Read the JUN ISSUE #114 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Kit Hoover in mag.
We're thrilled to kick off the Summer season with Chef Esther Choi who graces our cover. We have enjoyed seeing her on a number of shows on Food Network, whether she is participating in culinary competitions or hosting shows. We also enjoy having a great meal at her restaurants whch include Mokbar and GAHM that showcase Korean Cuisine that is filled with flavor and made with love. We wanted to know more about her; how she got into the culinary industry; how she embraced food entertainment; and upcoming projects that she is working on.
We also enjoyed spending time with her at our cover photoshoot at The Maybury in Hudson Yards to showcase some of our favorite must-haves to enjoy as we continue into the upcoming Summer season!
ATHLEISURE MAG: We had the pleasure of chatting with you last month when we first met and you spoke on how you came to falling in love with food. So, we’d like to know what was the first chef that you remember seeing that made you think that being a chef, could be a career?
CHEF ESTHER CHOI: Oh man, that’s a hard one!
AM: We know!
CHEF EC: You know what? I think for me, growing up not in NY which obviously, has a very strong obviously food culture – I grew up in a very, very small town in NJ and there was nothing like that where I grew up. So being in the food industry wasn’t very glamorous, but I grew up watching a lot of chefs on TV. So it was Jamie Oliver (The Great Cookbook Challenge, Jamie's One Pan Wonders, Jamie's Air Fryer Meaals), Bobby Flay (Beat Bobby Flay, Bobby's Triple Threat, BBQ Brawl), or Iron Chef Morimoto (Iron Chef Japan, Iron Chef America, Morimoto's Sushi Master) – these were the role models that I grew up with watching. Even as cheesy as it sounds, even chefs like Rachael Ray (Rachael Ray's Holidays, The Curse, Rachael Ray's Meals in Minutes) or Giada De Laurentiis (Giada in Italy, Giada Entertains, Giada at Home 2.0), these chefs on screen to me, were like real chefs! They were people teaching you how to cook on TV and to me, that was the chef world. I always imagined my career – I mean, back then I didn’t know that I wanted to be a chef. But, I always admired these people who were on TV and I could see a real career path in food. So, I think for someone like me in a small town and I think that this goes for a lot of people in America in general. You watch these screens and these chefs cook and compete and that makes a role model and a career path to have.
AM: Couldn’t agree with you more. Like you, growing up in an area that was not in the city and being able to enjoy the early days of Food Network, I remember countless episodes of watching Chef Morimoto who was our previous cover.
CHEF EC: Oh yeah – yay that’s right!
AM: Right and seeing all of these different chefs at that time, when those shows were on, I didn’t think of it as this career that I know it is now. When you think about culinary and what it can mean for a number of people who are navigating that, it’s a whole other level!
CHEF EC: Totally, exactly!
I mean, now that the food industry has become this idealistic, glamorous thing, for me and a lot of people now, they look up to people. That’s not to say that they didn’t do that back then as well! I feel like that’s what it was.
AM: When did you realize that you wanted to go to Culinary School and where did you go?
CHEF EC: I went to Culinary School in Manhattan at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). When I first moved to NY, it was because I knew that I wanted to be in food. That was when I decided that I wanted to have a career in food and I felt that going to culinary school was the fastest track to do that. By that age, I had already graduated college and I felt that I was already late to the game. You hear all of these stories like chefs working in kitchens when they were 15 years old! You hear all of these crazy glamour stories of all these chefs working at such a young age. So for me at 21, I felt like I was late in the game and I felt very rushed to catch up to the rest of the world in culinary. When I went to Culinary School, I realized that it wasn’t like that at all! There were so many people of different age groups, career changes, and even young kids that had just graduated from high school. So it was a very big mix of people in culinary school and I think that it was great to see people from various walks of life decide that they want to pursue food. It seems like a glamorous and passionate kind of career to have. So, when I did go to culinary school, I did quickly realize that there was a whole different world here and everyone has their own different career path.
Culinary School was one of those things that’s like continuing education. You can go at any age and it’s a short program too especially in Manhattan. It’s not like a college, it’s more of a program. You can literally do a whole culinary program and get your degree in 6 months in Manhattan.
AM: Woah!
CHEF EC: Yeah. It was a really good opportunity for me. I did the fast pass program in 6 months of school and I did 6 months of internship.
Yeah and lots of chefs, they didn't even go to culinary school. I know a lot of chefs have opinions about that. For me, it was a great, great thing. I never regret one bit of culinary school. It fast track teaches you everything that you need to know about the careers that you want in culinary. You’re not going to learn all of the skills that you need to know in that short period of time. But you will learn, for me – I didn’t know anything about this industry when I got there. For me, when I first moved to NY and went to culinary school, it was kind of a fast track to figuring out what I wanted to do. You find different careers in food. There are so many different kinds of food careers that you can have an culinary school gives you that perspective and teaches you about what is out there.
AM: That’s really cool.
When did you realize that you wanted to open your own restaurant?
CHEF EC: That dream, I have had for a long time. I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was a kid. I was kind of one of those weird quirky kids who would sell candy on the school bus and I started working at a very young age at 14. I’ve always wanted to have a job and I always liked the idea of making my own money and being very independent. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and both of my parents were small business owners. I grew up going to their dry cleaners with my parents every day, seeing them run their business and their shops. So for me, I think it was always in me to open my own business or to be an entrepreneur.
Obviously, that solidified when I went moved to NY and went to Culinary School. I knew that I definitely wanted to own my own restaurant one day. So it was a culmination of all of those different things. Not only did I have this ambition to have my own business – I didn’t know it would be my own rant. I think that through having a culinary career later, that’s when I put 2 and 2 together and I knew that that was what I wanted.
AM: For those who have yet to enjoy Korean cuisine, what are the spices and foods that are indicative of it?
CHEF EC: For Korean food, it’s a really special cuisine that is filled with a lot of flavors that are fermented. You’ll find a lot of fermented flavors in Korean food which creates a lot of depth and umami. Things like Kimchi and Gochujang which is a Korean fermented chili paste and there is Doenjang which is fermented bean paste. Of course there is soy sauce and a lot of umami and depth of flavor and I think that that is what makes Korean food so special because there is that aging process because of the fermentation. It’s unlike any other cuisine where it takes a lot of experience. It’s not just a recipe that you can follow, right?
AM: Right!
CHEF EC: Korean food is really about that family taste – in Korean there is a phrase called Son-mat. Son means hand and mat means taste and it literally translates to hand taste which means that every chef or every grandma or every mother has their own flavor in their hands. There is no recipe to it. A lot of Korean food is like that where it’s made with the love that you put into the dish. That’s how my grandma taught me about food.
Growing up with my grandmother in South Jersey, she was the most amazing cook that I know and obviously because my grandma has her special flavors and the way that she creates dishes with local ingredients we had no access to Korean food – she grew her own Korean vegetables. She would take America produce and make it into Korean food. She did crazy things like that and she was ultimately my biggest inspiration and that is what I grew up with. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever and she taught me the way to love food and to express your love through food. It’s not just a family recipe or that she taught me step by step on how to do it. She taught me the way, the culture, and the foundation of where these foods come from. That is the thing. She taught me the philosophy of food. I carry that with me through everything that I do – whether it’s my menus, my recipes, but also the way that I run my business and the way that I treat my family and my friends. It’s a very emotional thing for me to be in food and to share this with other people.
AM: What is that process like for you when it goes into you bringing new items onto your menu? Is that always a major process or do you look to continue tweak various iterations?
CHEF EC: I am always looking to create something new and something fresh. It’s kind of like the curse of being a chef. You can’t just be stagnant and that’s why we love it! It’s the passion and creativity and chefs are artists ultimately. It’s like, honestly the bane of my existence as a business owner, but without that side of me, I’d never even have a business! I love it so much, but it’s also really hard to find inspiration and to be original at the same time. It’s just hard, but I have to find it. I try to find it in my daily life. Whether it’s finding inspiration in the small things – just like going to the Farmer’s Market every week and looking up different produce and looking at what’s new, new trends, and collaborating with other chefs or other artists. They don’t necessarily have to be other chefs. Collaborating with you for example during our shoot on the looks and stuff – that’s part of that process and there is creativity and I try to find inspiration in everything that I do. I can’t just do the same thing every day. That would also be a whole other curse! I’m just cursed in that way – like, I have to create for myself – it’s the only way that I can find inspiration.
AM: What do you look for when it comes to opening a new concept or even locations. Obviously, you have a number of locations here in the city as well as in Vegas. Are you constantly thinking of how you expand that world of Chef Esther Choi?
CHEF EC: Yes! So, I am always looking for opportunities and I think as an entrepreneur and I think that it is a whole other side of things that is separate from being a creative chef. As a business owner, you can’t just be creative all the time or else you will go broke! So my entrepreneurial side is always looking for new opportunities. Saying yes to opportunities and taking risks – you can’t stop taking risks because then you just die as a business owner and your business becomes stagnant. I’m always looking for the next thing and as hard as it is, it’s just chasing every opportunity and seeing what hits. It’s almost a numbers game. I just have to say yes to everything and one of those outcomes will always be a hit. To be honest, as an entrepreneur in order to be successful, you have probably failed that many more times!
AM: That’s right!
CHEF EC: It’s so awful! To succeed once, you have to fail 10 times.
AM: Exactly!
CHEF EC: For me, it’s my life was a failure and then that 1 time, it hit and it put me on the map. It’s always been that way for me. I don’t take failure as a downfall, I take it as a moment to realize, learn and to grow from those mistakes or those failures. To fail, you still have to keep doing it which sucks and it can be so heart wrenching and awful, but what else am I going to do – not do anything?
AM: 100%!
We were talking a bit earlier about the culinary landscape and the nuances that are involved. In addition to being a restaurateur, when did you realize that you wanted to go into TV as well? You have done culinary competitions and it was great to see you on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest For An Iron Legend and then hosting Food Network’s 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing. When did you realize that that was something that you also wanted in your portfolio?
CHEF EC: So, before I opened my restaurant, I worked in culinary production. I worked in magazines. You hear about chefs staging in different restaurants all over the world in Europe etc. But for me, I staged in a lot of different production sites. I staged at Saveur Magazine, I was an intern at Food Network and that became a full time position and I actually worked in the test kitchens there for 2 years after my internship. I also worked on a number of TV shows.
AM: Oh wow!
CHEF EC: I did a lot of research before deciding what I ultimately wanted to do. I love the world of food, food styling, production, magazines, and all of that. I really did like it, but it was a little slow paced for me. I really loved actually working in restaurant kitchens and that is what I ultimately ended up choosing in opening up my own spot. The production world and entertainment was a big part of my early chef career and it was a big motivation factor for me as well. Because when you work at the Food Network behind the scenes, you watch these incredible chefs and insanely talented people whether they are on camera or off camera – they were so talented. You’re talking about the 2% of the best in the world in this business. That is what I saw every day and it was such a huge motivation factor for me. If they’re doing it, I can do it too. It wasn’t like admiration like being star stuck – it was more, how can I become that? How can I be Morimoto – how can I be an Iron Chef? Do I want to work with the Iron Chef? No, I want to be the Iron Chef. That was a big inspiration for me in my younger years and that is why I set forth in doing the work, opening my own business, doing my own food, to ultimately go in and be on screens and to inspire other people too. I think that that was the plan for me and the goal to be that one day. I just had to take the steps that I had to take. For me, I did think that I could do it as well. So I just did it. Being around that in my younger years of my career, it made me so ambitious to want that as well since I was around it all the time. I think that it has a big impact on me. So after I opened my own restaurants and all of that, it just came naturally. I was in the entertainment world, I knew the steps that I needed to take to go into that world a bit more and it just naturally happened.
Now, here I am, a host of multiple shows! It actually is really hard and very different being a chef, an entrepreneur, an owner of restaurants – being a host – it’s a whole new playing field for me and it’s a skill that I have to continue to develop. I practice every single day. I don’t think that people realize how tough it is.
AM: It is a different beast. It’s about relatability in addition to having that domain expertise. I’ve done TV lifestyle segments as well as being on HSN selling collaborative designs and it’s a different hat.
CHEF EC: Totally different thing and skill set that has to be learned. Learning a new skill is always exciting for me whether I’m great at it or not – you can still learn! I’m learing.
AM: You never stop learning!
What are some upcoming projects that you have that you feel you can share with us that we can keep an eye out for?
CHEF EC: I think that people know me as a chef, a host, entrepreneur – one thing that I haven’t really succeeded yet on is the CPG world - Consumer Packaged Goods. I have been developing multiple products for years – I mean I try, fail, try, fail and it has been over 5 years since I have been trying to put out a product that is successful. That is a world that I am trying to navigate now. I have been working on an iced tea line.
AM: Refreshing!
CHEF EC: It’s a Korean iced teas all very organic, natural, naturally brewed and not using any chemicals or aspartame or anything like that. It’s very clean and low calorie. All from Jeje Island from Korea. I have been developing the iced tea line for quite awhile now – you can find it at my restaurants.
AM: Definitely want to check that out!
CHEF EC: I’m still not at a point where I can sell it from a big manufacturer. I am working on that.
I also have a sesame oil line that I have been working on it. Sesame Oil is a big part of Korean cuisine and I hope to create more awareness around Sesame Oil - to use it as a cooking oil much like olive oil. I want people to use it a lot more. I have been working on that and of course my Kimchi line – how can I not do that as it is a part of who I am! There are multiple different products that I have been working on and I hope I can get them on the shelves sooner than later.
AM: What do you want your legacy to be whether in general or in this space?
CHEF EC: Oh, that’s a tough one. I want to inspire the younger generation especially as an Asian-American female. I never had a role model to look up to that was like me. I had to kind of find it in myself. I want it to be a lot easier for the younger generation whether it is as a minority or as a female. I want to be a motivation to them to inspire them in their dreams and to be what ever it is that they aspire to be. I don’t want them to think can I do this because I'm not good enough or whatever? That should never be a factor in you accomplishing your dreams. I think I do have a lot of young fans that range from 8-13. That age range has been a big base for me and the amount of people that come up to me and let me know that their kid is a big fan of mine is really special because we are creating young minds. It’s about motivating them and inspiring them. They are the next generation. I really want to inspire them and to be inspired by them!
Every time a kid says that I inspire them and they watch me on TV, and they want to be what I am – that inspires me to want to work harder and to want to do better for myself. I just became a new mom and I want to be great for my little boy and I want him to be proud of me! I think that for me, that is my legacy. I want to inspire and be inspired by that!
IG @choibites
We had a great time having Chef Esther Choi on set with us for her cover shoot as well as finding out more about her world, her career, and upcoming projects. Our shoot includes looks that can be worn in Fitness, Out + About, WFH/Lounge, and Night Out.
