Happy Haitian Flag Day

Happy Haitian Flag Day to all my fellow haitians and those celebrating Haitian Pride Month (which is all of May)! Yesterday at around 12pm, I realized that tomorrow was May 18th and I didnt have quite the perfect concept for todays post. I wanted to do something creative, different and fun, so I quickly g-chatted my photographer, Sig and he immediately responded with LIGHT PAINTING! For those unaccustomed to this, its a long exposure type photography in complete darkness and you use lights to illuminate what you would like to show up in the image. It is really super duper cool to do minus the fact that you have to stay perfectly still for 20seconds to 1 minute depending on the shot. Heck sometimes longer! We met at 9:45pm in a field near Baltimore and got to work. We used fire to make sparks and I even wrote the "I love Haiti" picture below using led lights. Please do not let the brightness of the sky fool you, it was about 11pm when that picture was taken. What I love about Sig is the fact that he wants to change it up and offer typical blogger photography to showcase an outfit, as well as some fun, creative shoots as well. Haitian Flag Day was the absolute PERFECT debut in my opinion of a full light painting shoot on my blog and 

I really hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!! 

L'Union Fait la Force and this little fashion blogger is by far rockin her Haitian Flag colors all day today. As you have read in previous posts, I am as proud as proud comes when it comes to ethnicity!!

The Have and Have Nots with Tika Sumpter

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the press reception and screening for Tyler Perry's new show Have and Have Nots on the OWN network. I am not a huge TV show watcher and well to be honest, rarely watch TV but I am a HUGE fan of Tika Sumpter. Ever since One Life to Live and then of course Gossip Girl, I always felt as if she was one of the "celebs" that would be so down to earth and be truly friendly and not just for a publicity opp. She has that certain je ne sais quois and I am happy to report she really is the humble, gracious and STUNNING person that I imagined. It really is not an illusion, she is a girls girl! Right before we snapped the picture above, my straps were showing and she stopped what she was doing, tucked them into my shirt, spruced me up a bit and then we posed for the photographers. I am never star struck but after that small gesture, I had a moment.

One that will stick with me forever and I am a fan for life of the fabulous Ms. Sumpter.

I attended the event with Kizzy and just had a blast getting ready with her and seeing all her AMAZING vintage finds. Her condo is seriously the best vintage boutique I have ever ventured out to and I know she is going to be ridiculously successful with her reselling. We arrived at B.Smiths in Union Station and met up with Oby from HPS and sipped wine and did everything we could not to sweat off our makeup. It was a typical humid DC day but I will take it over the chill that was in the forecast on Monday. As I am typing this, I have tears in my eyes.... For once in my life I feel a sense of calm, security and just pure bliss. I have some of the most amazing, genuine, and supportive friends and family. I really have no words to describe how important and how much I value every single person I call a friend. You guys are the absolute best and everything I do, 

I do for you and my family! 

Thank you for encouraging me and being my cheerleaders.

Milles Merci to Lou, Elle, Oby (Vivi), Kizzy, Juanita, Shaun, Vee, Sig, Alexia, Vogue, Stephanie, Monroe, Kibbie and Avery for always pushing me to be better, being brutally honest with me, and keeping me sane through my insanity. I love you all more than you could EVER know!

Still Fabulous in Flats

photo credit: Avery Kinney post-processing: Jennifer Jean-Pierre

I am such a hypocrite. Yup, I said it. I am a hypocrite. I went into a "rant" once about bloggers taking pics with jackets slung over their shoulders. I tried it once and it was so awkward. I felt like they were trying to be posers.... until I became a poser too. Yesterday rushing out of the office to snap pics at lunch, I casually slung my trench coat over my shoulders and headed out. Avery, my photographer du jour started snapping away and I wanted him to stop so I could actually put on my jacket. Well, I didnt put it on and it was still comfy and the pics turned out well. So yes, I admit it. I was wrong. But let me disclose though, with all the layers I had on, the arms of this trench were beyond snug and had entered circulation cutting off territory and gosh darn it, I wanted to be warm. Oh and Im rocking flats because I took my 3 Whole Foods bags full of shoes home and had no heels to rock with this ensemble. I kind of liked it though because i was able to prance around comfortably all day. 

Hail to the pointed toe flats!!!!!!

