Braids, beads, crimps and curls is the best way to describe the action that takes place at Braided, a Crown Heights hair salon specializing in braided hairstyles owned by celebrity braider Xia Charles.
During a recent visit, the salon was filled with models as Charles and her stylists prepared for their New York Fashion Week showcase, The Darling Salon: Where Fashion + Hair Collide on Sept. 6 at Manhattan's Lume Studios.
The show is a collaboration between Darling Hair, a textured hair extension company, Hype Hair magazine and African Pride, a Black-led natural hair care line. The show features clothing designs from Joseph McRae and Hulu’s Dress My Tour winner, Keiandrea Daniels, also known as K. Daniels Designs.
The fashion show includes 18 models, nine for each designer, according to Charles. Beforehand, Charles sat down with each designer to create a mood board for each of the looks. This way, the designers and hairstylists could know the theme and direction they wanted the styles to go.
Some styles included traditional braiding techniques like cornrows and a three-strand braid, to braids that mimicked other hairstyles like finger waves.
“I wanted to marry the hair with the clothes,” explained Charles, the founder of Braided and head stylist.
“Of course, this is their time to shine, right? So, I didn't want to overshadow rather than to compliment it, [I] just [want] to marry the two. I don't want it to look like a hair show. I want braids to look like fashion because braids look like fashion,” she added.
This isn’t Charles’ first NYFW showcase. In fact, alongside her various fashion week showcases, Charles has worked with popular icons like Cardi B and Beyoncé for the Black Is King visual album.
She attributes her love for braiding to her family while growing up. At an early age, while living in Trinidad and Tobago, Charles would lay on her grandmother’s back to braid her hair— a skill she learned from her mother before she migrated to the United States.
“Xia and Braided have really been very critical to introducing Darling Hair to the U.S.," explained Jazzmene Ford, senior brand manager at African Pride. “She's been a brand ambassador for Darling [since] we debuted it in America in 2021. She has been just a key part of pushing the brand messaging.”
With the fashion show, Charles hoped that the stylists at her store, many of whom she trained, would get the opportunity to experiment with the diversity of braids and participate in the show.
Many of her stylists have never participated in a fashion show before, which makes this moment even more special for Charles.
“It's prideful,” Charles explained when asked about her stylists' progress. “A lot of them, how they start, they know how to braid it…but it's just like fine-tuning it. To see what they're doing now, with little guidance from me, I would say like they could show their creativity. It's just a prideful feeling."