FOOD PHILOSOPHY OVER EDITORIAL | TEAM CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Farkas | FASHION STYLIST + CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kimmie Smith | HMUA Felicia Graham + Toni Ann |
IG @pvfarkas
FOOD PHILOSOPHY COVER EDITORIAL | STYLE CREDITS
FITNESS LOOK | PG 16-27 | NYON New York Yankees Moto Varsity Jacket | TRACKSMITH Van Cortland Singlet | WILSON Midtown Tennis Skirt | STELLA MCCARTNEY Sneak-Elyse Platform Sneakers | SMART GLASS JEWELRY Mosaic Stiletto Gold Filled Satellite Necklace |
OUT + ABOUT LOOK | PG 28-32, 36 | SHWETAMBARI Balloon Blouse + Neena Maxi Skirt | ANDRE ASSOUS Anouka Espadrille Wedges | AIR AND ANCHOR Here Comes The Sun Necklace Set | KIMMIE VINCENT Beaded Agate Bracelets | SMART GLASS JEWELRY | Cube Gold Ring |
WFH/LOUNGE LOOK | PG 34-35 | SPLITS59 Ashby Rib Tank | SHWETAMBARI Printed Sera Pant | SMART GLASS JEWELRY Mosaic Stiletto Gold Filled Satellite Necklace + Cube Gold Ring | BUDDHA MAMA Beaded Necklace | DELICACIES JEWELRY Momo Necklace | KIMMIE VINCENT Beaded Agate Bracelets | VONTELLE Ankara Aviators |
NIGHT OUT LOOK | PG 37-39 | SHWETAMBARI Beaded Top | LE LISI Ribbed Knit Dress | SMART GLASS JEWELRY Mosaic Stiletto Gold Filled Satellite Necklace + Cube Gold Ring | BUDDHA MAMA Beaded Necklace | DELICACIES JEWELRY Momo Necklace | KIMMIE VINCENT Beaded Agate Bracelets | LAGOS Caviar Ring | ALEX SOLDIER Tear Drop Silver Earrings | VIRGINS SAINTS & ANGELS Ring | ELLARIA Necklace |
FOOD PHILOSOPHY COVER EDITORIAL | PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
SONY Alpha 7R IV, FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Full-frame Standard Zoom G Master Lens, FE 50mm F1.4 GM Full-frame Large-aperture G Master Lens, FE 70-200 mm F2.8 GM OSS II Full-frame Telephoto Zoom G Master Lens with Optical SteadyShot, FE 90 mm F2.8 Macro G OSS Full-frame Telephoto Macro Prime G Lens with Optical SteadyShot | SIRUI Dragon Series Bendable RGB Panel Lights Set of 2 of B25R*2 Kit + DJ280 |
Our cover editorial took place at The Maybury in Hudson Yards, which is a great neighborhood that is always filled with options in terms of galleries, eateries, workout centers and more. We took some time to chat with Phil Lavoie, COO of Gotham Organization. He talks with us about the firm, the building, its amenities and more.
ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we delve into The Maybury, tell us about the Gotham Organization and the kinds of projects you’re typically involved in.
PHIL LAVOIE: Gotham Organization is a fifth-generation, family-owned real estate development firm with more than 112 years of experience shaping New York City’s skyline and neighborhoods. Driven by a deep-rooted commitment to quality, innovation, and community, we specialize in developing and managing mixed-use properties, encompassing residential, commercial, and institutional spaces.
AM: Hudson Yards is one of our favorite parts of the city, and it’s exciting to feature The Maybury on this cover shoot. What can you share about its design and the architects behind it?
PL: The Maybury makes a bold statement in the heart of Hudson Yards. Designed by the renowned Handel Architects, the building stands out with its sculpted brick-red metal façade and expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, forming a dramatic and modern profile. Inside, the design strikes a more serene note, with high ceilings, luxury finishes, and an inviting palette of natural textures. The result is a harmonious blend of architectural sophistication and warm, understated elegance.
AM: Can you walk us through the amenities at The Maybury, including common areas, wellness spaces, terraces, and more?
PL: The Maybury features over 20,000 square feet of meticulously curated amenities designed to enhance everyday living. Highlights include a 45th-floor cocktail lounge with panoramic skyline views, opening onto sweeping outdoor terraces ideal for entertaining or relaxing. Wellness offerings include a cutting-edge indoor/outdoor fitness center and a yoga studio. Additional conveniences include a 24-hour attended lobby, a secure package room with and exclusive access to Gotham Living concierge services—all designed to deliver comfort, ease, and sophistication.
AM: What kind of community events do you offer for residents?
PL: We believe that true luxury extends beyond beautiful spaces—it's about fostering a sense of belonging. Our thoughtfully curated resident programming encourages meaningful connections through events like “Sip the Sunset,” a DJ-hosted terrace happy hour; “Cardio Power Hour,” an energizing group fitness session; and “Bloom & Brush,” a creative floral painting workshop. These experiences bring neighbors together and activate our spaces with energy and purpose.
AM: Tell us about the GothamCard Perks.
PL: The GothamCard is our exclusive perks program that connects residents with the best New York City has to offer. From priority reservations at top restaurants and discounts at boutique fitness studios to invitations to private events, GothamCard Perks extend the luxury lifestyle beyond the building itself. It’s all about giving residents insider access to curated experiences throughout the city.
AM: When did The Maybury open, and what types of residences are available?
PL: The Maybury opened its doors at the end of 2024 and offers 453 residences, including a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. Among its offerings is “The Collection” — an exclusive suite of luxury residences spanning floors 35 through 45. These premium homes boast soaring ceilings, high-end condo-level finishes, and breathtaking panoramic views of Manhattan, tailored for those who appreciate exceptional design and elevated living. The building also features 28 Abode by Gotham units—efficiently designed micro-units ranging from 315 to 350 square feet. Each Abode includes built-in Murphy beds, integrated storage, luxury finishes, and generous ceiling heights, combining smart design with refined comfort.
AM: What in-unit features should potential residents know about?
PL: Each residence is designed to condominium-quality standards, featuring quartz countertops, premium panelized appliances, high ceilings, and stunning views of the city and river. Residents also enjoy full access to the building’s extensive amenity package and lifestyle programming.
AM: What services does the concierge offer?
PL: Our full-service concierge is dedicated to making daily life as seamless as possible. From move-in assistance to everyday needs like package management, dog walking, and home care coordination, the concierge is here to support every aspect of our residents’ lifestyles.
AM: Tell us about the Residents App.
PL: The Gotham Properties Residents App puts convenience at residents’ fingertips. It allows users to pay rent, book amenities, RSVP for events, request maintenance, and access exclusive GothamCard perks—all from one easy-to-use platform. It’s designed to enhance connection and simplify life at The Maybury.
AM: What are the benefits of living in Hudson Yards?
PL: Hudson Yards is one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in NYC. Living at The Maybury puts residents steps from world-class dining, luxury shopping, iconic cultural destinations, and green spaces like the High Line and Hudson River Park. The neighborhood is also a hub for leading employers and offers seamless transportation options—making it ideal for professionals.
AM: Can you tell us about the Covenant House partnership and their presence in The Maybury?
PL: Our collaboration with Covenant House—a nonprofit focused on supporting youth facing homelessness—is a vital part of The Maybury’s community mission. Their office that serves as an administrative hub for their international services is located within the building. We’re proud to host and support such an impactful organization and its work in the broader Hudson Yards area.
AM: Are there any upcoming Gotham Organization projects we should know about?
PL: Yes, we’re excited to move forward with Monitor Point, a mixed-use waterfront community in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In partnership with the MTA, Greenpoint Monitor Museum, and the Department of City Planning, Monitor Point will generate significant civic and community benefits focusing on mixed-income housing, attractive public open space, sustainable design, energy efficiency, employment opportunities, and economic mobility. The development is poised to transform the Greenpoint waterfront into an intergenerational mixed-use income community.
IG @gothamorg
Read the MAY ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see FOOD PHILOSOPHY | Chef Esther Choi in mag.
We've all enjoyed a number of our favorite shows that recently wrapped from their fall premiers and we're now in the Summer portion of the season with an array of shows to watch. One of those shows is NBC's America Ninja Warriors which will kick off S17 on Jun 2nd at 8pm ET. Hosted by Zuri Hall, we wanted to catch up with her to talk about her career as a journalist and host. You can see her on the network's daily celebrity show Access Hollywood, E! Live From the Red Carpet as well as Miss USA and Miss Universe competition shows. We wanted to talk with her about her work, Awards Season, and how she navigates the balance between a career and mental health.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It is so great to chat with you again as we spoke a few years ago.
ZURI HALL: Oh I remember you!
AM: Great – well I love that we’re fellow Midwest girls, attended Big Ten universities -
ZH: Big Ten all day baby – let’s go!
AM: Exactly! It’s so phenomenal to see how you continue to navigate through your career and I always love your IG feed as the outfits are always on point. What you wore recently to the Met Gala, Bishme is a genius and we had the pleasure of attending his NYFW show a few seasons back – your look was truly a moment.
ZH: He’s so good, right? He is always the sweetest soul too. He is so humble but his talent!
AM: It’s next level without question and of course, you killed it again which is never a question.
ZH: I mean, he did take it to the next level!
AM: Without a doubt, but then there is also the Zuri factor – you know how to wear a look!
ZH: Thank you!
AM: I’m glad we’re able to connect again and to talk about all the things that you have going on.
ZH: Thank you and I’m glad we get to chat again.
AM: When you look back at your career and all of the things that you have been able to do at this point, did you think that you would be in this space that you are in right now?
ZH: Honestly, yeah – it was always kind of the vision! I mean, I know that some people are always tempted to demure and say that they don’t know how they got where they are. But I kind of meticulously planned and worked towards getting here since I was a kid. Honestly, I always knew that I wanted to be in Hollywood and in entertainment and I knew that at the age of 6 or 7. In Junior High, that is when I aggressively pursued it. Every choice that I made outside of academics was to kind of lay down the foundation for the future career. All the activities I chose from theater workshops, trying to get a commercial agent from Toledo, Ohio – so this was always the plan. But I think that this is what leaves me also humbled and in awe of what God can do. Because for better or for worse and with all of the ups and downs, being this little girl from Toledo to make it to where I am and to live this life that I have always dreamed of against all odds, I am very very blessed.
AM: I enjoy Access Hollywood and watching it when I’m traveling or prepping for a project. What do you enjoy about being part of this show?
ZH: Ooo Access Hollywood what I can say that I love and appreciate most is that they are family now! I love my co-hosts, I love our team, our Executive Producer Mike is incredible, and there is a team of Supervising Producers. Everyone is just on board with the vision and we all work together not to just make the show work, but to support one another in each person’s personal endeavors and our personal ventures, as well as professionally. It feels like an environment where everyone wants to see everyone win. It feels good to wake up every day and to go to work and I know that everyone doesn’t always get that lucky and I haven’t always worked in places where I could say that. That’s a big blessing and I take a lot of pride in the fact that we center around celebrity news and entertainment news, but we very much so pride ourselves on being seen as friends to people that we speak to – so it’s very welcoming and warm – a safe space.
AM: That’s what I love about it!
ZH: That’s what I love about it too! I couldn’t do it otherwise.
AM: What is your process in terms of preparing for interviews like this? How do you make sure that you are getting out those conversations that you are looking to achieve?
ZH: You know when I am going in to do interviews like this, we have incredible producers that do research on the front end. I’m talking about that we have so many people on any given week and it’s a lot to keep up with. Our producers, they cover us. They give us the help that we need to have.
What I most pride myself on is really prioritizing thoughtful questions and thoughtful conversations. I want people to feel safe in talking with me. I said this on a podcast recently with a dear friend of mine who has a podcast called Why Not Me with Mike Jackson from Get Lifted Productions. I was saying that I have always prided myself on not being a gotcha journalist and after 10 years in Hollywood – 10 years at NBC Universal, I’ve started to feel the dividends. I have a rapport with all of these incredible actors and musicians. They know me and they see me. They come and they want to talk because they know it's a safe place where they will be able to say what they need to say and they can trust that it won’t be taken out of context. They are comfortable and funny enough, they may even share more because they are comfortable to share. Joining Live from E! as the Red Carpet host, from my first season ever, one of the biggest things has been the way that I have asked the question around fashion. Everyone has said, “oh, we notice that you ask how do you feel in this look or how are you feeling in this look,“ and I think that that just speaks to my approach. I think fashion can be feelings and it can be hard to get in touch with my feelings over the years, so I try to bring that to my interviews. That is what I try to bring in – the emotions, the heart, and I hope that whoever is speaking with me that they feel the connection with me and I trust that it will allow the viewer to connect with them so much more. I just look at myself as hopefully a safe platform or vessel as a way for them to be able to share their message or their story.
AM: I mean watching you there is always warmth and authenticity, and a genuine curiosity to your style as a journalist. Regardless of whether you’re on the red carpet doing an interview, or being on Access Hollywood, and then you have American Ninja Warrior which I love that show! It’s back for another season – how did you get attached to it and what was it about this show that you wanted to take this on within your portfolio?
ZH: I can’t believe – you know I’m getting up there when I have to say, what year is this for me on this show? We had the regular seasons and then we had the COVID years and so it throws it off because we batched 2 seasons. There was a lot going on then, okay?
AM: You made it work!
ZH: Right? I will never forget my first season, my rookie year I was over at E! News. I think that I had just turned 30 and it was a new chapter in my life. This was the biggest show that I had ever gotten to this point. When I got the call that I got the position, I knew that my life was going to change and I don’t say that to be dramatic – I just felt it and it absolutely has. The reason that I was most excited to sign on to American Ninja Warrior, the show is just fun, it’s awesome, it’s big, and it’s buzzy. These athletes are incredible with what they do and I have always watched in awe. So to now realize that I was going to be part of it, it was just really humbling and exciting. Then, when I got into the show, I fell in love with the community of ninjas so quickly and I really prioritized building friendship with them on the sidelines even when the cameras were not rolling. Interacting with them on social and on IG all year around and not just when we are filming. We built that trust with one another so quickly. The biggest compliment that any one of the ninjas can give me is when they get to the sideline and they say, “Oh my gosh, I have been dreaming of getting to the sideline when I finally get to interview you,” because it just means that they finally got to run through the course. So for me to be part of the ninja experience and for them to be just a kid at one time and now they’re old enough to compete and finally they get to compete, and then they get what they say is their “Zuri interview” that really means something to me. I’m usually the first person that they talk to after they hit a buzzer and they’re excited or go down early or their run ends in a way that they hadn’t hoped for and they’re devastated. Sometimes, there are a lot of tears. I take a lot of pride and responsibility in being able to show up for them emotionally or in whatever way they need – whether it’s a hug or a, “I hope I see you next year” so they have that encouragement and don’t quit or give up. Sometimes it’s let bring the family in ASAP because you need your mama right now. I just take pride in being that emotional support on the sideline for the ninjas. That’s my favorite part.
