Starring in a slick editorial for Cr Fashion Book’s 7th issue, Empire actress Taraji P Henson, her cast-mate Jussie Smollett, model Henry Watkins and musician Jon Batiste are shot by Bruce Weber and appear in an equally as amazing short film.
Taraji is seen embraced by her co-star throughout the video, who join Mr Batiste by a piano to sing “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” with the actress wearing plenty of extravagant pieces, as styled by Carine Roitfeld, as well as wearing one standout accessory – her “weave hair,” leaving the star explaining that photographer Bruce;
“…Is photographing me in my most vulnerable state – women will never let you see them like this. Weave hair!
Fashion… fashion people are crazy.”
In the accompanying interview, Ms Henson tells Cr Fashion Book how her cornrows came to be part of the shoot, saying;
“I wear wigs a lot, especially for photo shoots. I have this girl Kendra who braids my hair. She braids so intricately, so beautifully. So I’m trying on the clothes and the silk scarf I have on my head slips off, and I say, ‘Hey, look at my cornrows, aren’t they beautiful?’
Bruce Weber is standing there and he goes, ‘We’ll shoot that.’ And I go,’What? We’ll shoot what?’ And he says, ‘We’ll shoot your hair just like that, it’s beautiful.’ And part of me was like, No, no, no, NO! This is the hair no one is supposed to see. This is like behind-closed-doors hair.
I feel naked. I feel like a plucked chicken…or a wet one. A baby chicken! But Bruce says to me, ‘It’s not about the hair, it’s your face.’ So I just decided to trust the artist’s vision. As an actress that’s what we do. We are vulnerable every time we put our art out there.
Underneath that hair is my soul, and it’s me, it’s mine.”
See Taraji P Henson owning those braids in the editorial below, plus the smooth and soulful short film with her Empire cast-mates for Cr Fashion Book‘s 7th issue here below – and don’t forget to tell us your thoughts online by tagging us @SPICETVAFRICA.
Video & image source: Crfashionbook.com