DC Ely Flag Football and a DC Fashion Blogger

Hello, my name is Jen and I am a fashion blogger who plays contact flag football. I add the contact part in it because we get blocked and "tackled"(those flags aren't always easy to pull off) without wearing any pads. Previously I posted pictures of me on the field after an interception and well... I got yanked, pulled, punched square in the jaw and then finally tackled. I loved every single physical minute of it. Call me crazy but life happens on that field! Because of the toughness of flag football, we have to rely on any additional natural padding our bodies give us. I love this sport with all of my heart and I love the girls I play with. On Saturdays I also play on a co-ed team but that is not as physically demanding as all girls but still very fun. People always assume that those who are passionate about fashion are girly girls... I am definitely into fashion and I am definitely a girly girl, but the minute I hit that football field, I feel like I become a different being. I have gotten hurt. I have also hurt others. I am far more intense in co-ed than all girls but its probably because I am still learning it every single time I am on that field. In co-ed I have guys come up to me on a regular basis about my intensity and trash talking. Yes, I will pull a guys flag with the quickness and talk mad smack to his face about it. I am a woman playing a man's sport! Like I said before though I love this sport! I have met some of my closest friends through football and have met some of the most evil people as well. I started off playing football on a team named Lady Elite. I never played a single game with them and did not even have a jersey but I still include them in my football resume because I love the girls and well I did go to 2 practices and 1 scrimmage lol. If I was there solely for the social aspect of the game, I would have stayed but I knew I needed more fundamentally. At the time they weren't able to offer that. I decided to play my first all-girls football season with a team named Lady Falcons. They are an extremely solid team but unfortunately the coach has not quite learned personnel management and would rather run a few of his faves into the ground playing offense and defense than use the talent on his bench. I am not a great football player (yet) but I am not bench material either so I had to do what was right for me and find a team that I could learn and use my skills. A new team was formed named Ballerz United and they were the answer to my problem..... or so I thought. We had intense practices where we went over fundamentals from start to finish. We had decent coaches and talented players. Unfortunately as time went by we noticed that some of our coaches are not on the same page as the rest of us. One of my coaches, Kitt this is for you, is AMAZING! He will work with you till your legs are numb and he will scream at you till you go deaf but he will NEVER ever stop encouraging you and being in your corner. He does not talk out of the side of his mouth and he doesn't bad mouth any of his players. He will come to you with anything and offer his help. He not only tells us he wants to see us succeed but he does all he can to give us the tools to do so. Besides the girls on the team, he is the ONLY reason I am still with Ballerz United. Its evident that whenever you get a group of women together there will always be drama. That is a given. Its just nature for us to be catty and hormonal but its tough when you cannot always count on all your leadership. But alas we are all humans and cannot be perfect. In the end we have to be a family, one way or another. But..... I am not here to rant or vent. I just wanted to share with all of you what I do on the weekends and why I love flag football so much. As much as I try to make fashion events on Saturdays and Sundays, its not always feasible for me because I am on the field. Huge thanks to Elle and Sig for coming to a few of my games and supporting me.

 I appreciate you more than you know. 

You can see below what happens Any Given Sunday at Deanwood Rec in good ole DC.............

I sincerely adore almost all of the ladies I have met but I really want to highlight a few:

Vogue Ellis:

 You are my girl. Through and through. Saturday we ball together and Sunday we ball on opposing teams but in the end I love you!

Ceci: 
We are on opposing teams always but guess what I learn SO MUCH from watching you. You improve every single game and are truly an inspiration!
The Lady Elite girls.. "cs":
 You guys make me laugh and smile every time I see you. I love how tight knit you are and how fun you make football.
Juanita, Vee, Shaun
 there are NO words... you guys are my roll dawgs and my heart. You keep me sane and going when I really just want to show my West Indian side and tell everyone where to stick it lol

Spring Style Guide: Black and White

Simple outfits always look the classiest. And well there is nothing simpler or classier than a classic black and white ensemble. I wore this outfit to attend and speak at the Swap in the Cit event in DC last night and it was a VERY well thrown together affair. Although I did not bring anything to swap out, it was really nice to chat about spring trends and scour the pop up shops!

DC Fashion Event: Swap in the City

Hey all-

Come join me tonight for the Swap in the City event in DC. Yours truly along with other style experts will be offering advice on spring trends and how to incorporate them into your wardrobe! 

Can you guess which spring trend is my favorite??

Jenni Jehanne

I Really Love My........

One of my favorite magazines to browse through for sartorial inspiration is People Style Watch. I love how they fill their pages with tons of products, pictures and clothes while not seeming like a chaotic cluster fudge of a publication. I have been a loyal subscriber for years and they were one of my very first twitter follows when I joined that social media channel. With that said, I really enjoy the "I Really Love My..." section that they do showcasing fashion and celeb stars wearing pieces they really love. How do you know they really love them? Because the magazine takes pics of them at various events, locales and times in their life to see what they are rocking on a consistent basis. I recycle alot of my clothing and try to rework them as much as possible... I'm ballin on a budget and well, I really like some of the things that I own. With that said here are 2 excerpts from this new fun series on the blog. Here is your chance to chime in.... what is something that you currently own that you "really love" and how often do you rock it???