AM: It’s crazy because we had Jessie Graff as a cover a few years back for our AUG ISSUE #20 in 2017 and to have her styled in couture gowns and doing stunts – it’s not something that I will forget for a very long time. I mean what is life and that’s why I love this show as she was doing things I could never do, but you can see the training, athleticism, art, creativity, and pride!
ZH: Yeah! That’s incredible! I love Jessie. She’s the OG for real – for real!
AM: Exactly!
ZH: What’s so cool about the show is how it is a springboard for people’s careers! People have Ninja Gyms across the country. Jessie is in Hollywood doing all of these incredible stunts and stunt work on Wonder Woman and other big blockbuster films! Ninja really does launch people into the next chapter of their careers.
AM: It truly is special!
What can we expect from this season?
ZH: This season is S17! It’s super special because it’s premiering on my birthday! So if you want to celebrate with me, you guys need to tune in on Mon Jun 2nd on 8pm Eastern on NBC of course and you can see it the next day streaming on Peacock. I think that the biggest thing that I am excited about for this year, it’s all taking place in Vegas. Normally, you would see us in different cities across the country which is really special. But for the first time ever, we’re doing qualifiers, semi-finals and national finals all in Vegas which I
think is really interesting too because it allowed for the Ninjas to have this adult summer camp! We all descended upon Las Vegas to create this magic in this chunk of time. For all of the Ninjas, the production team, us as the hosts – we were all there together for all of that. It was really fun and beautiful and allowed us to buid this sort of momentum and spirit. We didn’t have this starting/stopping and new city cycle as in previous seasons. So that was really cool and also, the finals are nuts! We’re doing the side-by-side races and the head-to-head races and there is a new bracket style tournament for this season as well. That’s what’s going to determine the Ninja Warrior Champion right? So I think that the bracket style is really kind of like raising the stakes. It’s feeling very – Ninja Warrior is a sport and as each season progresses, you can see it coming together in a way that you could see where this has come to head to the 2028 Summer Games [Editor’s Note: For LA28, a Ninja Warrior-style obstacle course will be part of the Summer Games making their debut in the Modern Pentathlon portion of the program]. It’s true athleticism and it’s going to be fun to watch. It’s going to be a different viewing experience then what fans have seen before. The stakes are crazy high and to think that some of our Ninjas could be winning gold medals someday because of the Olympics play, it’s bigger than ever!
AM: That is amazing and then once again, you have such a medley of things that you do. I have enjoyed seeing you at the pageants as a host. That is such an amazing world and I started to know more about it when I had the opportunity to style Miss America 2019 Nia Franklin as well as Miss Ecuador Universe 2018 Virginia Limongis for projects. Seeing you on that platform was yet another level. What do you like about being involved in those shows?
ZH: That is such a great question! What do I love about being part of those shows? I love the pageantry, the poise, I love glam of it all. I love a little glam moment. I am so night and day as the Gemini that I am. What’s great, is that I can only fully appreciate hosting a show like Miss Universe of Miss USA because I get to pull up in my sneakers and my jeans and host a show like America Ninja Warrior. I need both. Because I very much so live in sneakers and jeans, but in that 15%, I’m going to give you glam ok?
Miss USA and Miss Universe has been a great opportunity for me to be able to do that! The women are just so brilliant and just so beautiful – the least beautiful thing about them is how they look which is saying a lot because those women are stunning. They are so smart, they have incredible human interests, from philanthropy, to non-profit causes, to raising awareness on Mental Health or children living in poverty. I am just so inspired by them and that competition is not easy – those competitions are a grind! I have so much respect for the pageant world and that is something that I have come to after hosting this show. I didn’t grow up in pageants and now I have such an appreciation and respect for it. So it’s really fun and it’s really fun to play dress up on a superficial level too! It’s just wearing those gowns, those sequins, more, is more and nothing is too much in a space like that. It’s a lot of fun.
AM: When you’re doing the red carpets, we just came off of Awards Season, it’s a big run and this year it was compounded with the LA fires – I can’t even imagine the navigation around that. How do you approach that hectic time of the year?
ZH: Ooo Awards Season! I approach Awards Season with a lot of intention and a lot of calm before the storm. I intentionally carve out a lot of calm leading up to Awards Season because I know after the clock hits midnight, it’s a New Year and we’re hitting the ground running with the Golden Globes and it’s not going to stop running until after the Academy Awards. That is 3 months of grind for me.
This year as I mentioned, stepping into this new position – in the main position for Live from the Red Carpet on E! and the carpet specials, I took it all the more seriously! I have always taken it seriously. It’s really about the holidays for me being about rest, it’s research, I’m celebrating Christmas, I’m celebrating New Years Eve, but I have a research packet as thick as a Bible with all of the films, the nominees, the categories, the storylines we’re following throughout the season and doing that research ahead of time allows me to step into the New Year locked and loaded - I'm ready. I make time for meditation and prayer every show day, all week long, all Awards Season. It’s important for me to have those moments so that I can recharge and I can fill my cup because you give a lot on those show days. You’re live sometimes 3 hours – 3 and a half hours straight! It’s non-stop so just taking care of my mental, spiritual, and physical health before the in between time is how I get through a season like that!
AM: Oh wow! Well you always do it so well as you always look great on the carpet and the questions and engagement that you have makes those conversations enjoyable to watch.
ZH: Thank you – I’m trying!
AM: Going back to Met Gala, I loved your outfit, Bishme is always taking it to the next level and what he created for you was something to see. What was that process like in terms of getting dressed? Were you working weeks or months in advance?
ZH: No! You know what was so crazy? He is so talented that we met probably a couple of weeks out from Met Gala.
AM: Oh wow!
ZH: Yes for the first time. I’m so busy, he is so busy, everyone just has so many things going on. I couldn’t even mentally pivot to Met Gala until the last thing was done. If Grammys is coming up, I’m like, don’t ask me about the Oscars until after I get through Grammys. Don’t ask me about Grammys until after I get through Globes. I literally have to take it a step at a time or I would go crazy.
AM: Oh yeah!
ZH: So Met Gala, I couldn’t think about mentally from a fashion perspective until probably Aprilish because I had to get through Oscars and I had a few things going on in the office. So I meet with him and he shows me these sketches and pulls out these fabric swatches and I am immediately blown away. He is crazy talented. We landed on a sketch that felt right. For me, I just can’t think about the fashion statement which I absolutely want to make, but it also has to be practical because I’m working. I’m not just going in hanging around and partying. I have to stand on a red carpet in a really tight space for up to 4 hours. For the Met Gala, I was in that dress and in those heels standing for the most part for 6 hours. We have to get there so early before the gridlock so it has to be practical and it also has to be fashionable because I love a moment.
It was kind of funny because Bishme, we had our first fitting a week and a half out. Then it was probably 2 or 3 days ahead of the Met Gala that we had a fitting and he literally brought some fabric and I was like, “ok, let’s see how this goes.” He made a dress out of thin air with a piece of fabric – I think it is called muslin.
By the end of that 15-20 mins fitting, I was low key wearing a dress. Him and my stylist were laughing because he is used to that Project Runway life. He was not stressed and we were like, Met Gala is in 2 days” and he was like, “I got this. Say less.” We had that final fitting and he finished the gown within 3 or 4 days. It was a perfect fit. It was better than anything ever and people loved it.
It was a total hit. He works so well under pressure. It was a super fast process and extremely efficient and only someone as talented as him could pull something off like that. I was just grateful to wear his design because he had great vision.
AM: This year's theme was amazing. What were 3 looks that you enjoyed seeing on the carpet?
ZH: The theme was incredible Super Fine Tailoring Black Style and I loved that it was a celebration of Black Dandyism because I am really big on joy and I think that the Met Gala night really exemplified that. My 3 favorite looks – I loved Diana Ross’ (The Wiz, Mahogany, Lady Sings the Blues) entrance. To be there watching that happen and for her making us remember what it is like to have one of those divas in the best way possible entrance – it was like yesss – you are giving the people what they need right now!
Her look was incredible and I loved her daughter’s look – Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends, Black-ish, American Fiction). She is such a style maven and she gets it from her momma.
AM: Yup.
ZH: I love that she raids her mom’s closet and she calls it shopping. Tracee’s look was fun.
Zendaya (Euphoria, Dune franchise, Challengers) always gets it right. I loved the tailored suit and sort of the minimalist silhouette with that beautiful gorgeous fedora – that hat that she wore.
The fellas brought it too – A$AP Rocky as a Co-Chair was incredible and he has always had such awesome style and of course with Rihanna to pull up and with the baby bump as the final arrival on the Met Gala Red Carpet! She said that A$AP brought the umbrellas and she brought the +1 – the baby to the party. She looked great!
I loved Ciara, her in LaQuan Smith looked gorgeous. Her and Russell Wilson being able to walk this Red Carpet for the first time ever because he’s usually occupied at that time. So to see them walk that for the first time together was special especially since he is playing for the Giants now. There were so many really fun looks that was enjoyable to see.
AM: With all the worlds that you’re involved in – how do you make sure that you don’t have burnout? We love what we do, we’re immersed in what we do, but I mean – you need a breath. How do you get that balance?
ZH: For me, it’s something that we have heard before, but I have only recently appreciated it in the last few years in what it means and taking it to heart. My no’s are just as important if not more important than my yeses. I used to say yes to everything. You kind of have to have that chapter of grinding it out and saying yes to everything as you never know what opportunity is going to open that next door. But then you get to a point in your life hopefully where you look up and say, there is a lot going on and I need to get more intentional with my yeses. If I can’t show up with a full cup at max capacity for the things that I have said yes to, do I want to show up? I want to show up fully and I deserve to experience this thing fully and also the people who have asked me to be part of it, they deserve the best of me if I say yes. So it is less yeses but they are hell yeses! So, the ones I am really excited about that I can show up for fully means that there were no’s that had to be said. I have to be ok with potentially disappointing some one who would have hoped that I could do a thing. But I can say next time – it’s not no forever it’s just I can’t right now and I am honoring where I am at my max capacity bucket.
I think carving out slow moments is really important on the day-to-day. I like counting down to a vacation. I have been counting down by the way to a non existent vacation in my head since Jan 1st! There is no trip booked, no flights, but I’m like, “I can’t wait to get to that beach,” and my dog is looking at me like what beach?
AM: You mean beach at home haha!
ZH: Haha – the living room, basement – what are we talking about?
But, having those slow moments to look forward to on any even given day – even if I have a 20mins coffee break that I carved out for myself with my favorite Lavender Latte at 3 o’clock. That is a slow moment. It’s a gift to myself. A massage that I booked for myself after a long day. That’s a moment and that’s a gift to myself. I think it is important to give ourselves small little gifts so that we have earned small wins. It doesn’t have to be a big thing or a long weekend away. It can be 10mins to yourself with the lights off and if you have kids, your spouse is like – I got them. I will take them upstairs and lock them away for 15mins. You just sit in the dark if that is what you need.
AM: What do you want your legacy to be? You have done so much and such a beacon for people. I think about when I was growing up, I didn’t have a lot of people I could think of except for Oprah – there weren’t other people like that out there. But we live in a time where those coming up have Zuri’s and others that they can look towards.
ZH: Wow, oh man. Well first of all, thank you for saying that. To hear, we have the Zuri’s is kind of a moment. I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around fully – you kind of left me speechless with that one. That means a lot just because, what do I want my legacy to be? I want for people to feel good and I want people to be unapologetic about prioritizing feeling good. I want people to feel good at work, I want people to feel good in their home and personal lives. I think why I bring that into the legacy conversation is because I work really hard and for a long time, all I did was work. My career was everything and to be quite frank, that wasn’t healthy. I realized I needed to build up the other pillars of my life because if 1 pillar shook and it was the career and that’s the only pillar – my world was shaking, my home was shaking – there was no foundation. A part of my legacy is that I want other people to say when I watched her I felt inspired and I felt entertained. I also felt that I was given permission or really encouragement to feel good in my life to take time and to prioritize myself. Even if it is just because they see me having the career that I have and then seeing me have the kinds of conversations that I have around mental health and spiritual wellness and how important it is to make rest, to avoid burnout it’s important. Seeing me crush it in my career maybe that is what someone came to see, but then realizing how I am doing it – I very much so want to make sure that that is part of my legacy.
If I can inspire even one little girl, little boy or one kid – who looks at me and sees a trajectory that they would like to follow, that is really special. I have a mom who DM’d me a couple of months ago and I have had moms reach out to me in the last few years. She let me know that she named her daughter after me. I thought it was incredible and it was so nice to hear. But then I was like, “how old is your daughter?” She’s like 6 and I’m like, “dang, I haven’t been around that long!” I’m old now! How do I have a 6 year old Zuri running around? It’s special and at the end of the day, I hope that my legacy and the biggest part of it is that people can look and see that I really enjoyed this life that I lived and that I rode it until the wheels fell off. She wasn’t just having a career that was incredible, but I get the sneaking suspicion that she really enjoyed it fully!
IG @zurihall
PHOTOS COURTESY | PG 76 - 79 Matt Sayles | PG 80 IG/Zuri Hall |
Read the MAY ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see STARCHAT WITH Zuri Hall in mag.
Read the MAY ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | JoJo Fletcher in mag.
Read the MAY ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see 9PLAYLIST | Sabrina Carpenter in mag.
For over a decade, we have enjoyed the BOSCH universe from the flagship series to its spin-off BOSCH: LEGACY. We've loved getting to know more about Harry Bosch; his focus on helping victims; and finding those that have hurt them to bring them to justice. The series finale will close this chapter of the BOSCH universe, but we are also looking forward to the spin-off of this series with Ballard which stars Maggie Q (Nikita, The Protégé, Designated Survivor)!
We had the pleasure of talking with Titus Welliver (The Town, Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy) who plays the title character ahead of the premiere of BOSCH: LEGACY, and it is only fitting that we chat with him again! We talked about how he became part of both series, what he has enjoyed about playing this character, as well as digging into Harry Bosch.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so great to connect with you again. I had the pleasure of interviewing you ahead of the premier of BOSCH: LEGACY for the first season. In addition to loving this series, I’m a fan of the flagship series BOSCH. What initially drew you to the BOSCH universe?
