Queen Latifah is the newest face of Good American magazine’s latest American Icons campaign.

The seller posted on Instagram on October 24 announce the decorated star of music and screen is his newest face.

“Introducing American icon @queenlatifah for the good American. “Queen is a true pioneer who has redefined the entertainment industry by pushing boundaries in music, film and television,” the company wrote.

Captured by renowned photographer Cass Bird and styled by Julia Sarr-Jamois, the campaign features Queen Latifah in a fall-inspired look that harks back to her iconic ’90s “Living Single” style, with comfortable blazers and jeans that she wears with a contemporary accent.

“What makes an icon? Being so good at being who you’re that individuals say, “Damn, who is that?” Latifah says in a campaign video shared on Instagram.

“I defend women. I choose my beautiful Blackness. I stand for humanity,” she continued.

Queen Latifah was the perfect selection for the campaign that crown blazing a trail of ladies who defied convention to make an enduring impact and open doors for women around the world, she noted. New icon collection, which incorporates in sizes XXS to 5XL, prices range from $59 for T-shirts to $269 for faux leather trench coats.

“American icon Queen Latifah is a trailblazer who redefined entertainment by pushing boundaries in music, film and television,” Good American said in a press release. “With Grammy Awards, an Oscar nomination and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, her legacy of strength and power inspires everyone to embrace their individuality. We are honored to recognize her as a true embodiment of what it means to be an icon.”

New campaign follows a. Queen Latifahannouncement of the biopic he is producing along with his Flavor Unit Entertainment partner Shakim Compere, in association with Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Jesse Collins Entertainment. The enterprise highlights the importance of hip-hop and the way it helped launch their profession.

“We all entered this industry together, and hip hop has shaped each of us,” Latifah and Compere said in a press release announcing the project and collaboration with their longtime friend Will Smith.

“Hip hop’s influence goes beyond the music itself and has left an enduring impression on culture and society as a complete. The dream is to give you the option to collaborate with friends and colleagues who not only share a typical understanding, but are capable of tell the stories which have been the backdrop to our lives.

The latest addition to her pioneering portfolio is last week’s receipt of the 2023 National Medal of Arts from President Joe Biden. During a non-public ceremony at the White House, Queen Latifah was amongst nine winners, becoming the second rapper, after Missy Elliot, to receive this high honor.

Missy and Queen accepted the awards together as the pandemic delayed presenting the awards to the 2022 winners at the ceremony until this 12 months.

“And a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my sister @IAMQUEENLATIFAH who deserves all the bouquets she too was honored with today!” Missy wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for breaking down the QUEEN door for me and those after you🙏🏾🫶🏾”

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) – Alfred Mamba remembers the madness that gripped the Zaire soccer stadium now generally known as Congoas the hard-fought heavyweight title fight lasted eight rounds between the underdog Muhammad Ali and the seemingly invincible George Foreman.

“It was a big party,” Mamba said, recalling his father, certainly one of the founders of Congo’s boxing federation, taking him to a fight when he was 15.

Looking through a stack of photos he believed were taken during the fight, Mamba recalled the stadium erupting as Ali and Foreman got here out for the long-awaited ” Rumble in the jungle ”, as the competition was commonly called.

“When Foreman was throwing punches, the audience was screaming,” recalls Mamba, now a boxing referee. “But Ali surprised everyone with his hook technique. And how he boxed on the ropes. And voila, that’s how he won the fight.”

The hysteria of the crowd followed the series of blows until Ali’s last blow. It also created a brand new generation of fighters and fans who were inspired to maintain the country on the world boxing stage.

Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the Ali vs. Foreman fight, boxers and fans from across Africa descended on Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo, for the just concluded twenty first African Amateur Boxing Championships, during which the Stade des Martyrs stadium and primary roads were illuminated.

Landry Matete Kankonde, who represented Congo in the men’s heavyweight division, lost to Karamba Kebe of Senegal, but said he still dreams of becoming the next Ali, crediting the 1974 fight with putting Congo on the map.

“The next superstar will be me,” Kankonde, 24, said with a giant smile on his face.

But in this impoverished country of 110 million people, most of them young, people like Kankonde fight against adversity to succeed in the highest level.

Although Congo is certainly one of Africa’s most successful boxing nations, it still lacks proper sports infrastructure reminiscent of a gymnasium for the national team, leaving a lot of them to coach in open spaces, Mamba said.

In the eastern region, where a deadly security crisis has resulted in certainly one of the world’s worst humanitarian disastersmany can only dream of getting out of conflict zones and IDP camps to get to an official competition in a distant capital.

Even in Kinshasa, amateurs often train on roadsides and streets without equipment, hiding and moving their arms as they execute their shots.

“Congo is a country where people are motivated by the suffering we experience here,” Kankonde said. “Every time a Congolese boxer gives his all, it gives us strength to see what we go through here.”

The 1974 fight was certainly one of boxing’s most memorable moments.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the Congolese dictator who desired to put the (*50*) African nation in the highlight, partnered with organizers to bring the competition to the country, committing $5 million to the fight.

Just before dawn on October 30, 1974, as soldiers with machine guns surveyed the ringside crowd and an enormous portrait of Mobuto towering over the Stade des Martyrs, spectators from around the world watched the 32-year-old Ali fight – longing for a comeback after being stripped of his world title for refusing to be drafted into the military for the Vietnam War – and the then undefeated 25-year-old Foreman.

