good friends, she, um, she would come and look at me and she go, you look, you look,
02:46I look, what I look like, Heffa?
02:48Yeah.
02:50Say it. Say it. Say it. What, what, what is it? And she goes, you look grown. I said, oh, thank you?
02:58Thank you. And I didn't take it as like an insult, even though like, I don't know how she threw it
03:06out there. Cause you know, sometimes people throw stuff at you and they don't necessarily mean it to
03:10be a compliment or they're trying to, you know, it's a little shade or whatever, but it's how you
03:14receive it. Right? So I didn't take it like a derogatory thing or anything like that. It actually
03:20made me feel good. I was like, I want to be grown. I want to be sexy. So that's, um, that's really
03:27when I found out about plus size modeling. I took some pictures with my new body that I had
03:32this new curvy body. And then I went to the agencies in New York and that was the very first
03:37time that they actually looked at my book. Cause I would go in and they would take my book and they
03:42would go next. So this time they would give me a, okay. So I was really feeling my curves.
03:57That's when I fell in love with my curves. Actually when I got them, I fell in love with
04:01them when I got them. Cause for some people it's a turning point, but I feel for, I think
04:07for all of us up here, it just kind of, you just fall into it. Right. Chastity. Um, I
04:13definitely, to piggyback off of that, I'm a girl from the South. Hey y'all. Um, I'm from
04:18Roanoke, Virginia. So honestly where I'm from, if you're looking a little too thin, they're
04:22telling you to eat a burger. So I would say that I fell in love with my curves early
04:26on. And when I did move to New York city, because my mother was the person who I looked
04:31up to, right. My mother's always been a curvy woman. We've always been able to wear the same
04:35clothes. You know what that feels like when there's somebody else curvy, you share clothes.
04:38And my mother was the most beautiful dynamic woman I knew. And she was a plus size woman.
04:42So it was only when I moved to New York city and started modeling that I found out that being
04:47a black plus size woman wasn't the most desirable woman in the world because I grew up thinking that
04:52it was. So by the time they tried to start tearing me down, it was too late. It was too late.
04:58It was too late. So I embraced my curves and I just love them. And that's the way it's been for me.
05:05Simi. So I have a similar story. Mine is also based in like when I moved to New York,
05:12I feel like that was like a year and a half ago now for me. And I feel like it was just like a
05:18turning point for me. I really wanted to step into my personality, step into who I am as a woman,
05:23as a person. And I really just started, I stopped like punishing myself for not looking a certain
05:28way. And I started embracing being vibrant in my fashion and my styling and who I am, despite like
05:36my curves. And then I also looked at it as like, Oh, I'm actually embracing my curves by being vibrant,
05:41by being in my personality, by showing off every aspect of who I am, by accentuating my,
05:46my hips and my waist and all those things and how I style myself. So I feel like I want to say over
05:51the last two years, I've really just been stepping into that and being positive about who I am. And
05:56I'm not going to sit here and lie and say I've always been positive because that's just not the
05:59truth. We live in a world where we're constantly being told that we have to look a certain way,
06:03be a certain way, do a certain thing, wear certain things. And I just finally stopped listening to all
06:08of that and started listening to who I am like in my body. Absolutely. I think a big part of embracing
06:13your curves is has nothing to do with your body and everything to do with your energy. Moving on.
06:23Chastity, in addition to being a working model, you're also finding success as an actress.
06:28What role has embracing your body played in opening doors for you?
06:33Yes. Thank you for that. I'm living my dream life right now. I'm so happy that things are
06:39happening for me and I'm able to successfully pivot from plus size model to actor. I think
06:44that embracing my curves has been the thing that has helped me as an actress because when you walk
06:50into those rooms, you have to know who you are. And I've always believed that I was a leading lady.