TITUS WELLIVER: Well the script, I had read one of the BOSCH books many, many years before and it certainly did land on me. But it had been several years before the script for the pilot was put in front of me and I was immediately drawn to the character, I understood the character, I thought about how I would play that character, what was important and what wasn’t important etc., etc.
Through a series of mishaps in trying to get me in the room with Michael Connelly, the other producers, and the other creators of the show, the meetings kept not happening. Several months went by and I was shooting one of the Transformers films which took me all over the United States as well as to Hong Kong and I had a little window that was open and I was back in the States and my manager called me and said, you’re going to meet with Michael Connelly in 2 days or something like that.
I said, “what do you mean? I thought that that boat sailed a long time ago.” My initial reaction when I read it was that I loved this character, but I had been doing it long enough to know that you never know what is going to happen. I thought that of course, they would go out to every single star name and what actor wouldn’t want to play this character?
AM: Right!
TW: So I met with them and as fate had it, I was gifted the role of Harry Bosch which had the continuing gift of 10 years, almost 11 years, of playing this character and realizing him.
AM: I mean, I love this character and I love his complexities and that he loves jazz. My great-uncle was the late Joe Henderson –
TW: Stop it!
AM: Yeah!
TW: Wow! That’s very cool! Wow!
AM: Yeah, so every time he’s playing his music, I love that because I’m always listening to jazz to settle my mind and I love his interactions with the other characters in his world.
What is it that you love about bringing this character to life?
TW: Well, he is a quintessential anti-hero and I tend to gravitate towards anti-heroes because I think that there is a different level of reality and humanity to anti-heroes. Bosch is a character that is capable of incredible heroic deeds, he is a very very good cop, he’s relentless. If a person is a victim of a crime, you would want him working the case, but you know, he’s a strong flavor. He doesn’t suffer fools, he does not subscribe to the societal norms that we might. He does not enter a room and try to win people over.
AM: There’s no tucking in there!
TW: Right! He doesn’t navigate bureaucracy with standard operating procedures. He does a workaround. Bosch is – because of all of that, he is all elbows. He’s not the status quo cat. So command – he pisses people off. He irritates people. But people can’t really – people don’t want to really push him too much because he’s the guy that has got the highest closure rate in Hollywood Homicide. Hence that relationship which was forged between the late great Lance Riddick (The Wire, Fringe, John Wick franchise), my brother, who I miss every day. And when Irving’s son is killed, he enlists Bosch to help him. And that speaks volumes about it because he is such a stone in Irving’s shoe, but Irving knows the fabric of his character and that is one of the many beautiful things about Bosch.
Then you have his beautiful relationship with his daughter. I didn’t have to put my elbows out with the writers when I said, “look, let this be a relationship that gestates.” They don’t know each other and let’s allow this through a natural process and have them get to know each other. That relationship is the dynamic that allowed us to – without being contrived, peel away a little bit of the layers of Bosch that he could express vulnerability, which is not something that he is comfortable with in any shape or form in expressing vulnerability. He’s just not, but he does with his child because she is the most important person in his life.
But also within that, there are times when he conceals things that he doesn’t want her to know about.
AM: Yeah! Which is so interesting to see when you’re watching him with each character as it’s different elements of him that you can tell it’s the same man, but it’s really interesting. Via the screeners, we have gotten up to episode 8 at this point. I want to know what’s going to happen, but what I love about him is how he is measured and with all of these elements at play, this one man holds all of that in the balance which is interesting and obviously, you play him so well.
TW: Well thank you! He carries a tremendous amount of weight as a character. That is another reason why I love playing him. Look, all of that is demonstrated or exhibited in the process of reading all of Michael’s books. Because the narrative tells you what Bosch is thinking and what he is doing. Thankfully, I had a conversation with Eric Overmyer (Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire) and Michael Connelly very early on and I said, “look, this stuff where we find Harry in the books alone, doing his work – he’s listening and has Coltrane going, he’s having a Fat Tire and he’s drinking a whisky and is going through a murder book, that is expressed in the narrative, but he is not saying anything.” That is an integral part of who this character is. Now any executive who looks at that and says, “wait a minute, you’re actually going to go and put this character sitting alone in his house with just music playing and him flipping through pages, and he’s not saying anything?” – what? Are you kidding, people will turn it off. Well, it in fact became a hallmark of the show where the audience and for me as an actor honestly, those are some of the most challenging scenes to play because there’s so much said, but unsaid.
You don’t have the luxury of dialog to express that which I think is more interesting.
AM: 100%.
TW: You give the audience the benefit of their intelligence. You don’t need to go, “this is what you should feel, this is what you need to think right now.” They extrapolate from what they are seeing that’s occurring in front of them and they form their own ideas of what that should be. But there is a consistency with that when people see that stuff, where they go, “Harry’s working right now.” Through the beauty and the eye of our incredibly gifted cinematographers and directors as well, the way that they would shoot those things kept a level of ambiguity, but also said – you know that he is working, but we’re not going to tell you specifically what it is which for me is fun to watch too afterwards!
AM: Oh yeah, it just draws you in and it has such a fun pacing to it and it’s nice to have things where you need to connect the dots and see how it all happens. You don’t always need to have words to push everything forward.
So what are your feelings with the finale coming up of the series. I’m so sad that it is not continuing on. What are your takeaways from this?
TT: Well I look at it really as – I mean I agree and I feel sad about it. One can’t help, but make a connection with a character and an emotional bond. I’m not an actor who takes their work home or the character, I don’t carry his weight. But the joy of playing that character and the gift for me – opening those scripts as they came was like Christmas. It was like an advent calendar. Where is Harry going here? What do I get to explore? That has been for a decade of my life and it has been dedicated to that and to the relationships that I have with Michael Connelly, Eric Overmyer as well as Thomas Bernardo (BOSCH, The Lincoln Lawyer, BOSCH: LEGACY), the crew and the other actors that’s the hardest part of it. Look, you don’t see – there’s no closure. As Harry Bosch would say, closure is a myth. You don’t see Harry riding off into the sunset. We don’t close on Harry sitting alone in his house looking out the window while we’ve got some grand music playing in the background. So it doesn’t have that, it doesn’t have a sense of finality and yet, there is for us, there is that sense of finality.
AM: Well I appreciate you taking the time, I love the series, and the whole universe of it, and I love seeing you in any role that you’re in because if your name is on it, I know it’s going to be a great show as you’re one of the coolest people.
TW: Well bless you! That is a very kind thing to say and it’s been a pleasure talking to you and I hope that you enjoy the finale!
IG @boschamazon
PHOTOS COURTESY | Prime Video/BOSCH: LEGACY
Read the APR ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see LEGACY AND BEYOND | Titus Welliver in mag.
We have been fans of Godfather of Harlem since the first episode premiered in 2019. This historical fiction brings an array of iconic figures in the 60s from Ellsworth "Bumpy" Jackson (Forest Whitaker), Malcolm X (Nigél Thatch/Jason Alan Carvell), Vincent "Chin" Gigante (Vincent D'Onofrio), Rev Adam Clayton Powell Jr (Giancarlo Esposito), Joeseph Colombo (Michael Raymond-James), and more. We get to see Harlem during a pivotal time in American history while also understanding how communities navigated various topics of the time.
We sat down with Creator, Executive Prodducer and writer Chris Brancato (Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, Hotel Cocaine) to talk about the show, its intracicies, and what to expect from S4 launching April 13th on MGM+.
ATHLEISURE MAG: Chris it is so good to see you again! I had the pleasure of interviewing you a few months back for Hotel Cocaine which I loved and I told you then that I love Godfather of Harlem as well. So it’s so great to connect with you again!
What drew you to create Godfather of Harlem. It’s incredible prestige TV, it’s always great to see the depth of characters, dynamics, and interactions!
CB: First of all, that’s entirely due to my friend Paul Eckstein (First Wave, Narcos, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) who passed last year. He was my best friend and Paul told me about Bumpy Johnson who put his grandmother through secretarial school. He told me that Bumpy was this gangster/philanthropist in Harlem and over the course of time, we developed several projects – the movie Hoodlum in the 90s with Laurence Fishburne (What's Love Got To Do With It, The Matrix franchise, John Wick franchise) playing Bumpy in the 1930s and then 20 years later, Markuann Smith (King of Paper Chasin', The Hit Boys Redemption, The Realtor) and Jim Acheson (Numb3rs, For the People, By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem) producers came to me and Paul and said are you interested in doing Bumpy in the 60's?
Ultimately we decided yes – let’s do it. They were bringing Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, Southpaw, Black Panther) to the table. So lo and behold, we develop the show Paul and I and there you have it! Godfather of Harlem which we wanted to make it different in the way that we sought to do that was that Bumpy and Malcolm X were friends. So the friendship and the ability to explore both gangsterism and also the Civil Rights Movement was something that we felt was going to give us a fresh angle.
AM: It’s amazing because as you’re watching it, it’s like you have 80 onions that are all unlayering. You have these iconic people from so many sociodemographic areas layered in – it’s truly amazing. The styling of the show, the setting – what do you love most about it?
CB: I think that I love most about it is the actors that we have brought to the table. In other words, when you have Forest Whitaker playing the lead role, that’s when you can get a Vincent D’Onofrio (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Daredevil series, Daredevil: Born Again series), a Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, The Residence) etc. etc. Watching these people – obviously writing this show, is difficult to blend all of these historical characters into this story, but then watching the actors make it come to life is my greatest pleasure!
So I love editing the episodes because I’m looking at the footage of the actors and the work that they have done.
AM: What should we keep an eye out for in S4?
CB: S4 is explosive if I do say so myself! We’ve got Frank Lucas coming to town straight off the bus to basically challenge Bumpy Johnson before they end up becoming pals. Then, Bumpy’s daughter Elise (Antoinette Crow-Legacy) joins the Black Panther movement in the wake of Malcom’s death and Bumpy isn’t too cool with that! He supports what the Panthers are doing, but not so much his daughter doing it!
AM: Right!
CB: So that’s going to create some friction! So we feel like we have 2 driving story lines this year. The introduction of Frank Lucas and Bumpy’s continued fight against the Italians and then on the Civil Rights side, we have Elise joining the Panthers and participating in their actions!
AM: We truly appreciate you taking the time! It’s an incredible show and anytime your name is on a project, it’s going to be amazing!
CB: Thank you! I appreciate that!
IG @cbrancato86
After chatting with Chris Brancato, we wanted to speak with the cast. We started by talking with Rome Flynn (How To Get Away with Murder, Grey's Anatomy, Chicago Fire) who is joining the cast as Frank Lucas. We wanted to know what he enjoys about this series, what it's like to play this notable figure, and what he hopes fans will walk away with after seeing this season.
ATHLEISURE MAG: We have been fans of yours since How To Get Away with Murder so it’s so nice to talk with you today!
ROME FLYNN: It’s nice to talk with you.
AM: What drew you to Godfather or Harlem?
RF: I mean, I couldn’t find a reason not to! It was a lot of positives you know - working with Forest Whitaker was at the top of the list and then working with Chris Brancato because I knew his work from Narcos and also just being a fan of the show in general. I was like, to be on a show like this would be a dream as an actor.
AM: You’re playing Frank Lucas which is amazing and exciting. How did you approach playing him?
RF: Yeah, it’s a different process to playing someone who lived and breathed on this Earth and left an impact whether it’s good or bad. There was a heavy sense of responsibility, care, and just an attention to detail on discovering who Frank was and trying not to necessarily imitate who he was but finding his essence and bringing that which was extremely important to me because I don’t think that we have seen a version of him like this.
I was afforded an amazing opportunity to play a character that people know, good or bad – we’ll see.
AM: What did you enjoy about playing him, bringing him to life, making him your own especially because regardless of what you know about him, if you think about American Gangster for example – there is that version of Frank Lucas. So it’s exciting to see it and what did you like about doing that?
RF: Yeah, I got to step into the shoes of a man who was equally charming, but also cutthroat and also unpredictable and dangerous. He was also troubled too. As an actor, you want to play a character who is fully dimensional and is carrying a lot of baggage, trauma, and who is still struggling with their purpose and why they are where they are in life. That’s just really fun and rich to play.
It wasn’t just about being a gangster or playing someone who is put in those situations. It was about playing a man who is navigating his life who is in these situations and trying to find the commonalities with a person like this.
AM: What do you want fans to walk away from after seeing S4 and getting to see Frank Lucas and his interactions and dynamics with everyone else this season?
RF: I just hope that the moment that the season is done that the people are clamoring for another one! That’s how I felt just being a fan of the show too! But yeah, I think that there is still so much story to be told. You guys when you love this show, you should talk about it and share it! There is no other show on TV like it that has this sort of historical precedence and is really honoring the details and honoring people during that time. We’ve got to keep this show going! We have to make sure that people see this show because it’s important.
IG @romeflynn
We were excited to sit down with Lucy Fry (Wolf Creek, Mr. Church, Bright) and Michael Raymond James (True Blood, Jack Reacher, See) who plays Stella Gigante and Joseph Colombo respectfully. Lucy has been in the world of Godfather of Harlem since the inaugural season and Michael came into this series during S3. As they have a number of scenes together, we wanted to know more about how they came to the show, what they love about it and more.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so great to connect with you guys as I’m a fan of your work as well as the show!
What drew you guys to want to be part of Godfather of Harlem?
LF: When I first read the script, I guess I really wanted to get into the world of the 60s, gangsters in NY, I thought it was really cool. I'm a fan of Forest Whitaker, so I was really excited to be able to work with him. Yeah that was about 6 yars ago when I first joined. My reasons for loving it have continued to evolve over the seasons, but that was the initial impulse.
MRJ: Yeah, for me, when I got the offer, and when I heard that Forest had asked for me, you know when Forest Whitaker says that he wants to work with you, run you don’t walk. For me, it was kind of a no-brainer.
and when I heard that Forest had asked for me, you know when Forest Whitaker says that he wants to work with you, run you don’t walk. For me, it was kind of a no-brainer.
AM: Obviously you guys play Stella Gigante and Joseph Colombo. How do you approach playing these characters?
LF: I guess there is a mixture of reality and fiction for me anyway with both of us as the story is inspired by real events, but it’s fiction and Stella is a fictional character. So I approached it by looking at the context of the time and the world of NY in the 60s and the gangs and reading the Chin’s – one of his kids actual autobiographies. But then finding the things that are personal to me to fill the fictional world with.
MRJ: You know, Joe Colombo, was a real person and there is an element of – you want to be sort of respectful of that and stay honest to some of that. But, we are doing a show that is historical fiction as Lucy talked about and so it really is all about the material. As an actor, you get the material, you break down that material as opposed to me having to do an impersonation of Joe Colombo. We’re creating a whole new Joe Colombo and Stella Gigante based on the pages that we get.
