Merci' Beaucoup to Kia Chenelle
To RSVP for the Merci' Beaucoup business networking mixer on Thurs., Dec. 16th at the Hiram Grand, 1207 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore, MD 21217 - please visit www.bmorenews.eventbrite.com
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Kia Chenelle
In 2008, Kia Chenelle realized that working a 9 to 5 was not her calling. She left her full-time job with the federal government to pursue a career in fashion. She began working as a freelance stylist and from there she learned what following dreams is all about. She landed a gig as an in-house stylist at Jazzy Studios in Baltimore, and learned a lot about the craft of styling, as well the art of photography under the direction of Jeff Butler.
While building her portfolio and constantly networking, her efforts were finally being recognized. She was featured in the Atlanta-based magazine, Allezom, as a "Stylist to Look-Out For" as well as in Stilista Agency's newsletter as "Artist of the Week". Through recognition came more opportunity, and soon Ms. Chenelle was tackling larger platforms such as providing fashion segments for shows on My24 in Maryland.
She has styled music videos as well as commercials, freelanced with BET, worked with Maserati and Christian Siriano as an assistant stylist for runway events, and provided personal shopping services for luxury event planners and professionals. Her experience as a fashion professional provided her with the opportunity to be scouted by Stacy London of TLC's "What Not to Wear" for her new company, Style for Hire.
Chenelle said, "I was fortunate to provide a personal shopping experience in a luxury boutique for Stacy London and her associates." She added, "I learned a lot about myself as a stylist and what path I want to take in this world we call fashion and art."
After visiting a friend in New York and never returning home, Kia Chenelle built a home for herself in Brooklyn, NY. She soon became engulfed in a circle of creators from photography to poetry. This path led her to writing. Tired of the mundane, everyday fashion and lifestyle blog, Kia created Quixotic Online.
Her mission was to broaden the prospective fashion, music, life and business for the progressive individual living in the African American and Latino communities. Her writing career started out as a blogger for herself and other sites and then turned into a contributing writer for Afro Punk, the ultimate website for the “other” side of the black experience.
You can now find Kia Chenelle creatively providing a platform for writers, artists, designers and other creative and influential individuals on Quixotic Online. Quixotic Online is the rebuttal to the humdrum, robotic lifestyle blog that only covers the cool, popular and albeit, the obvious. Kia’s mission is to illuminate alternative trends and phenomenons that hide in the corners of minority communities.
She believes that the complexities and nuances of minority cultures should be highlighted, mainly because of the gaping void that exists. Expanding upon the Afro punk movement, Chenelle believes one should at least attempt to run the gamut when it comes to exposing the niches and pockets that people don't know about but might want to experience. The magazine strives to deliver the goods quarterly -covering music, politics, fashion, and everything else, not often thought of, in an attempt to bring a touch of diversity to the blog/e-zine movement.
With that being said, Kia Chenelle is expanding this movement for creativity to workshops for students and young adults. These workshops, called The Right Brainer, will teach the importance of the arts and how to build a career from it. This unique program has been designed to inspire and encourage students who may not be good at science but great at photography. At the end of the day, Kia’s mission in life is to create, inspire, and to nurture the future generation.
