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1. “We Were Eight Years 
in Power” by Ta-Nehisi

6B — Thursday, January 4, 2018
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Best Style Moments 2017 Best Books of the year

PIRELLI’S

The Pirelli corporation has 
been 
publishing 
artistically-
inclined calendars since 1964, 
but none have made a statement 
as great as their 2018 project, 
unveiled in November of 2017. 
Shot by the legendary Tim 
Walker, “The Cal” features an 

all-Black cast in an adaptation 
of 
“Alice’s 
Adventures 
in 
Wonderland.” TV personality 
RuPaul makes for a spellbinding 
Queen of Hearts, model Duckie 
Thot stole our hearts as Alice and 
the aforementioned Slick Woods 
portrays an eerily convincing 

Mad Hatter. If it’s not obvious 
yet, this is about far more than 
a calendar: In 2017, Pirelli 
reminded the fashion industry 
that minorities have every right 
to their own beautiful narratives.

—Tess Garcia, Daily Style Editor

1. Pirelli’s 2018 calendar

In October, Dutch designer 
Liselore Frowijn threw Paris 
Fashion Week for a loop: Not 
only was her Spring Summer 
2018 show bereft of celebrities, 
but the rising star used the 
runway 
as 
an 
opportunity 
for social commentary. The 

20-look production celebrated 
Mexican culture with vibrant 
patterns, 
billowy, 
climate-
appropriate 
separates 
and 
frequent 
reference 
to 
the 
nation’s flag. Stoic faces of 
models boasted phrases like 
“Batalla” and “No Wall,” an 

obvious dig at the Trump 
administration. That’s a bold 
move for a talent as fresh as 
Frowijn, who earned her BA in 
2013, and it certainly paid off. 
Look out for this one.

—Tess Garcia, Daily Style Editor

2. Liselore Frowijn SS18

In October, Dutch designer 
Liselore Frowijn threw Paris 
Fashion Week for a loop: Not 
only was her Spring Summer 
2018 show bereft of celebrities, 
but the rising star used the 
runway as an opportunity for 
social commentary. The 20-look 

production celebrated Mexican 
culture with vibrant patterns, 
billowy, 
climate-appropriate 
separates and frequent reference 
to the nation’s flag. Stoic faces 
of 
models 
boasted 
phrases 
like “Batalla” and “No Wall,” 
an obvious dig at the Trump 

administration. That’s a bold 
move for a talent as fresh as 
Frowijn, who earned her BA in 
2013, and it certainly paid off. 
Look out for this one.

—Tess Garcia, Daily Style 
Editor

3. Fenty Beauty release

It’s still unclear how Virgil 
Abloh evolved from a Kanye 
West background player into 
an A-list fashion influencer in 
just two short years. However, 
it couldn’t be any clearer that 
2017 belonged to him: After 
designing 
limited 
edition 
concert merchandise for Travis 
Scott, 
guest-speaking 
at 
a 
series of Ivy League colleges 
(including 
Harvard) 
and 
watching his staple clothing 
label (OFF-WHITE) be anointed 

a GQ-darling, Abloh linked with 
Nike for a collaborative sneaker 
collection. Unsurprisingly, the 
resulting 
kicks 
became 
the 
year’s most-hyped.
Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” 
collection was first teased on 
Twitter, where the creative 
director spent months sharing 
photographs of his re-designed 
Air Jordan 1s prior to their 
official release. In the shots, 
many of which became viral 
hits, he’s shown scribbling well-

known nicknames (such as “Air 
La Flame” for Travis Scott) on 
pairs’ rubber soles — a subtle 
sign of customization which 
doubled as organic marketing. 
When the collection finally 
dropped though, it featured 
remixes of nine other iconic 
Nike classics from Abloh and 
sold out instantly, crashing the 
brand’s SNKRS release platform 
in the process.

—Sal DiGioia, Daily Arts Writer

4. “The Ten” collection

All in a year’s work for 
Slick 
motherf*cking 
Woods. 
Nick Remsen’s profile of Slick 
Woods, an androgynous, gap-
toothed model who this year 
rose to fame, is short and sweet, 
but its mere existence speaks 
wonders. In 2017, it became 
possible 
for 
norm-defying 

beauties like Woods to grace 
fashion’s 
most 
prestigious 
runways, to be featured in 
global 
makeup 
campaigns 
(more on Fenty Beauty above) 
and, put bluntly, to be in Vogue 
(double entendre intended). A 
bald-headed, tomboyish woman 
of color has been dubbed “the 

Face of the New American 
Style” by the world’s most 
respected fashion publication. 
Together, Remsen and Woods 
have left a permanent wound 
on the face of conventional 
fashion.