AM: What have you loved about playing these characters and bringing them to life?
LF: I’ve really loved Stella’s journey over the 4 seasons. She’s really come into herself and grown into a woman that is hungry for power and manipulating the men around her and playing the game that she has learned from her father (Chin Gigante played by Vincent D’Onofrio). It’s been really fun to go from pushing her father away and having all of these romance things to someone who is taking power for herself.
I think that her relationship with Colombo is very informative in that development.
MRJ: Playing the game as Lucy said is really fun and there’s so much nuance and so much in between the lines where it’s not really just the words that you say. It’s the 4 moves ahead that you’re kind of playing. It’s like 3-Dimensional chess with every script. So that’s always fun to play things where there is a lot of nuance and subtext to kind of put your shoulder behind.
LF: I think that the gang world, it kind of gives you a lot more subtext than most genres.
AM: Right.
MRJ: Right.
LF: Because it’s like are they going to kill me? Aren’t they going to kill me? It’s kind of like a constant subtext ha!
MRJ: Ha – but also the people man! Lucy and I show up on set and it’s giggles immediately and sometimes it’s hard to break free from that, but what’s always fun is that the giggles are always just underneath.
LF: Right
MRJ: And you see it come out a little bit in the work. Just a little bit – like holding back laughs and it’s a very serious scene where we’re talking about murder.
LF: It’s quite fun and you can tell that our characters really enjoy the game!
IG @lstowell
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | MGM+/The Godfather of Harlem
Read the MAR ISSUE #111 of Athleisure Mag and see MGM+ GODFATHER OF HARLEM | Return to Harlem in mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | ABC The Bachelor/Maarten de Boer
S2 of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor has been greenlit and is slated to film from Jun - Aug with the premiere being sometime this fall. We don’t have all the details yet, but we do know that Mel Owens (NFL veteran, formerly the founder of Evolution Wear and is currently a sports injury lawyer) will be the lead. He has not previously competed on the show. When we find out about who will be competing in his season, we’ll let you know!
As we do each season, we have shared these images (we’ll update their ABC gallery images) and we’ll begin to make the best guess on who will be going to Hometowns! We can’t wait to see how Grant and Jesse Palmer will vibe as he continues through the season and what surprises will be along the way.
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/Anne Marie Fox
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
It’s the finale! We will see how it all goes down as well as getting a recap once the show transitions into After the Rose! Jesse Palmer welcomes us and lets us know that we’re definitely in for a ride here and we’ll have to wait until the very end to see how it all plays out on tonight’s ABC’s The Bachelor!
We’re ready to see what happens with Julianna and Litia and up first is that each of the women get to meet Grant’s family. First up is Litia. She meets his mom, sister, and his father. It’s the first time in 10 years that apparently, his mom and dad have been in the same room! You can tell that she gets along well with his parents and even his sister says that she liked her from the beginning. The family likes her, they both let each know that they love one another which is the first time that she has ever said that to anyone. Their date seems like it went well.
In Julianna’s date you can see that her and Grant are quite a match. She lets his mom know that she has not said that she is in love with him and is hesitant and has been holding back a bit. His mom sees that she may not be there yet. She tells him that if she doesn’t say that she loves him, he needs to walk away. Interestingly enough, she does tell him that she loves him so now it’s interesting to see how everything will play out.
We come back to the stage and see Charity, Gerry, and Clayton who provide their opinions on what it’s like to make those decisions. They give their thoughts and even Joan gets to weigh in as well!
Now that both women have met his family, they will not have their last individual dates. Julianna and Grant are in Punta Cana getting time together as they sail around the island. You can see that they have a great bond with one another. During their night date, he asks her if she will break his heart as an engagement is coming up. She acknowledges that she has held back, but that she doesn’t want to hurt him. She lets him know that through this process, she knows that she can commit to him and that she feels that they can handle the road ahead and she says that she is ready.
Litia’s date includes riding horse and there was a bit of rain that allowed them to talk and connect again. Later on they talk as they try to figure out how they would navigate their life as he wants time to travel and she wants have children. She let him know that when you are with someone, it’s about compromise and she is ready for that.
As he decides who he will pick, his father comes by and tells him that he will make the right decision. We’re back with Neil Lane as he selects a ring for the woman that he intends to ask.
As we finally arrive to the venue which is raining, Grant has to let Jesse know who he will see first. He seems that he is still undecided and he lets him know that he has gone back and forth with his decision.
The first one out of the limo is Litia who makes her way to Grant. Although he said sweet things to her, he opted to not get engaged to her. He definitely let her feel that things were going in a certain direction throughout their time together and to change it up at the end after promising her that it would be them - is shocking. We hear more about what he promised her when she chatted with Jesse and it’s such a shame to see that how he presented himself and what happened is so far apart. Grant makes his way on the stage and Litia tells him that she thinks he started out with great intentions, but along the way he continued to say things to her where she had no way of thinking that he wasn’t sure.
We’re back in Punta Cana and we had to remember that we still have to wait to hear what happens with Julianna! He tells us that he wants to be with her. We know that she wants to be with him as well and ultimately, he does ask to marry her. We can see how happy they look while they are in the Dominican Republic. She receives the final rose.
Grant is back on stage chatting with Jesse after being engaged to Julianna. We find out that they are still together, the families are excited to be together now that it’s public. We also learn that Grant will move to Boston. Jesse gives them a trip to Italy where they can learn more about their pizza making.
RECEIVED A ROSE AT THE FINALE | Juliana.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Litia
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
We're a few days out from S4 of Power Book III: Raising Kanan with its season premiere on STARZ on March 7th. The Power Universe is always pulling us in as we see how they navigate in their world, new faces, and the importance of family dynamics. If you have yet to catch up on the season, now is the time! There are no spoilers here if you have already watched the series; however, if you haven't there may be references in previous episodes.
We sat down with 3 members of the cast London Brown (Ballers, American Soul, Back to the Good Life) who plays Marvin Thomas, Hailey Kilgore (Amazing Stories, Respect, Cinnamon) who plays Laverne "Jukebox" Ganner, and Malcolm Mays (Southpaw, Snowfall, Them) who plays Lou-Lou Thomas. We wanted to know more about their characters, how they see them, where we find them, and chat about what we can look forward to as we get ready for the upcoming episodes.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so great to connect with you all. London, we have talked ahead of every season and it’s so good to check in with you again. Hailey, I had the pleasure of chatting with you prior to S2 I believe which was great. Malcolm, it’s nice to connect with you! What do you enjoy about playing your characters Marvin, Jukebox, and Lou Lou before we delve into the season?
LONDON BROWN: For me, it’s been fun for them to allow me to play the character my way. The fact that they were open and willing to hear the ideas that I had on Marvin and I could tell that the writers started to write for me! That’s always great when the writers know that you are going to do something with their words. I was able to feel that and I knew that they had figured it out.
I’m like, “yo, throw it at me – whatever it is!” Let it be emotional, fun – whatever you want to do. Do you want guns? Do you want him holding some food? I’m ready to have a good time! I just appreciate the writers for even allowing me and trusting me to deliver their words properly, you know?
AM: It’s always fun when I see you on screen London as you always own that screen and it’s great to see how we you have navigated playing Martin.
Hailey and Malcom what about Juke and Lou Lou?
HAILEY KILGORE: Juke is a badass! If I was walking around unafraid like that and willing to be bold would be amazing. I don’t think that I have that personally.
MALCOLM MAYS: I kind of like that he’s kind of a mark, that’s kind of nice. I’m not like that and I don’t get to relate or empathize with mark ass behavior in my life. Everybody is not built of steel, you have to pretend to be built of steel. It’s nice to occupy that space sometimes. In life, much like Black women, Black men don’t get that opportunity to be vulnerable with that physical consequence.
AM: As we wait for S4 to start, where did we leave your characters last season and where are we picking up with them again?
HK: Ooo
MM: Ha! There’s so many seasons!
LB: You know, that’s a good question! I would say that with the last season, I feel like Marvin – you guys are catching him still in the strive of his journey and he’s trying to find his real groove. He’s trying to be a guy that is taking on more responsibility for himself and not trying to be sonned by Raq (Patina Miller). So moving forward, in this season, you see Marvin taking more initiative and making his own moves outside of whatever his sister has going on.
That’s his way of trying to be a little more independent and to take back his position in and within himself. That way he feels validated and so the season of things that Marvin and Stefano Marchetti (Tony Danza) share is because of that. Marvin is trying to find someone that really appreciates his work because for so long, he feels like his loyalty and things like that were slept on! This season, he’s like, “yo, I’m about to figure it out on my own!”
AM: What are you excited about for S4 that fans should be looking forward to?
MM: I think that I just got out of rehab so they should be looking forward to a more sober and less crash out Lou – that’s what I remember!
HK: Listen, I think the fans have been demanding this switch to flip in Juke and I think that they’re going to get that this season.
LB: I’m excited for the fans to see the real family side of the show. I think that sometimes, because it is in the Power Universe, I think that the fans only think about you know, the dramatics, the street life, but I think that this season, the audience will really be able to see that yo, they’re involved in all of the nefarious things, but they are a real family with real issues and son/daughter dynamics – they’re trying to figure it all out. But at the end of the day, they really are family. The family stuff that the audience will finally get to see is going to finally be able to explain and answer some questions from previous seasons. Oh, that’s why Raq and Marvin have this dynamic because of that, this is why Lou is doing what he’s doing – we kind of break it down some more and that has been fun!
AM: It’s incredible how you have all brought these characters to life and we’re looking forward to how we see it on screen soon! It’s great to chat with all of you to get your takes as we get ready for S4 and I always love each season catching up with you.
LB: Thank you so much, I appreciate you!
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | STARZ/POWR BOOK III: Raising Kanan
The beginning of the year makes us think about new projects we're taking on, our goals, and it's that time of year that you begin about getting your home in order for upcoming events and gatherings as Spring is on the way! We caught up with power couple Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson who we know from an array of HGTV shows including Married to Real Estate and Property Virgins. They talk with us on how they got into Real Estate, Interior Design, and construction. They also talk about how they work with one another, aesthetics in design for our homes and how they have partnered with TurboTax to keep their business flow on track.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so great to meet both of you!
EGYPT SHERROD: You as well!
MIKE JACKSON: How are you?
AM: I am very good! I have been a fan of yours Egypt since your WBLS days.
ES: Oh wow! Thank you!
AM: Of course I have enjoyed seeing you on HGTV as well Mike.
It's great to see you guys on, Married to Real Estate to see your power coupleship, navigating properties, and projects. How did both of you come to working in real estate, home renovation, and design?
MJ: Okay. Well, for me, mine is pretty simple as it pertains to real estate. My wife said, “get your license or I'm not going to be your friend.” – no haha!
ES: It kind of went like that!
MJ: So you know, proximity, for me!
AM: Right!
MJ: On a serious note, you know, she came to me one day. We were having lunch, and she mentioned, “babe, I'm giving a lot of referrals away. Why don’t you get your license? This way, we can keep it all in-house and it will save us a lot of money and garner us a lot of money. So, in that moment, I thought about it. And the next day, I was right at it, you know, taking the classes getting the material and got my license to be a Real Estate Agent. My wife’s a Broker Agent, but however, at this moment, my license is parked so at any moment, I can unpark it and actually practice, right?
AM: Wow!
ES: But, he's so busy running the construction and that part of the business, that I think that that only allows all of us to super serve our clients.
MJ: Yeah, that's right.
I'm sorry. I got into all of that and looked at her and got flabbergasted.
ES: Whatever ha! Stop flirting, stay focused!
MJ: What was the rest of that question?
AM: Well, how well, just how both of you came to this because it's amazing?
ES: Yeah, well, you said, you remembered me from WBLS. I think that's a perfect example of how we don't have to be a one trick pony at all.
AM: Exactly.
ES: I was obviously a radio personality, but developed a passion and love for Real Estate investing so much that I got my license and became an agent, and I had a dual career which, is then, what led me to television because, as I would talk about on the radio all of my exciting exploits in real estate and making it funny for people, HGTV heard and came calling. That started Property Virgins and then Flipping Virgins and then together Married to Real Estate! Actually, it started on Mike's phone during the Covid years – Married to Real Estate did.
AM: Oh wow!
ES: Many people don't know that story, but you know, it was a natural evolution that really developed through a passion and a thirst for building and leaving a legacy for our family.
MJ: That’s right!
And for me as it pertains to, you know, because you asked for Real Estate, construction, and design, I have always been doing construction with my grandfather and uncle since I was a kid.
AM: Oh wow.
ES: They have their own construction company and they would pull me in and bring me on because they sat aside and saw that I was able to do this stuff without being asked to do it. They saw something in me and said, "listen, come along with us and follow suit,” which I did. And I'm so glad I did. I've always been a creative. I enjoy seeing something, start from nothing, and become something. And in construction, that's what we do all day, you know. We tear it down, and we build it back up. And it was, it was inevitable because I was doing construction while I was touring around the world as a DJ.
AM: Ok, now.
ES: It was like I was DJing at 4am and then at 7am, I'm on somebody’s construction site. It was always there for me and then in New York City, working with the Local 28 Trade and then coming to Georgia and owning my own company, it was like, inevitable.
AM: Well, are there 3 key design elements that are going to be trends in 2025? Whether you know you're here in New York and looking to renovate your space or maybe you're buying home. What are 3 trends that we should be keeping an eye out for?
ES: So number one, as a designer, I'm the principal of a design firm as well at Indigo Road. The one thing I tell all my designers is to be classic. Really embrace the client's aesthetic. Don't follow the trend. Why? Because trends come and go, and if we start designing our home based on trends, you're going to lose money fast every year, every 2 years you're going to want to redesign. But if you do something classic and timeless, then, you can change things up with art and pillows, which you know are a lot more affordable!
So what I will tell you that some of the things that I think are going to be timeless: #1 is, you can change a space, and this is becoming even more popular - you can change the space just with a can of paint. It's inexpensive, you can do it as many times as you want to and you can give the space a totally different feel. So, doing color drenches – color drenches are when the moldings, the walls, the ceiling, everything is the same color, and so you have this amazing, beautiful, colorful canvas to furnish. We're bringing color back, because we went through the years where everything was beige and everything was gray. Now, everybody is embracing color again. So you’re gonna see a lot more of that in 2025!
Arches. We’re bringing arches back (singing it to the melody of Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack).
AM: Nice!
ES: Yes beautiful arches are coming back and that’s coming back in with the wabi-sabi aesthetic (Editor’s Note: Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that embraces imperfection and transience. It’s a philosophy that encourages people to find beauty in imperfection and accept the natural cycle of life. In interior design, it focuses on natural and weathered materials. It often has a rustic and organic feel).
