9 Questions For... MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS

Happy NYC Fashion Week!

This post is the first of many on a super-duper fly guy or gal; revealing (what else?) their favorite people, places and things. That's right, every month, PPT will uncover the style recipe of a different individual through
9 Questions For...

Who better to kick things off than Michaela Angela Davis? This District of Columbia native (North West to be exact) has brought her unique (She'll pair a dashiki and stilettos to the office on a Monday.) style sensibility to the pages of a host of magazines including Essence, Honey, New York, Vanity Fair and Vibe. She's dressed folks like Mary J. Blige and Diana Ross. Presently, Ms. Davis is hard at work as a board member for Black Girls Rock! Inc. This non-profit mentoring organization was established for young women of color to help build their self-esteem and self-worth. PPT caught up with the self-proclaimed urbanista before she jetted off to South Africa Fashion Week. (Yeah, Bsquared was jealous too.) Read on to find out why you shouldn't sleep on amazon.com, how similiar b-boys are to MLK, Jr. and why your next vacation could happen a lot sooner than you planned.

PPT: Who are your fave people?
MAD: Martin Luther King, Jr. because even when he was being arrested, he still looked dapper and dignified. Folks who aren’t afraid to be who they are from Shirley Chilsom to Miles Davis to the hip-hop pioneers in the early 1980s in the South Bronx.

PPT: Where are your fave places?
MAD: Marakesh, Morocco. It seems like everything in me got right when I went there. It is like the center of the earth. I like places where cultures converge. But there are still a lot of places in the world left for me to see.

PPT: What are your fave things?
MAD: If I was only allowed to have one thing, I think it would have to be something alive. Like some sort of flower. So it would probably be lily of the valley or hydrangea. But, I don’t know -- I might have to have a pair of Christian Louboutins. Like the 6-inch [heel] joints just so I could remember what it feels like to be sexy. [laughs]

PPT: What’s been your biggest splurge?
MAD: Last year I purchased a pair of Azzedine Alia thigh high boots at retail. Even though I own things that were gifts that are more valuable like artwork, those have probably been my most expensive purchase. Still paying for them as a matter of fact.

PPT: Now, how about your ultimate budget find?
MAD: I got the Jean-Paul Goude Jungle Fever book for $60 on amazon.com when I had just seen it at a gallery for $850 two days before! I thought a zero was missing [from the price]. The book has all these great pictures in it of Grace Jones and Tookie Smith when they were his muses.

PPT: What’s the last book you read?
MAD: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy Degruy Leary. I like her - she’s cool.

PPT: Who are you listening to?
MAD: Recently, a lot of feel good, old-school happy music. Like Sly [and The Family Stone] and Stevie [Wonder]. But my song of the summer is Make Me Better by Fabolous and Ne-Yo. Finally there’s a song that is loving towards women from young guys. I guess I’m interested in being happy.

PPT: Your last vacay was to (not work related)?
MAD: Yesterday when I meditated. I really felt like I had transported myself somewhere quiet and serene. And I can go there for free. I’ve got frequent flier miles! [laughs]

PPT: What’s your definition of style?
MAD: When you make choices that are uninfluenced by anything other than your own self. When what you wear, what you eat, where you live, what you read, what you listen to is all the truth of who you say you are. People with real style are making choices closest to their own chest.