06:56I've always believed that I was a leading lady in my life, in my career, you know, in every aspect of
07:01my life. So when I walk into those castings, I believe that I deserve to be a lead. I believe
07:06that I deserve to be the one who gets the guy. We don't have to always be the friend or the funny
07:12one or the one who doesn't get the guy. We can be the strong black lead that gets the guy that has
07:18fun and that leads in her life or not even get the guy who gets the job, who gets the career,
07:24who gets the life that she wants. So embracing my curves has helped me as a woman and as an actress
07:29because we're not what we do. You know what I mean? We're who we are. So I step into these roles
07:34as an actress, believing that I'm a lead. Amazing. I'm like, I'm speechless. Simi, one of the many
07:44beautiful things about how you hold space in the fashion world is your Afrocentricity, that energy
07:50that you give us. Was that something you saw growing up that inspired you or was that something
07:56that you just kind of fallen into? Yeah. So for those that don't know, my family's from
08:02Uganda. I'm a first generation Ugandan. So I actually grew up around all Africans all the
08:09time. And I'm sure y'all know, but African women are very, very, very curvy. Okay. So I feel
08:18like the ways that my mom had to style herself because of inaccessibility to certain clothes
08:24actually really inspired me in this like age that I'm in right now, where it's like,
08:30I don't have to give up my personality in order to look good, right? Like I don't have to give up
08:36parts of myself in order to look good, even though I don't have access to certain styles or certain
08:42fashions or whatever the case may be. Like my mom really always presented herself in a way that was
08:47honest to who she was. She was always trying to incorporate like different parts of Uganda within
08:54her style, even though we were living in America, growing up in America. And I feel like that
08:59really inspired me to work with like black women stylists, black women fashion designers. Like the
09:06person I'm wearing right now, she's from Nigeria. Okay. Her name is Lavi and I love everything that
09:12she creates. And I just feel like that's really what I want to implement as I continue like being who
09:17I am in fashion. So yeah. And you're very intentional about that. We love you for it.
09:21Thank you. Miss Takara, so many of us have followed your journey, obviously, since America's Next Top
09:29Model. As a true pioneer, number one, please, y'all give it up for Takara. Oh, seriously.
09:35Please. Please. Give her her flowers. Seriously. As a true pioneer in this space in so many ways,
09:46what changes have you been proud to see? And what do you look forward to seeing in the future?
09:54I'm so proud that I can sit here on this panel and be able to drop all these names that we're
10:00in the business right now and we're working. We got so many girls that's making her so proud. We
10:06got Precious Leahs out here. We got Tamar Majors out here. We have like, in the past, we couldn't even
10:12drop names, you know? And when we did drop names, it was of people who had become before us and it was
10:18so far few, you know? And now it's more attainable, right? You have this panel and now people out here
10:27that's in the audience or people who are going to be watching this know that they can also do it
10:31too, you know? I met that young lady right there. And she was telling me, like, because of me, that
10:37she's with Dorothy Combs' modeling agency. Congratulations.
10:44Big Tang.
10:46So it just warms my heart and it makes me so proud because when I was coming up, I didn't have
10:51this role model sort of influence. So I'm very proud that I'm able to give people
10:57inspiration and hope to know that they can do it because they can do it, you know? And it is
11:01possible. And of course, we have a long way to go, but us women that are in this industry now
11:07are making it our business to make it better for the upcoming generation, right?
11:13Every day.
11:14Every day.
11:15Every single day.
11:16Every day.
11:17Lastly.
11:18Okay.
11:19Can you each please share what's been the most unforgettable moment of your career? And what
11:29did you learn from that moment? Chasity, I'll come back to you to start us off.
11:36So I've had so many really incredible moments. My very first campaign was with Beyonce and Tina
11:42Knowles. So literally I could stop right there, but I've been modeling professionally for over
11:48a decade now. And to be quite honest, when this pandemic started, you know, you can be
11:53very ambitious. You can really know what you want to do with your life, but then sometimes
11:57life happens and life happened for all of us, right? You know, as a model and actor, I'm
12:03basically a freelancer. I had no idea how I was going to sustain living in Los Angeles where
12:08rent is over $2,000 a month. And the most incredible thing that's happened to me in my
12:13journey is when the world stopped, God continued on.
12:21I booked a European wax center commercial at the top of 2020 that carried me through this
12:27entire pandemic. And you know, something that we're told as models in general, but especially
12:32as black plus size models is that we cannot do beauty. I'm currently a part of an Ulta beauty
12:38campaign that's nationwide. And I also booked that in the middle of a pandemic. So it's
12:44like God showing me that this is not only what I want to do, but what he wants for me and
12:49that it's my purpose. And that's been the most incredible thing for me.
12:53And we love that for you. Congratulations.
12:55Congratulations.
12:56Simi.
12:58All right. So I think I'll probably start with
13:05being featured in Vogue.