We're also bringing more of the outdoors in with organic luxe and I truly think and this is classic, right? When we were all locked inside for a few years, everybody wanted to get out, to feel nature, and touch.
AM: Yes.
ES: So now, this is being reflected in design where everybody's, like, open my house up. No, I don't mean open floor plan, I mean, open the entire house up. I want just a courtyard of plants in my house.
I want you to knock out the entire back of my house and make it a door that just opens up to the backyard, you know?
AM: Yeah!
ES: Let the outdoors in because I want to feel nature. So, organic luxe as an aesthetic I think it's here to stay, bringing plants and using natural wood.
AM: I love that.
Tell me a bit about the Marriage and Money podcast you guys have. I love this.
MJ: Oh wow, where do we start with that? So, the Marriage and Money podcast is exactly what you hear – we deal with marriage and we talk about money and everything in between. We've had a plethora of guests that have been amazing. It's another idea where you know, in the midst of nowhere I said, “babe, I think we need to reach a different audience, you know, let's create this podcast because we have more to say.”
ES: And I said, no. I said, do not give me another job. Please don’t put anything else on the plate.
AM: Yeah.
ES: Mike is full of ideas! He’s totally the idea guy. I’m the – what do you call me, the Wide Receiver or the Running Back?
MJ: Wide Receiver.
ES: Yeah, and he’ll get me on board with it and I’ll just start running it and working with it!
But no, I'll say this, he was right yet, again. It's fun. It's a catharsis for us and it’s where we let our hair down, because even though our guests and we're talking money, and we're getting into marriage - we have so much freaking fun on the show!
MJ: Yes!
ES: So, we’re very excited!
MJ: And our audience and our fans and our fams – F-A-M-S - fams that’s what we call them because they're more like family. They get to see a different side of us that they may not be used to to get familiar with, right? And one of the things that I love about the podcast is that, you know, it causes others to think and to look at each other when they're listening or watching the podcast because I can't tell you how many times folks have come up to us and say, “listen, I sat down with my husband or my wife and we worked it out because of that particular episode.”
ES: Yeah, or even you know what it allows us to do is teach people through the schools of hard knocks that we had to learn from. Be it in marriage, you know, but also in business, we have made a lot of mistakes, and we're very transparent about it. We could have done things easier and faster, but now we have resources and tools, whereas before we didn't.
MJ: Right.
ES: So on our podcast, we opened Pandora's Box by providing education and resources as well.
AM: You guys have partnered with TurboTax. So, in thinking of like, how important is transparency, especially in couples, you know when you're doing your taxes together? Why did you guys want to work with the brand? I mean transparency and finances is key!
ES: People often ask, how have y'all been together for over 21 years like you seem so perfect!
AM: Yup!
ES: The first thing that we do is chuckle because we've had our hard moments and a lot of them have evolved around business and money.
MJ: Mmm hmm.
ES: It's revolved around taxes. He's the doer, right? And then I'm the organizer. I’d be sitting at the kitchen table with receipts falling out of my ears and my hair just trying to dig us out and to make sense of it all.
MJ: We literally just said a few months ago, when we were doing taxes, that we need to let someone else do this for us from now on. And it made perfect sense for us to partner with TurboTax you know, moving forward.
ES: Then, when you learn, you're like, wait a minute? What have we been doing, all of our lives right? Like, why didn’t we know? So, for us, obviously, we are a champion for the spirit of entrepreneurship. We want people to step out, you know, step on faith and go after the life and careers of their dreams. We want them so we don't want to scare them, which is why we said, you know, what? Let's go out and let everybody know what tools are available. And so, what we loved about this partnership with TurboTax is that number one, they are experts, and they literally have folks who specialize in business taxes. TurboTax Business provides small business owners and solopreneurs access to unlimited live expert help to get your taxes prepared and filed.
That's not what many of us went to school for. We don't want to sit around here doing this. We don't know either. We don’t know all of the deductions that are available for us. So then we lose money because we simply didn't know, trying to save money and not wanting to pay somebody else. They're affordable so, even if you're smaller, just starting out and then they also offer year-round tracking. So, they give you that support year around, because you know with business, you have to file taxes more than once! They provides unlimited year-round expert support at no extra cost, and provides 100% audit protection and accuracy guaranteed. Businesses are matched with a small business tax expert who will securely prepare, sign, and file their taxes virtually.
AM: Exactly.
ES: These are some of the incredible tools that we found value in for our lives and for our business to help us simplify. In short, to get accuracy and peace of mind.
AM: That part.
MJ: I also love how they have the option of integrating their platforms between MailChimp. Turbotax and QuickBooks.
ES: Many people don't even know that they're the same company. But again, that's a business solution. That's an all-in-one package for you to be able to really level up your game and simplify.
I’d love to just kind of encourage everybody as my middle name is Bargain Value and I love giving value to others! So there's something going on that everybody needs to know about. So if you get your business taxes done with TurboTax, you can also get 20% off of your personal taxes right now. So you need to go to turbotax.com/business for more details on that.
AM: Are there any other projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for because I'm always seeing you guys doing tons of stuff?
ES: As far as what we have coming up – we’re talking about March 12th S4 Married to Real Estate is coming at you so put that on your calendar! The podcast.
MJ: The podcast, we’re getting ready to do more episodes of that!
A Thousand Women.
ES: A Thousand Women Owned is my non-profit that we were about to do the formal launch of next month! Our goal is to help, support, provide resources for, and encouragement for a thousand women-owned businesses.
AM: Wow!
MJ: Yes yes
ES: BY 2030, We want to help a thousand women own businesses level up to get the grants that they need to start or to continue running as well.
MJ: And then you can catch somebody I know on, HGTV's Smart Home 2025, as the host!
AM: Ok Mike!
ES: Mike is hosting!
AM: Oh nice, that's amazing. Well, it's always good to see you guys anf I look forward in seeing your upcoming projects.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 113 PG Egypt Sherrod + Mike Jackson | PG 114 TurboTax
Read the FEB ISSUE #110 of Athleisure Mag and see THE POWER OF YOUR HOME | HGTV’s Egypt Sherrod + Mike Jackson in mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/Anne Marie Fox
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
Last week, we enjoyed the Women Tell All and we got to hear from the previous women that were on the show. It’s time for Fantasy Suites on this week’s ABC’s The Bachelor! We find ourselves in the Dominican Republic with Grant who takes some time to play basketball with Jesse Palmer. We know that his first date is with Julianna and she’s catching up with Daisy from Joey’s season - to get her advice. Grant and Julianna go ATV’ing together in the jungle. He lets her know that he likes her and is falling for her. He feels that although she has told him that, that she is still holding back as well. He hopes that she can open up more so that he can get to know her better. They chat with one another at dinner, dig deeper, he says he’s falling in love with her and it seems like she is very happy. When the Fantasy Suites card comes out, they decide to spend time together and he feels that it feels right to be with her. He’s looking forward to being with her away from all of the noise and just to spend time with her. It seems like they both had a great night and Juliana lets him know that she will spiral for a bit while waiting to see him again.
We move onto Zoe who is a bit nervous. This is also the first time that she will have 1-on-1 time with him. She gets the chance to talk with Rachel who was on Joey’s season as she also got the least amount of time when she was competing for him. It will be interesting to see her interaction with him because she has only had stolen moments with him as opposed to an official solo date.
They meet up and learn that they will do a yoga date where they will have to be quiet the entire time. The fact that she has had the least amount of time with him to talk, why would they get a date where there is no talking? There is something to be said for this style of date, it’s just tough when she hasn’t had solo time with him. It’ll be interesting to see what the dinner portion of the date will be.
As they sit down for dinner, he acknowledges that although they didn’t have a 1-on-1 date, he always knew he liked her and wanted to meet her family at Hometowns. Hearing them chat felt like they were in week 1 or even week 3 - we can’t imagine that he will select her even though they went to the Fantasy Suites.
They finish their date with a picnic on the beach the next morning. It seems like they had a good time and he got to know more about her.
We end the Fantasy Suites with Litia - it will be interesting to see how their date goes. She meets up with Kaity from Zach’s season (which she ended up winning). We remember how when Katie was in her season, she was so sad to hear how Zach was having relations with the other women during Fantasy Suites. She validates Litia’s feelings and lets her know it is ok to say that she doesn’t want to know about what happened with the other women. It’s also interesting to hear Litia say that if it is them in the end, they can talk about what happened previously, but she doesn’t want to know what is happening.
We finally see Grant and Litia together and they are going ziplining but she lets us know that she doesn’t like adventure so this is not the date for her. She is excited for her date, but she is apprehensive because she doesn’t want to engage in physical intimacy due to this being a week of dates where this could be happening with other women. As the date continues to dinner, they talk about her being a wife and mother and he knows her timeline is much quicker than his. Although he wanted to delay children for awhile, he recognizes that if he is with her, he will have to push that up to compromise. She also lets him know that she doesn’t want to hear about his relationships with other women that are still there and he lets her know that he respects and understands where she is coming from. He gives her the Fantasy Suite card. She reads it and says that although she thinks that he is a great guy, she lets him know that sex is not on the table for her. He tells her he respects it and he likes her maturity and he knows what her priorty is. He says that he loves her and you can see that she is visibly moved. She tells him that love means safety and support. They go to the room to continue chatting.
The next morning, we see them enjoying breakfast together. You can definitely see a connection with one another and she had let him know earlier that although he met her family in Utah, she would move.
With all 3 dates complete, it’s time to see who will continue to the finale. Jesse meets up with Grant and they chat ahead of his decision. Ultimately, he selects Litia and Juliana.
RECEIVED A ROSE DURING HOMETOWNS | Litia and Juliana.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Zoe
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/Christopher Willard
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
We’re getting towards the end of the season of ABC’s The Bachelor! Last week was Hometowns and next week will be Fantasy Suites - that means tonight is the Women Tell All where we catch up with those who were eliminated and some of the story lines that surrounded Grant and the cast. We also get to hear Jesse Palmer’s take on all of it.
We look at the season overall in terms of an extended trailer and Jesse digs in on some of the moments and storylines that took place during the women’s time on the show. Of course, they mention that Zoe took Grant away for an hour during the group basketball date, he also talks about Carolina and how she became a villain (of course, she shows up to the WTA with a jacket with some of her “famous” quotes), and they try to get into what took place between her and Rose that also became a source of contention as well. Carolina leaves the set as they go to commercial and no one is surprised!
Coming back from commercial, Carolina is still not there but Alexe talks about their relationship with Jesse on the hot seat. Everyone thought that they would go the distance - or at least Hometowns, but Jesse brings another love of her life - the No Drama Llama! During their conversation Carolina comes back walking in front of a camera (couldn’t production have made sure that didn’t happen)? We then hear from Sarafiena who was also someone we thought would make it to Hometowns. Last up is Dina who gets to chat with Jesse. We kind of felt that when her family didn’t come to their date, that would be an issue for him. But it’s not like she didn’t have any representation and it’s a shame that he let her feel that them not being there wouldn’t be an issue for him. It’s an interesting take that because there were some in her family that was interested in meeting Grant and those that weren’t, she didn’t want to create division so she opted to just have her friends there. Of course, Carolina is the final person who comes to the hot seat. She continues to deflect and not take accountability while asking and hoping that Grant will be able to do so!
Grant finally makes his way onto the stage. He talks with a number of the women to talk about their time in the house and lets them know that ultimately, he was looking for the best fit for him. He also chats with Jesse and has a Chubby Bunny competition with him - Jesse won. We also get a bit of a peek into the season finale as well.
RECEIVED A ROSE DURING HOMETOWNS | Litia, Julianna, and Zoe.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE |
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
This season has moved quickly - it’s Hometowns on ABC’s The Bachelor. Grant heads to Boston to meet up with Julianna. They’re going to enjoy Little Italy in her hometown and he learns how to make pizza. They pick flowers together and they even make canolis which is a fun way for them to continue to meet one another.
They make their way to her home and he meets so many people and has 1-on-1 conversations with her parents and you can see that they get along. He lets her know that he is falling in love with her as she told him that last week!
He heads out to NYC to enjoy his next Hometown with Zoe. We see them in Central Park walking around. We know that Grant is originally from NJ so it’s familiar for him. He’s going to meet her family and friends. In addition to her working in tech, she takes him to a shoot with BRIDE’S magazine where they will do 3 looks together. They also meet her family and get to know them more. It seems that it went well although we don’t see them going the distance.
His next date takes him to Wyoming to meet Litia. He is nervous as he knows that not being Mormon may be an issue. They ride horses in the countryside together. They meet her family and then her mom lets her know that she has a surprise and there are even more people there then who he met at Julianna’s! Litia’s mom lets her know that she needs to let Grant know how she feels.
The final Hometowns takes place in Chicago with Dina! She tells him that her family is not going to meet with him because they don’t like the process although it is not a reflection on him. She lets him know that if they go forward, he would get to meet them and they would support their relationship. In addition, she lets him know that they will get to be with her friends, but she is nervous about what this will mean for their relationship. Meeting her friends, we think that he can see how they are her family as well and they reassure him that when he finally meets her family, he will be embraced! The fact that none of her 11 siblings showed up is quite a pill to swallow - you would think that someone would have stepped forward.
With the Hometowns being over, Grant meets up with Joey to get his perspective on how he needs to look at the days ahead. While Joey chats with him, the women are back talking with one another. They realize that there isn’t much time left and they talk about their Hometown dates. Dina hears how everyone had people (and in many cases large families there).
The rose ceremony brings the 4 ladies together as he makes his choices. We finally see Jesse Palmer as he decides between Dina and Zoe for the final rose. playing golf and chatting with one another.
RECEIVED A ROSE | Litia, Julianna, and Zoe.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Dina
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
In this month’s issue, our front and back cover story is undefeated boxer and promoter with 15 Major World Champion over 5 weightclass and entrepreneur Floyd Mayweather. We talked with him about his phenomenal career, how he approached his fights, exhibition boxing, his latest projects 1O1 supplements, and his real estate empire.
We sat down with HBO's CELTICS CITY director Lauren Stowell and Producer Gabe Honig to talk about this 9 episode docuseries which will debut on on Mar 3rd. They talk with us on how they approached covering the 75 years of the Boston Celtics as well as being a dynasty with their 18 Championships that they have won.
We also talked with Alex Donnelly, the director of ROKU's United States of Rugby which looks at growing the game in the US and specifically Major League Rugby's Chicago Hounds. We also talked with 2 of the stars from this franchise Noah Brown and Charlie Abel.
S4 of STARZ's Power Book III: Raising Kanan will drop on Mar 7th. We caught up with the cast London Brown, Hailey Kilgore, and Malcolm Mays to find out more about who they play and what we can expect from the upcoming season.
