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When Maeling Tapp made her first YouTube video a few years ago, she was nervous. Would anyone watch? Would everyone wonder why she felt the need to share the journey of her transition from chemically processed hair to hair in its natural state? Would anyone care? As it turns out “going natural” — a term that has come to describe the decision and process of many African-American women to stop chemically processing their textured hair — proved to be a hot topic among the myriad beauty tips offered online.

By Linda Jerkins Favorite finds this week include gear for modern guys, candles for a wine fan and a calendar to help you manage the months ahead in this fresh new year. Wallets with wow Birmingham-based Vvego International makes go-to men’s accessories that impress and protect.

Nicki Minaj was a little wobbly Sunday as she tiptoed on stage in sky-high patent leather heels to accept her first American Music Award for best rap/hip-hop artist; but her hair, a cascade of fluffy pink pin curls, was pure perfection. In the pantheon of new pop stars known for their signature style, Minaj is taking hair to new heights.

Sixteen years ago, Greg Alterman was a traveling salesman of sorts, selling his line of cotton caps and T-shirts from the trunk of his car and spreading his message of absolute comfort across Atlanta. When Alternative Apparel became one of the go-to T-shirt brands for designers and wholesalers seeking the perfect blank canvas, business boomed.

Family owned and operated department stores with a presence in multiple states are something of a relic on the American retail scene, but they do exist. On Saturday, one such store, Von Maur, an Iowa-based department store founded in 1872, makes its Southeastern premiere at Alpharetta's North Point Mall.

Growing up in South Florida, Alli Webb, learned first hand how perilous humidity could be to a blowout. Back then, she depended on her mom to straighten her curly hair. Today, Webb has made the art of the blow dry her business. Drybar, a specialty salon featuring $35 blowouts (with wash included), opens Tuesday in Atlanta.

Smack in the middle of New York City on the shoppers' paradise known as Fifth Avenue, sits a four-level mecca of style that caters to young women around the world. The brown and white stripes of Henri Bendel marked the forefront of fashion in the early 1900s when store founder Henry Willis Bendel, a milliner by trade, decorated New York's elite in his accessories.

Georgia consumers have played it safe during this recession, but in September, retailers hope they will support the local economy with the return of Fashion’s Night Out. The global event — which includes celebrity appearances, special offers, fashion shows and more to inspire consumers to get out and shop — officially takes place Sept.

In 1973, the media reported rumblings of a major fashion upset. Five American designers and five French designers had shown their garments at the theater in Versailles to raise money for its restoration. “It was a joint benefit, then it turned into a battle,” said Bethann Hardison, one of the black models selected to walk in the show.

Appearances can deceive. The mammoth, 758-page Vogue fall fashion special issue that is lurching like a T. rex into metro Atlanta mailboxes and heaving onto newsstands right about now really doesn't weigh more than cover model Kate Moss. It only seems that way.

When Yolanda Owens gives clients her signature facial, they take one look at the platter of lettuce, cucumbers and avocado and ask the same question: "Can I eat it?" "I take it as a compliment because it means they have connected with what I said: If it is good enough to eat, it is good enough to put on your skin," said Owens, founder of IWI Fresh, a line of skin care made with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.

The work of Savannah College of Art and Design students will appear in ELLE magazine this fall and winter. The college is partnering with the magazine for the first time to feature fashion designs by students in the October and December issues. The work will also be featured in a runway show at New York City's Lincoln Center during Fashion Week in September.

Any business owner is concerned about the bottom line and Candis Rosier, owner of Remixx, a new boutique in Roswell is no different. But her pre-occupation with profits is about more than her own financial gain. Rosier donates a percent of store profits to local charities that help teenage girls.

We know that when it comes to prom, it’s all about the dress. The guys are usually at the mercy of their dates, forced to buy a cummerbund and bow tie in a matching shade to wear with a rented tuxedo. But lately, guys are taking a more personal approach to prom fashions.

If you’ve seen the spectacle that is the Running of the Brides, you know about the annual event where about 1,000 women abandon their manners and good fashion sense to get a deal on a wedding dress. But it’s more than the discount that draws mothers, sisters, friends and relatives to Filene’s Basement every year.

Makeup palettes are seductive, tempting women with the promise of paring their makeup routines to a few simple swipes of shadow, blush and gloss. But how many times have you purchased — with high hopes — one of those slim, sexy palettes only to find it months later, barely used, in the bottom of a drawer? Either something is missing, or that tangerine sparkle shadow that looked so yummy in the store just doesn’t work in real life.

For 50 years, the Ebony Fashion Fair fashion showcase was a staple in black communities around the country. The event – the only traveling fashion show to feature black models and often black designers – was discontinued in 2009 for economic reasons, but the high-end fashions that graced stages from Atlanta to London, live on in the personal vault of show producer and creator, the late Eunice W.

Samantha Aromin is 8 years old, and the best way to describe her is, well, girlie girl. She loves high-heeled shoes, nail polish and lip gloss about as much as she loves Barbie, which is a whole lot. “Mommy, look,” she squealed the other day as she tried on a pair of neon green heels with feathers.

Department stores were a big deal when Debbie Hannah's mom would take her and her siblings to the J.C. Penney in Columbus for shopping trips. But her memories of the stores back then could be summed up in two words, "old fashioned," said the 52-year-old, who lives in Buckhead.

In the morass of retail stretching across Dunwoody, there is scarcely a big-box store that is not represented. When women's clothing is the object of desire, the options seem endless. But the customer seeking a more personal experience and more edited selection has to search harder for what she wants.

For many years, Ann Taylor has been the go-to spot for career separates, but just who is Ann Taylor anyway? The brand takes its name from a bestselling dress style in the shop once owned by Richard Liebeskind’s father, a specialty retailer in Connecticut.

September is a very important month in the world of fashion and beauty. For Bertrand and Mathilde Thomas, founders of French beauty brand Caudalíe, it could be considered make it or break it time. The wine harvest in the major wine regions of France begins each September providing Caudalíe with the raw materials for their skincare products.

For McCall Wilder, design has always been a family affair. “I was really lucky,” said the Athens native. “My grandmom lived in Atlanta, and she had a sewing club. I used to come in [to town] all the time, and I learned to sew when I was little. I particularly loved the hand embroidery, which more people were doing at the time.

Surrounded by Atlanta style-setters including jodphur-wearing pop singer Janelle Monae, Project Runway contestant Mychael Knight and former NBA star Kevin Willis, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced Monday that  the city will be part of a worldwide fashion promotion event called Fashion’s Night Out.

Fierce fashion and generous giving are the goals for the annual Jeffrey Fashion Cares event on Aug. 30. Now in its 18^th year, the event—held at new venue 12th & Midtown—will spotlight special guest designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of it-label Proenza Schouler during a couture runway show and play host to honorary chair Sara Blakely, the Atlanta entrepreneur who founded SPANX.