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Many believed Ali had no probability against Foreman because he had been out of the ring for years after being sanctioned.

“People were praying before the fight that Ali wouldn’t die,” said Bill Caplan, Foreman’s public relations specialist in Zaire.

“I think it was one of the top 10 upsets in boxing,” Ed Schuyler Jr., a longtime boxing author for The Associated Press who was in Congo to cover the fight, said of Ali’s victory.

The fight ended with Ali dropping Foreman in the eighth round, but that was only the starting of the passion for the sport amongst many Congolese. “From then on, everyone wanted to learn boxing,” Mamba said. He was inspired by each competitions and his father, also a judge.

Congo has continued to thrive for 50 years, producing boxing champions reminiscent of Sumbu Kalambay, a Congolese-Italian champion who held the World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight world title in the Eighties, and Junior Ilunga Makabu, who held the title WBC cruiserweight in the early Twenties.

People in this country proceed to fall in love with the sport, including Josue Loloje, who was amongst the spectators at the Kinshasa stadium during the African Championships.

“The Ali vs. Foreman fight is the foundation of the talent emerging in Congolese boxing,” Loloje said between fights. “It all started there.”

Nigel Xavier, a rising star in sustainable fashion, has taken the industry by storm with his revolutionary approach to upcycling. Upcycling is an environmentally friendly approach that mixes the ideas of “modernization” (adding value) and “recycling” (repurposing). It involves rethinking waste or discarded items and remodeling them into recent, precious products.

Best often known as the winner of the Netflix competition, Xavier rose to fame by combining the popular culture aesthetics of the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s with his signature patchwork designs. His works stand out for his or her visual appeal and deep-rooted sustainability, a worth he values. Now, in partnership with Meta, Xavier is bringing his style to the world of faculty football through his “Super Fan” program Artificial intelligence meets fashion and fandom.

Xavier’s fashion journey began with the necessity to precise himself differently despite limited resources. “I wanted to dress differently, but I didn’t have money for clothes,” explains Xavier BLACK ENTERPRISES.

“So I went to my closet and started rearranging everything, bleaching it, aging it, dyeing it.”

This creative improvisation laid the muse for his distinctive form of transforming existing clothes into original pieces by enhancing their essential details. Research shows that as much as 50-80% of this waste could be transformed into recent clothing by exploring upcycling methods and using surplus materials.

“I didn’t have much, so I used what I had,” he recalled, “adding lots of pockets or straps, highlighting features that excited me.” The ability to remodel what already exists into something completely recent is on the core of his brand.

As a part of the “Super Fan” campaign, Xavier created a limited-edition University of Texas (UT) tracksuit designed specifically for superfans preparing for game day. Using Meta AI, it has artificial intelligence to enhance its designs.

“I was able to develop questions that I didn’t know the answers to before,” says Xavier. “It’s like having a second mind – an assistant – that cuts down on the time it takes to research and dig deeper into what makes a fan base like UT Austin’s so special.”

Meta AI allowed him to tap into the culture and traditions of those fan communities, sourcing the whole lot from slogan T-shirts to symbols representing the team and incorporating these elements into his designs. “I wanted to use as many graphics as possible and make a statement, but at the same time keep the clothes cozy and simple in silhouette,” he adds, emphasizing the balance between daring graphics and luxury.

Xavier’s collaboration with Meta goes beyond a University of Texas sweatshirt. Meta has partnered with emerging athletes and fans who’re using artificial intelligence to reinforce their game day experiences. While Xavier uses Meta AI to create distinctive game day fashion, other creators, akin to rapper and TV personality Action Bronson, use it to design recipes for football viewing parties.

Xavier sees this collaboration with Meta as a solution to enhance his already unique approach to fashion, allowing him to streamline his creative process while exploring recent possibilities. “I can ask (Meta AI) something as specific as what stitch I should use, and it will give me thousands of options to expand on,” says Xavier. This dynamic interaction with artificial intelligence gave him a brand new perspective on materials and design techniques, helping him understand what works best for every element while staying true to his ethos of sustainability.

For Xavier, sustainability is greater than only a trend – it’s a core value that permeates every aspect of his work. According to Politician The Research Department predicts that the revenue share of sustainable clothing globally, including recycled clothing, will increase from 4.3% in 2022 to six.14% in 2026.

“When I use ready-made clothes, everything is already prepared,” she says. “I just take what he has to offer and make it my way.” His commitment to upcycling, the strategy of reusing existing materials into recent works, is a component of what makes his designs so appealing to a generation of eco-conscious consumers. And as fashion trends increasingly move towards sustainability, Xavier is on the forefront of this movement, proving that style and responsibility can coexist.

In his latest work, Xavier draws inspiration from the world of sport, and specifically football, which he describes as characterised by a “fierce culture”.

“When you think about football, you think about how excited everyone is,” he says. “It’s like a mascot – people want to show they’re part of something bigger, but they also want to look cool while doing it.” His limited-edition UT sweatshirt reflects this mentality, combining daring graphics with comfortable silhouettes to create an announcement and wearable look.

Xavier’s collaboration with Meta AI opened up recent creative possibilities and strengthened his commitment to maintaining the authenticity of his vision. “I have always been a unique designer,” he explains. “It’s about making an impression with every fit.”

Whether reinventing match style or turning recycled clothes into fashion pieces, Nigel Xavier proves that innovation, passion and purpose can improve the style industry. With Meta AI at your side, you are just getting began.