We took some time with HGTV's Married to Real Estate stars and power couple, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson. We talk about how they got into real estate, being an agent, broker, interior design, and construction. They also talk about how they got into TV, upcoming projects, and small businesses.
During NYFW FW25 which took place early Feb, we saw a number of runway shows, presentations, and events that gave us insight to trends and aesthetics that we can look forward to later this month. We share our finds from Frederick Anderson, NYMD, FILIPINXT, and more.
We make our way to Ireland to sit down with Chef Vincent Crepel of Terre to talk about how he got into culinary, where he trained as well as what we can expect when we are coming into his restaurant.
This month's The Art of the Snack takes us to DC with Tapori which recently opened on H Street and has a menu of Indian street food and phenomenal cocktails. We chatted with restaurateur Dante Datta about this new spot.
This month's Athleisure List comes from The Class, created by Taryn Toomey and is located in Tribeca as well as in Santa Monica. In addition, we also have the Gayn Museum in Jaipur, India which has a number of stunning apparel and accessories that can be viewed via private appointment.
This month we have our 9PLAYLIST from NFL Super Bowl Champion Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from Team USA Olympic Gymnast Nastia Liukin (G1,S2,B1). This month's THE 9LIST 9CH3FS comes from Chef Jeffrey Budnechky of Apocalypse BBQ, Chef PJ Calapa of Marea Beverly Hills and our THE 9LIST 9B-L-D comes from Sommelier Belinda Chang as she shares what wines she would pair with Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
Read the FEB ISSUE #110 of Athleisure Mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/Anne Marie Fox
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
We left Madrid and now we’ve moved onto Edinburgh, Scotland for this week’s ABC’s The Bachelor. We see the women walking around the city and taking in the culture and we know this one is key since Hometowns are next week!
We also catch up with Grant Ellis and Jesse Palmer playing golf and chatting with one another. Jesse meets up with the women to let them know that this week is key and that there will be no roses on the dates, but there will be 2 1-on-1 dates during the week. We learn that Julianna is getting the first 1-on-1 date.
Their date takes them away on a helicopter - the other women see them lift off. They arrive at their castle for the day. Upon entering the castle, they meet a stylist who allows them to select a look for an activity that they will enjoy later on. After a selecting a formal outfit, they walk into a ballroom where a quartet plays for them and they are joined by others dancing.
Back with the rest of the women, the next date card arrives. Sarafiena, Alexe. Carolina, Dina, and Zoe are all on the group date together. Litia receives the 1-on-1. Zoe is bummed that she is the only person who has not gotten the 1-on-1. Zoe is sad and opts to go to bed, but Carolina of course is always the wet blanket of the group.
Back on Julianna’s and Grant’s date, they are having dinner together and getting to know one another a lot more. They connect on a series of similarities and we can tell that Julianna is a shoe in to go to Hometowns.
At the group date, they take in the culture of dancing, eating food of the region, and more. Carolina in her confessional says that dating as a group sucks and she doesn’t recomment it and that she will try to stay lowkey - I don’t see it. They begin to play games and to have a good time. Carolina of course goes back to pulling him away from everyone by refusing to play and interact with everyone else. The rest of the women on the date are ariing their grievances with one another about how Carolina operates and steals Grant at every turn. He was gone for the rest of the day. Now, the group date is in the second portion of the date. He lets them know he has fun, but the other women feel that their time was taken and they couldn’t share more about themselves.
The women let you Carolina know that stealing him throughout the date was rude and they can’t understand why she continues to pout and look like a damsel in distress. Dina also tells Grant that Carolina is a lot and he needs to think about whether he is really a match for her. Although he has heard this for weeks, he values Dina’s opinion and feels that there is more credability to what he has been hearing.
His date with Litia takes him around the town and you can see how easy it is with her. We’ve always like her for him and it’ll be interesting to see who will get the roses tonight as there have generally been good dates this week. We know that there will be more conversation between the 2 of them at dinner. She lets him know that she is Mormon and he listens to her and you can see their mutual connection.
The women arrive to find out whether they will move onto Hometowns. Carolina asks to talk with Dina before the ceremony starts. Carolina lets her know that she cares about her and recognizes how Dina stood up for her. Thankfully they get back downstairs in time for the ceremony.
RECEIVED A ROSE | Dina, Litia, Julianna, and Zoe.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Alexe, Carolina, Sarafiena
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
We love a bling moment and when we were first introduced to Simone I Smith's line in 2011 and 2012, we loved her lollipop pendant, creating a line that is filled with statement jewelry that includes earrings, necklaces, and rings! She has collaborated with Celebrity Fashion Stylist Misa Hylton as well as 9X Grammy Award winner (32X Nominated), 8 multi-platinum albums, 2X Golden Globe nominee and SAG nominee Executive Producer and actress, Mary J. Blige (Power Book II: Ghost, Respect, How to Get Away with Murder)! Her line empowers those who wear it and she continues to expand her design aesthetic so that we can put our best foot forward. We sat down with Simone to find out more about her namesake line, her creative process, her recent launch of Majesty, her men's jewelry line where her sons and husband, Todd Smith aka LL Cool J (Oz, Deep Blue Sea, NCIS: Los Angeles) participated in her campaign, and more.
ATHLEISURE MAG: I love the earrings, of course. Well, thank you so much for taking the time I met you briefly at your launch event with you and Misa Hylton last Spring which was amazing and you debuted your Denim and Diamonds collection which was beautiful. I've been a fan of yours for a number of years, so I'm just so excited to chat with you.
SIS: Thank you, I'm excited to chat with you too!
AM: Well, when did you first fall in love with fashion and accessories?
SIS: When I was a teenager, you know, like 17, 18 years, when I met my husband and that was in ‘87 and it was right when they called it back then, it was called Truck Jewelry (Editor’s Note: Truck Jewelry is a Hip-Hop style of jewelry representing the intersection of religion, faith, and the culture. It showcases wealth, power, and social statsus. It’s often associated with large hoop earrings, rings, chains, watches, and medallions. It has influenced fashion globally.). But it was, when the Doorknockers were out there and you know, I had the Triangle Earrings. Todd gave me my first pair of Doorknocker Earrings and I was 17 years old and that's when I like fell in love with big hoops.
But fashion was always something that I've just always loved! I was always in my mother's closet always trying to wear her stuff. You know, I would love to, you know, just like put really cool fashionable things together. But I would say my love, definitely started around 17.
AM: What led you to decide to design jewelry?
SIS: An opportunity was presented to me and I ran with it. I just grabbed it and I was like the opportunity was presented to design the jewelry line and I was like, absolutely. But the first things, first things, first is Hoops! It's gonna be hard to find.
AM: Yeah.
SIS: They were hard to find, it was a big void in the marketplace. You couldn't really find good quality hoop earrings that were affordable. At that time, I was actually able to find like sterling silver hoops right?
AM: Yeah.
SIS: Just the color sterling jewelry ones. Because all of my jewelry is sterling silver. But the gold ones have a sterling silver base with 18K, plating on top of it. Just to find good quality gold hoops without having to spend $5,000 because they're 14K gold which is good quality hoops and I just wanted to be that designer that just blessed women with really fabulous, good quality, affordable hoops which I have been able to do.
AM: Which have a good wearable weight to them too.
SIS: Right, they’re not too heavy. We have a few pairs that may have a little weight to them, but that's because of the design and thickness, but even my thickest earrings, aren't that heavy because the base is sterling silver and not Stainless Steel.
AM: I remember the very first jewelry piece that I had seen from you was your Lollipop Pendant, which I remember when those came out. What was the first piece that you remember just designing?
SIS: The first piece I designed – okay, the first earring that I designed was my logo earring and It was because I fell in love with my logo. When I decided and I chose my logo, I said, “oh my God, these are going to be the hottest freaking hoops! This is going to be a hot hoop.”
AM: Yeah!
SIS: That was my first earring that I designed, and we named, well, my husband actually named it Infinite Love because if you look at my logo, it looks like an infinity sign, you see a heart, and you see a butterfly. So, Todd actually named those earrings for me and they're called Infinite Love. And then my second design was my lollipop and that's, because by the grace of God, thank you Jesus. I am a 20-year cancer survivor going on 21.
I had a lollipop tattoo on my left leg. Let me back up, they found a chondrosarcoma in my right, tibia bone. So I had to have Microvascular Reconstructive surgery, so they had to remove my whole tibia bone and replace it with my left, fibular bone. So when they had to go into my left leg to take my fibula bone out, the surgeon said, “Simone, you may wake up and your lollipop tattoo may not be there." And I was like, “well if there's any way you can avoid from messing up my lollipop tattoo, I would really appreciate it.” I woke up and a part of the lollipop tattoo was on the front of my right leg because they had to do a skin graft -
AM: Oh wow.
SIS: To cover the scarring on where they had to open up. So, when I had created my lollipop pendant, my lollipop tattoo actually looked like somebody took a bite out of it. So I designed my lollipop, exactly the way it looked after my surgery and I called it A Sweet Touch of Hope.
AM: Yeah.
SIS: Because the candy represents how sweet life is and the bite represents what cancer does.
AM: Yeah.
SIS: In the bite, my logo, emerges out of it because it's just a reminder of me being a cancer survivor, getting well, staying well, and it's all a part of my journey because life is really sweet. Life is a gift. Because everybody's cancer journey is different and I praise God that I'm here 20 years cancer free. I can walk. I can wear heels.
AM: You surely can walk in those heels as you looked great at the event!
SIS: I can’t chase dogs or anything, but I’m here. You know, praise God. And I can workout and I can wear heels and And, you know, and I'm just healthy.
AM: Where do you start in terms of your design process? Where do you get the inspiration from?
SIS: My inspiration comes from nature, you know what I'm saying? Like, I remember one day, I was eating some strawberries, and I was like, you know what, I want to make it, I'm gonna design an earring, that's the shape of a strawberry. So, anything inspires me, you know? So with the strawberry shape, like I came with the earring called Precious Fruit. So Precious Fruit is one of the classics. It was in the first collection of my earrings that I designed and it's still a very popular piece because the earring is actually shaped like a strawberry. My inspiration comes from fashion, my inspiration comes from my children.
AM: Mmm
SIS: If I look at flowers, it’s like, it's so many things that my inspiration is also women always just want to make sure that women have like great earrings. My inspiration just comes from the culture. My inspiration comes from just growing up in New York. You know the New York fashion to me, I don't think anybody has it. New York fashion is amazing.
What else inspires me? Like growing up being a teenager, you know, in the late ‘80s and meeting my husband. And when I think about sister love and me and Mary J. Blige coming together, and creating Sister Love the whole Sister Love brand is about creating big bold jewelry for women, because that's what we grew up on big bold jewelry!
AM: Right.
SIS: So, Hip-Hop is definitely an inspiration when it comes down to certain designs on Sister Love like all of the Fly Girls and the Bam Beauties (Editor’s Note: Bam Beauties are earrings and hoops inspired by bamboo), and bringing back the Doorknocker Earrings, but recreating them and modernizing them, and making them high polished with beautiful crystals and all of that. Even though I create that, I don't want to be pigeonholed as just an urban jewelry designer.
AM: Right.
SIS: Because when you look at all of my pieces, it's like, they're not all urban, but they like to pigeonhole me as an urban designer because I'm a Black female designer. If I wasn’t Black and I was designing all of this stuff, I wouldn't be called an urban designer. I'm a jewelry designer. I’m Simone I Smith that happens to be a Black woman.
So that’s my inspiration. It’s inspired by life!
AM: It’s clear in using, wearing, and styling your pieces that they hold their own in luxury, they illustrate a focus craftsmanship, and it is something that is very versatile that regardless of your personal style that can be worn. So when I'm looking at your pieces, I see a point of view for that person who wants to wear statement pieces unapologetically.
SIS: Thank you, thank you!
AM: I will say that what I love most about it is that I live in New York now, and have wow since 2001. I was born in ‘79 and I'm from the Midwest. So growing up watching Salt-N-Pepa and all these people, when I first saw the collection years ago I loved the themes woven in them that took Hip-Hop elements, but then elevating it to be something that could be mixed in with like your Gucci wear or whatever your style is. It was just so exciting to see the homage and where each person can take it to when they wear it. As someone who's a stylist, who really likes to infuse my looks with accessories, there's just such a visual texture to what you're creating in your line.
SIS: Thank you. Thank you. Look, it goes with your Gucci wear, but it also goes if you're wearing a beautiful gown. If you're putting on a suit and going into the office. Which is why, you know, we have the medium-sized hoops and we have the large hoops and then we have the extra-large hoops and then we have extra extra-large hoops. So, it's really about your fashion.
AM: Yup.
SIS: And fashion as you know, as a stylist, fashion is personal.
AM: Very much so.
SIS: You know what I’m saying? Fashion is your own identity. I encourage women that come to my trunk shows like when they go, “oh, you know, I work in Corporate America, I can't wear this size hoop.” Well, who told you that?
AM: Exactly.
SIS: Who made up the rule that you can't wear a 60mm hoop? You may not want to wear 80mm hoop. But maybe you might, if you have the boldness, and the security to wear it. You could walk in that room with your suit on with a nice big hoop earring. As long as you're wearing it, nobody's gonna notice it unless you feel uncomfortable.
AM: Exactly.
SIS: You understand what I’m saying? If you’re working it and owning it, people are going to say okay.
AM: Who is the Simone I Smith customer and what do you feel that they're looking for when they're coming to your site and to your brand?
SIS: I think the Simone I Smith customer is a woman who knows who she is. Who loves hoops, who is looking for a good quality piece of jewelry and who wants to be inspired. Not only do I have hoops, I have beautiful necklaces, I am a God fearing woman. Women can come on to Simona I Smith site and they can get beautiful scrolls that reminds them of how good God is. It reminds them who they are to God, to give them inspiration. You know, one of my famous scrolls is Let Your Light So Shine and I think women shine and I think women come to the Simone I Smith site because they want to be inspired, they want to shine. They want to look good. They want to feel good and my focus is making jewelry to make women look good and feel good.
AM: As you go from season to season, are there core pieces of the collection that are essentials and carry over?
SIS: I would say that my jewelry is for every season, I'm gonna be honest. It’s for every season. I’m not going to say that this is for the Fall. It’s classic, it’s timeless, and it’s for every season.
AM: What do you look for in a collaboration? Talking about before with sister, love with Mary, J. Blige, obviously Misa Hylton. You have another Misa Hylton, collaboration that's come out. What do you look for when it comes to collaborating?
