‘Off to Shop’ Illustration Print by Veronica Marché Miller

I created this illustration for my recent post on fashion’s relationship with African-American women. Now it’s available to buy as an illustration print in my RedBubble shop.

Click here to purchase the print, and don’t forget to browse around my shop to see what else strikes your fancy.

I’m SUPER excited to share this with you. This holiday season, by ‘Fabulous Brown Girls!’ holiday card collection will be sold in T.J. Maxx, Home Goods and Marshall‘s stores nationwide. EEK!

‘Fabulous Brown Girls’ is personal project I’ve been doing for a few years now. I heard my friends lamenting about the lack of cool, stylish holiday cards for women of color, sooooo…  I created them. And I began my own holiday tradition of selling them each year. My illustrated ladies became pretty popular, and now they’re going to be sold by three of my favorite stores. Couldn’t ask for a better Christmas gift.

An added bonus — there will also be ‘Fabulous Brown Girls!’ gift bags and wine bags. They’re incredibly well-made and roomy enough to hold all the holiday goodies you want to give your family and friends.

So… how can you get your hands on these lovely ladies? This holiday season, head to your nearest T.J. Maxx, Home Goods or Marshall’s and look for them in the Christmas section. The bags come in three sizes, and the cards come in boxes of 15.

And make sure you tweet me at @veronicamarche when you pick them up! Tell me who’s your favorite. I want to see you guys with your Fabulous Brown Girls.

I recently finished a very special piece that’s a departure from my usual fashion-focused illustrations.

This one is called “Maddie and the Butterfly” and I created it for the awesome 3-year-old niece of a very good friend.

I used my usual Prismacolor markers and pencils to create this full-color piece. I guess you could call this my first venture into children’s illustration. I hope Maddie loves it as much as I loved creating it!

Illustration by Veronica Miller.

It’s no secret that black women love fashion. Some of us grew up snuggling copies of Vogue or Glamour, trying to recreate model poses in front of the mirror. For others, the ladies at church set the example, with their majestic hats and incredible stiletto pumps stomping around the pews. And for a few more, we grew up with a cadre of mommies, aunties and grandmothers who passed down and passed around fur coats, silk scarves, designer bags and heirloom jewels.

Suffice it say, a black girl’s love affair with fashion is just as fervent as any other woman’s. But it comes with an unsettling awareness — as much as we may love those Vuitton handbags, those Chanel jackets, those Burberry coats, the folks that sell them to us insist on pretending we don’t exist.

Look at the runways — no, rather look at the fact that Jezebel has to keep an eye on the runway and call out the fact that the number of black women (and any other women of color) walking the catwalk is woefully low. Look at the fact that fashion brands become nervous when the “urban” (read: black) crowd becomes fond of them. Look at the fact that Prada’s use of black model in their fall ’13 campaign was hailed as some sort of ground-breaking accomplishment — when really, it was the first brown face that Prada employed in their ads in almost 20 years. That’s not really anything to be terribly proud of.

All of this is why I’m glad Fashionista.com ran an article asking the fashion industry, “What’s the effing deal, guys?” Jihan Forbes points out that black Americans spend an incredible amount of money on designer fashion — perhaps an alarming amount. But for all the free press that designers get when a popular black celebrity starts rocking their wares, fashion seems on insistent on acting like black high-end customers don’t exist. Forbes writes:

According to the Nielsen report, 73% of whites feel that blacks influence mainstream culture, even though they make up a much smaller segment of the population. But if black folks are determining what’s cool, why are brands so hesitant to add black faces in their ads, or even to their fashion shows?

Forbes follows with an unsettling list of reasons, from the tired “aesthetics” excuse for runway racism (“Black models would distract from the clothes!”) to the fear that attracting black customers means that a brand will alienate its “core” (read: white) customer base. (Or, more bluntly, the fear of bigoted customers taking their dollars elsewhere.)

At the same time, black consumers have the power to speak more with their dollar. Says one observer, “Why would a company spend money advertising to people who are going blindly buy their stuff anyway?” Because of the name recognition, high-end fashion companies don’t need to “convince” black customers to come into their stores or shop their web sites. So there’s no incentive to spending more money on targeted advertising.

Now, as a black women who love fashion, we’re thinking harder about who we’re giving our dollars too. It sucks that even shopping has to be a political act, but that’s how the world works when you’re an underrepresented minority. Luckily, there are a number of influencers, including Bethann Hardison and super-mogul Iman, who are spearheading the call for change. And there are a number of designers — Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford,  Tracy Reese and Catherine Malandrino among them — who gladly embrace diversity with open arms.

So for now, while fashion figures out its diversity problem, maybe its best for black fashion lovers simply to follow the old adage — Go (and spend your money) where you’re wanted.