MOESHA !

Everybody say... Moesha! I almost tilted this blog post Ceesha (Ce- esha), but obviously, I decided against it! The cringe level was beyond high, damn near earth-shattering. Let’s get into why in the world I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to Moesha, I know the suspense is killing you.

Recently a friend of mine hosted a “dress like your favorite rapper/ R&B artist” 25th birthday soiree. Although the concept of this party was super dope, I couldn’t think of one artist that I could pull off with such short notice. If you know anything about me you know that I’m super meticulous so my costume had to be in full character from head to toe. I originally wanted to portray Trina, Megan Thee Stallion or one of my all-time favs Lil Kim, but I wasn’t willing to take out my luxurious goddess braids! After a few moments of brainstorming, I decided that I should time travel back to 1996 to channel my inner Moesha!

For all of my uncultured folks, Moesha is a sitcom tailored around R&B superstar Brandy Norwood. The sitcom Moesha focused on the life and growing pains of Moesha Mitchell, a teenager living with her newly blended family in LA as she juggled school, friendships, and love. From 1996- 2001, Moesha was another opportunity for young black girls to see ourselves on the big screen.

Brandy Norwood’s iconic character Moesha was beyond stylish and because of Moesha’s wide-ranged wardrobe, it was sort of difficult to capture the true essence of her style! The simplest way for me to describe Moesha’s style would be to think of Dionne from Clueless with a lot more flava! Dionne from clueless + Justice from poetic Justice = Moesha!

I’ve crowned myself a connoisseur of all things 90’s pop culture and fashion! So, of course, I got a kick out of searching for gems to put my Moesha inspired outfit together, check out this video about my most recent thrift store finds.

Yolanda Braddy was one of the costume designers for the show, and she was responsible for many of the iconic Moesha looks. One thing that made Moesha’s wardrobe so dope was the fact that many of the designers that were worn on the show were black-owned brands in which some became a household name. Yolanda really put mainstream America on to a lot of our black-owned clothing brands like Pyer Moss, Iceberg, FUBU, Karl Kani, Enyce and many many more. Aside from some of our favorite black-owned apparel brands, Moesha wore many other designers who are now housed hold names like Tommy Hilfiger, FILA and Christian Louboutin which was just launching!

Yes, Moesha was entertaining, but it was more than just a sitcom for little black girls. Although there are a lot more brown faces in media today, representation in media has always been something people of color have had to fight for so for Brandy to be able to not only have her own sitcom but for it to be successful for so many years was an awesome sight to see. To not only Brandy but the women of color who have been breaking down barriers for the rest of us brown beauties, I thank you.

Mo to the E to the

Mo to the E to the

Up in the morning

A new day is starting

It's me, it's me

Am I realizing my responsibility?

It's me

My best friend is always on my mind

You wanna be down for mine

I gotta do, what I gotta do

I gotta move on

Moesha

Moesha

Moesha!