13:12It wasn't for anything actually fashion related. It was actually for a campaign that was geared
13:19around like sexual assault and like reclaiming yourself after those things happen. And I was in
13:25my most vulnerable state during that photo shoot. I was like half naked in Vogue. And I was just like,
13:32what is going on? But it was such a defining moment for me because I had never seen people
13:40that look like me in Vogue, like people that have my body type that say the things that I do. So I
13:45feel like that was such a propelling moment. And then I want to say that the second part is being on
13:51the stage with these people because I truly just aim to be who I am, like on my platforms. I aim to just
14:03share parts of myself on my platforms. I never have like an agenda. So for things to actually continue
14:09happening, despite the fact that I don't even have a trajectory or trajectory of how things are
14:14going to go, like, is truly so inspiring to me. So yes, that's like the second part.
14:20Amazing. Takara?
14:23Everything's been a blessing. I mean, since I've, since, since been on America's Next Top Model,
14:28that changed my life, right? That changed my life even to this day. I mean, it's been 20 years
14:35since I was on America's Next Top Model and it's still carrying me through.
14:40Um, and I've, I've had a wonderful time. I've had a wonderful career, but I will say one of my best
14:46experiences was Italian Vogue. Period. Yes, when I did the Italian Vogue, the all black issue,
14:57and it was because they were saying that black models don't sell. We're not, you know, marketable.
15:03We don't sell things. And so they did a whole campaign and they had Stephen Mizell shoot it and
15:08we had all the top models, Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell. And, you know, it was just a list of,
15:14of supermodels that were in this magazine. And then I was in the magazine and I got 14 pages.
15:22So Naomi got 16. I got 14 pages. And when I shot them, when I shot this campaign, um, Pat McGraw,
15:30she did my makeup. Oh my God, she beat my face. And every single frame that we took,
15:36cause we're models, you know, you go and they pick, they pick your best picture and you don't
15:40even know how many pictures you're even going to get on in the, in the publication. Every single
15:47picture I took, they printed out, they put it on the board and it ended up in the publication.
15:52I was blown away. Amazing. I was blown away. But also what I want to just wrap up the second
15:59end of that question was what I learned from, from this business is that you got to always keep
16:07working and you got to build your own brand because we're, we're one gig, we're independent
16:13contractor. So we're going from one job to the next job. And you always think, Oh, this is going,
16:17this is going to be it. My life is going to change after this. Oh, I did. This is going to get better,
16:22but you got to keep working. Your life don't change overnight like that. It don't,
16:26you don't get what you think. You don't think you don't wake up the next day and everyone's
16:31beating at your door and everyone wants you, you know, you got to keep working and then you have to
16:36find out what you're passionate about and use that to help propel what it is that you're trying to do
16:41for your own brand. That is a fact. So before we close, I want updates. What do all of y'all have
16:51going on? What can we expect to see from you next? Chasity. Oh, okay. Um, so I'm, I'm so excited
16:59that I'm going to be in my first feature film this year. I'm going to be in a film. It's called
17:07a holiday chance. It will be in theaters this holiday. Like congratulations. So excited. I mean,
17:13it stars Nafisa Williams and Sharon Lill and Vanessa Bell Calloway and Richard Lawson. It's a
17:18Christmas film, which is my absolute dream come true. Um, and I'm a lead in the film and it's
17:24about black families that, you know, have made success, but then something happens and you have
17:30to come together. It's about two sisters that have been feuding their whole lives that have to work
17:35it out. So whether you have money or you don't, everybody across the board is going to feel this
17:39movie. I truly believe it's going to be a new holiday classic. And I'm super grateful that I'm
17:46getting a chance to tell a black story because I think that it's so important to be a part of
17:52projects that help push the culture forward and that show black families that are wealthy and happy,
17:58but then things do happen and you have to pull together and you have to find that love and they
18:03have to save their family and their business. And it's going to be incredible. So I'm just really,
18:08really excited that this is my first feature film. Congratulations.
18:10Thank you. Ms. Takara. Oh yes. So I have Takara Jones intimate apparel.
18:19She does. I'm wearing one of my pieces this evening. I also have a swimsuit line and I also
18:25do masterclasses online. Love that. Simi? Well, I'm on NDA, so I can't say anything yet, but I do have a few projects.
18:38I know, right? I do have a few projects coming out in the fall. And then other than that, I mean,
18:43you can see me bopping around New York City, like minding my business, you know.
18:47Ladies, this has been so much fun. Can y'all please give it up for our panelists? Thank you,
18:57thank you, thank you so much. Essence Fashion House, happy New York Fashion Week. Thank y'all for being
19:05here with us. I'm Kelly Augustine. Thank you, Kelly. Love y'all. You're amazing. We love you.
19:10Bye.
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