—Tess Garcia, Daily Style Editor

5. Woods’s Vogue editorial

Lil Uzi Vert had a wildly 
successful year — one that 
few artists in history have 
matched blow-for-blow. After 
opening for The Weeknd on 
Starboy’s European tour, the 
Philadelphia-raised 
crooner 
enjoyed a summer residency 
atop Billboard charts (with 
breakout hit “XO Tour Llif3” 
spending 39 weeks on the 
scoreboard) and even earned 
a number one album (via his 
major-label debut, Luv Is Rage 
2). Still though, the most talked-
about aspect of Uzi’s viral fame 
this year was his obscure, 
often 
close-to-the-edge 

style. His rise to prominence 
perfectly coincides with the 
reemergence 
of 
emo-trendy 
and, as a rainbow-haired sad-
boy who’s effectively paved 
his own lane in hip hop, Uzi is 
a figurehead of the movement.
Known 
for 
crossing 
boundaries in song, dress and 
syntax, Lil Uzi Vert hardly 
deviated from his norm when 
he posed for a now-famous 
photograph while donning a 
pink, striped Valentino blouse, 
a white-gold, spiked choker 
and a Guoyard bag over his 
shoulder. Of course, the photo 
made waves online, evolving 

into an iconic meme within 
the hip-hop community and 
earning threads of backlash 
from veteran emcees (who 
argued that Uzi looked soft). 
Yet, for youthful streetwear 
nerds 
and 
fashionable 
rap 
fans alike, its surrounding 
conversations only cemented 
Lil Uzi Vert’s position as the 
most influential newbie in the 
game. Of course 50 Cent was 
jealous — where the fuck is he?

—Sal DiGioia, Daily Arts Writer

6. Lil Uzi Vert donning 
blouse, chokers, purse

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

For most of us, 2017 was a year 
synonymous with the beginning 
of Trump’s presidency. Starting 
in January, we said goodbye 
to the age of President Obama 
and hello to the madness that 
the White House has been ever 
since, which has arguably done 
more than anything else to color 

the course of this year. For this 
reason, the most important 
book published in 2017 has 
been Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “We 
Were Eight Years in Power: An 
American Tragedy,” a collection 
of eight essays published over the 
course of Obama’s eight years of 
presidency. 
Coates 
combines 
compelling personal narrative 
with impeccable research to 
paint a comprehensive picture 
of American life from all angles 

— from slavery to politics to 
entertainment, from the very 
beginnings 
of 
America 
to 
its current state. One of the 
most 
multifaceted, 
cohesive 
and well-researched books of 
recent years, it is also one of 
the most significant, especially 
during a time when history 
and facts themselves are being 
questioned.
—Laura Dzubay, Daily Arts 
Writer

Coates

2. “Hunger: A Memoir of 
(My) Body” by Roxane 
Gay

“Hunger: A Memoir of (My) 
Body” is a thought-provoking, 
moving and transformational 
book 
that 
challenges 
the 
assumptions of physicality and 
reveals 
the 
deeply 
intimate 
relationship between psyche and 
body. Roxane Gay, the incredibly 
sharp and resonant author of 
“Bad Feminist” and “Difficult 
Women,” explores the struggles 

of being fat in a fat-phobic world, 
the irrevocably damaging effects 
of trauma and the dynamics 
of constructing a reality. Gay’s 
memoir reads quickly but leaves 
a lasting impact. With her frank 
and pointed writing, Gay brings 
attention to the physicality of 
everything — the body, food, 
skin, movement — and forces 
you to think about the tactility 
of occupying space. The book 
is not a story of one woman’s 
triumph over her demons and 
finding peace, but is instead 

a gripping attempt to wrestle 
the representation of unruly 
bodies from a prejudice culture 
and to reclaim the narrative. 
Roxane 
Gay 
criticizes 
the 
hypocrisies of culture that push 
women to criticize themselves 
while affirming her legitimacy 
as a woman and as a person. 
“Hunger” is one that sticks with 
you and forces you to look at the 
world around you with careful 
perspective.
—Sydney Cohen, Daily Arts 
Writer
3. “Gather the Daughters” 
by Jennie Melamed

“Gather the Daughters” is one 
of the best debut novels I’ve read in 
the past few years. Perfect for any 
lovers of current timely and classic 
favorites — “The Handmaid’s Tale” 
in particular, and “The Giver” as 
well — it tells the tale of a world in 
which women, once they reach a 
certain age, have one final summer 
of freedom left before they are to 
be married off and have children. 
Except the generation of youth 

that serves as the focal point of 
this story are getting restless, and 
asking questions that the older 
men in charge of the community 
would prefer remain unspoken. 
The future of these girls and their 
unprecedented rebellion hinges 
on qualities that are as ferocious 
as they are delicate: the fierceness 
of a young girl’s love of freedom, 
another’s hunger for knowledge 
and a third’s tragic desire to just 

get out. It is a heartbreaking 
story conveyed in gorgeous, often 
startlingly poetic prose. I can’t 
remember the last time I sat down 
and read a book in one sitting 
without intending to — but “Gather 
the Daughters” almost requires it.
—Sophia Kaufman, Daily Arts 
Writer

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com