SIS: I look for people who are just as inspired with passion, and the love of big hoop earrings. That's what I look for. You know, if you inspire me like Misa inspires me, Mary inspires me like we have a couple of collaborations that we're working on now that I can't announce, you know, until you know, they actually come into fruition. But everybody that I work with that I'm going to be working with they inspire me, they love God, they love fashion, and they love jewelry. They love the love of big hoops. I think it's important to show other women that women can work together. That's so important because you know, we know women can be so catty and can be so competitive. We're all flowers so we should all bloom and we can bloom together. We make a beautiful bouquet, right?
AM: 100%.
SIS: We make a beautiful bouquet so it's about supporting one another and then showing these young women, showing these young girls, we're better together, let's work together. So that's so important to me. Just working with people that you know that are not necessarily like-minded but right-minded!
AM: That’s a word, I like that!
SIS: Yeah and then have a love for accessories and making women feel good and look good, you know?
AM: Well, I received your Cosmic Ice Hoops which are beautiful another great collab between you and Misa!
SIS: Aren’t they so cute?
AM: So cute! When I got them out of their duster bags it was so exciting to see them.
SIS: I'm so happy you love them!
AM: I can't wait to wear them as well as include them in our next shoot, that comes up!
SIS: You could have had them on today honey!
AM: I should have but honestly I just finished my hot pilates class and time got away from me!
I love that this is called Cosmic Ice hoops. So, what was the inspiration behind it?
SIS: The inspiration behind it was whoa. Are you talking about the actual name?
AM: Well, the name and then also, this particular collection in its design, yes.
SIS: Okay, so Cosmic Ice, you know, me and Misa, we were in a design meeting and we were just talking about, making a pair of earrings that just kind of like reminded us of like the solar system. We wanted to give the women a little bit of ice and a little bit of pearl. But then it winds up just being kind of like balls with ice and how could we create the earring that kind of reminds us of the solar system? It's kind of like just started, you know, Misa got to sketching - it's so interesting the way these meetings happen because they're kind of hard to explain. We would definitely talk about how can we make a solar system on a pair hoops that’s not a dangle. We decided to put it on the outside and then once the samples came, a lot of times the samples can come back one time, which it doesn't always happen when you come back one time, but the samples, you just take about two or three times, and then when you get that one sample and it's perfect - as soon as we looked at it, I said, Misa, we need to call these Cosmic Ice.
AM: Wow.
SIS: We got our solar system hoops, but now, we're going to call them Cosmic Ice because they have a touch of ice and the circles.
AM: I love that.
SIS: I hope that that is a good explanation.
AM: I think it is. A lot of times, you don't know until you see it. I mean I've designed lines and you know it's in your head but until like you said, you get that 1st, 2nd, 3rd pass, you're like, alright, that's what that is.
SIS: Until things are being sketched up, you have your visual, and it's like, okay, these are going to be dope and then once you get them and then it's like, oh, these are hot. Like you have the visual in your mind. There have been plenty of things that were sketched out, you see the finished product and you're like nah!
AM: Nope.
SIS: It didn’t come out the way I wanted it to – nope, we’re not doing this. This isn't what I envisioned.
AM: It's always about getting that tingle in your skin when you see it, and everybody's faces light up, but if it doesn't happen, it's like, let's just put that to the side. Rework it.
SIS: Some things can't even be reworked.
AM: Well, then there's that!
What are 3 pieces from your collection like across your collection that if someone says these are three essential pieces, I need to have. What would you suggest?
SIS: The 3 essential pieces you need to have, I would probably say let me think because it depends on the someone.
AM: Oh well, that's true.
SIS: It depends on the someone because if it's someone that likes a big hoop, if it's someone that likes a really big hoop, right? I would probably say the 3 essential hoop earrings that you should have from the Simone I Smith - are we talking about Simone I Smith or Sister Love?
AM: Well that is up to you. It can be from Simone I Smith, Sister Love, Denim and Diamonds, Cosmic Ice – it’s up to you!
SIS: Okay, so let me think. So you have 3 essential pieces that you should have from the Simone I Smith collection. If you're a big hoop girl, I would say are the Brilliance Hoops in XL because those are my go-to's. Those are like my go-to. I would say the Brilliance. I would say Precious Fruit size L because Precious Fruit size, L with the diamond embellishments, you could dress that hoop up, you could dress that hoop down. And I would probably say, The Bangles. Yeah, I would say more than 1 because I wear 10 of them.
AM: Nice, I love a good wrist stack.
SIS: You know, I would say an arm full of Bangles, Brilliance XL - Gold or silver. Ooo can I add a fourth one please?
AM: Yes ma’am you can.
SIS: I would definitely say my Blessed Necklace. I think that women should wake up and they should feel every day that they open up their eyes that they are blessed. Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning to see another day. Thank you for waking me up in my right mind. Thank you for starting me, guide my thoughts, guide my steps. I am blessed. I want women to wake up every morning and feel like they're blessed. And I think my Blessed Necklace is definitely in there. If you to narrow it down, I would say the Brilliance Hoops, the Blessed Necklace and an arm full of Bangles.
AM: Well we're giving you all four.
SIS: Thank you!
AM: You also launched Majesty. I'm loving right now that jewelry lines that I really love that maybe began with women are now adding a men's collection to it. So what was the inspiration behind that?
SIS: The inspiration behind Majesty was to create an affordable luxe line for men to wear because everybody can’t afford a $5,000 or a $10,000 chain and a lot of those Cuban links with the beautiful links with the ice with real diamonds cost of a lot of money.
AM: For sure.
SIS: For so many years, many of my girlfriends' husbands or if guys would come to my trunk shows and buy things for their wives, they were like, “when are you gonna make something for us guys?” Women would say the same thing asking about jewelry for their guys. The time was right to create Majesty and really men inspired me to do it. My husband inspired me to do it. My son inspired me to do it. And thank you Jesus, they were able to be my models.
AM: Which is amazing.
SIS: They did a cool video and a photo shoot and it was really just, you know, blessing the brothers with some really great good quality jewelry, so that they could feel fly, they feel good and they can have great bracelets and nice link chains that are affordable, but look good and make them feel good.
AM: What are 3 from the Majesty Collection that you want to highlight that are great, you know essentials to start with to add to your style?
SIS: I would definitely say that The Truth Necklace is a classic and it is probably our number 1 seller. The Lion of Judah, I believe it is 2 of 3 different pendants. Lions represent strength, royalty, courage, and all of that. It's something about that lion pendant, that men don't mind wearing. I would probably say, the 3rd piece would be like Divine Ice and it gives them that touch of ice and makes them feel like they’re blinging today and they have some luxe on.
AM: Are there things coming up that we should keep an eye out for?
SIS: Well, you know, I always drop something exciting for my birthday so you can keep your eyes out for that. I'm not sure what it's going to be. We’re still kind of like, working on designs and everything. For Valentine's Day, during the holidays, we dropped Couture and I don’t know if you checked that out yet, but it’s really beautiful. It’s nice, big, bold chains for women.
AM: I'm going to check it out.
SIS: Check out the Guetty Necklace and the Guetty Bracelet. So with this Couture we have a piece dropping for Valentine's Day that I'm excited about, and my fingers are crossed that they get here in time because I'm super excited about that. So we had some really cute stuff wrapping for Valentine's Day. Something for my birthday. There are some new collaborations coming so I'm excited about that. Just stay tuned, cuz you know, SIS always has the products that I will continue to bless you ladies with fabulous hoops and fabulous bangles and all of that good stuff just to make you feel good.
PHOTOS COURTESY | Simone I Smith
Read the JAN ISSUE #109 of Athleisure Mag and see BLESSED ICE | Simone I Smith in mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/Anne Marie Fox
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
It’s time to travel and we’re making our way to Madris with Grant Ellis and the ladies who are competing for him in this week’s episode ofABC’s The Bachelor. Before we head out, the fallout of The Prom and all the drama that took place between Carolina and Rose took the wind out of everyone’s sales. The women talk about what took place and everyone feels that her extra took time took away from everyone else. She felt that she got the clarity that she needed although it may not have been ideal for everyone.
Jesse Palmer lets them know that they are heading to Madrid and need to meet up with Grant as he has already left. We fast forward to watching Grant walk around the city and the women arrive seeing where they will stay for the next few days. Grant and Jesse catch up playing basketball as well as finding out how the process is going with him. Finally, Grant meets up with the women as they all enjoy sangria. He lets them know there is a 1-on-1 date and he selected Dina to join him. They walk around the city and play soccer with kids in the street randomly. They also dance in the streets for an impromptu session. They head to the Store of Wishes which has letters outside of the shop and they are asked to write a note to affix to the wall. They even take a boat as he navigates around the area. They continue on to dinner where they can get to know one another better. The date ends with them being serenaded as they dance and she receives the rose of the night.
Back at the hotel, the other women are enjoying some down time. They all believe that Dina is coming back with a 1-on-1 and they mention that they would like to have a 1-on-1. Carolina says that she wishes she had more time, but she had her time with him in Vegas and other women have only been on group dates. The women feel that she is ungrateful and entitled and it shows that she does not play by the rules when it comes to sharing him. The group date card arrives and Alexe, Litia, Carolina, Natalie, Rose, Parisa, Julianna, and Zoe will be on the next date. Sarcastically, during Carolina’s confessional, she shares with the audience that of course she is excited to be on a date with multiple women and maybe she will see him kiss other women. That means that Sarafiena will have a 1-on-1 with him.
The group date has arrived and the women are navigating the city on their way to meeting him. They will enjoy a tour and they will ride through the city on donkeys. They train how to be matadors with a wheelbarrow bull. They change into their outfits to compete against one another. Whoever stays on the longest on the mechanical bull will be the winner. They even have an intimate audience watching as well as commentators. Each of the women use a different technique to try and stay on. Alexe and Zoe are the frontrunners and Zoe ends up getting special time with Grant ultimately.
At the after date cocktail party, the women look to spend more time with him. He wants to have good vibes and to be able to learn more about them. Rose chats with Grant about what took place the week before and she lets him know that she didn’t know if she would still be able to stay and hopes that they can continue building on what they have. He lets her know that there is room for growth.
In Zoe’s time with Grant, she lets him know that she can have a hard time opening up to people because she grew up in the South, was adopted, , and there was a lot of abuse that she was involved in. It definitely gives another perspective into how she operates the way that she does.
Carolina complains to the women again about her issues that she has with Grant when she always feels that something wrong is going on. Julianna pulls her aside and lets her know that when she does that and talking about being unsure, she would leave as she thinks it’s unfair for her to stay.
Although she was pulled away, when she comes back Carolina brings it up and they all chat. By the time Grant arrives, she is full on crying and he pulls her aside (again to chat with her) and tries to make her feel better. He decides not to give out a rose for the group date. Julianna feels bad that in pulling her aside to chat has now made all the women get wrapped up in the event.
The 1-on-1 date with Sarafiena kicks off as they are riding around Madrid. They are jumping off the bridge in the pouring rain? After the jump, they make their way to dinner to get to know more about one another. She shares how many times peopel feel that she is good on paper and then things don’t go past that. She lets him know that she is there for the right reason and she wants to be a mom and to have a family. She knows that she didn’t have that kind of love in her life with her family. She gets the date night rose.
The cocktail party arrives for the rose ceremony for the women. Carolina hopes that she won’t cry again which she shares with the women. He lets them know that he has had a great time with the women and that the group date party was a bit much and he heard a few things that were a bit concerning. He asks to see Julianna to find out her side of the story. Julianna tells him that she and the other women do not like hearing the negative things that Carolina says and it bothers them. He tells her that he appreciates her sharing and that it shows how mature she is. Even Grant says that having a private jet and being in Vegas wasn’t enough for her and he finds her behavior to be immature.
He talks with Carolina and lets her know to hear these conversations are having and that she is not telling him what is going on. They speak and yet again there is an issue between Rose and Carolina and other women no longer get the opportunity to speak with him. In addition, Rose decides to leave because she doesn’t feel that it is a healthy environment for her. He lets the women know that Rose has left.
RECEIVED A ROSE | Alexe, Carolina, Dina, Litia, Julianna, Sarafiena, and Zoe.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Natalie, Parisa, Rose (decides to leave)
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
PHOTO CREDITS | Disney/John Fleenor
PHOTO CREDIT | ABC/The Bachelor Key Art
PHOTO CREDIT FOR THE BACHELOR CONTESTANTS | Disney/Matt Sayles
We continue on as Grant Ellist navigates the world of ABC’s The Bachelor. We see the ladies competing for him settle into the house and interact with one another. Jesse Palmer arrives and lets them know that in addition to it being an emotional night, he wants them to know about the 2 1-on-1 dates and there will be 1 large group date. The group date includes Natalie, Bailey, Alexe, Alli Jo, Chloie, Serafina, Parisa, Dina, Rose, Litia, Zoe, and Julianna.
With the group date set, we know that Carolina and Beverly will have a 1-on-1 date.
The group date involves The Bachelor School of Finance. Hannah Berner and Daniel Lubetzky of Kind Snacks are part of the date as well. The women don colorful power suits. Whoever wins the most Grant Bucks will win perks in the After Party. Grant Bucks are acquired by answering an array of questions some being finance-oriented and others that weren’t. Bailey ends up winning the most Grant Bucks and looks forward to seeing what that will give her later.
At the After Party, Bailey (in front of the other girls) is given a menu of what she can spend her Grant Bucks on. She decides that she will buy a shirt of his to sleep in as well as desert with him. She leaves him wearing his shirt. Zoe has decided to bring everyone down by being upset in general. She then goes to him and says that she feels that she is being belittled by the other women. He connects with all of the women and gets to know more about the women. Parisa gets the group date rose. He lets the women know that bullying should not taka place. The women figure out the Zoe created this and even when they tried to find out from her, she says that they are being mean to her.
The day after he group date, the women are crying because of how Zoe left everything. Thankfully, we move on to Carolina’s date which starts off with a private jet that will take them to Vegas. They jumped off the side of a building which made them closer and Grant is looking forward to having dinner with her at a beach club. She wants to chat with him to tell her about a condition that she is battling as she knows that for some people, it has been a turnoff. She is prone to seizures and she was very upset by telling him this and he said that he would be there for her.
We find out that Beverly’s 1-on-1 won’t be happening as she is sick and that she won’t be coming back! A date is still in the works as Sarafiena, Litia, and Dina will be going to Vanderpump Dogs to hang out with some puppies. They have photoshoots with the dogs and they take pictures of one another. Lisa Vanderpump herself makes an appearance to see them. She lets them know that they will volunteer with the dogs. Dina and Grant wash a dog together and get to know each other a bit more. Sarafiena and Grant walk a dog together. Litia and him sit outside with their dog to talk about what attracts them to one another. With this 3-on-1 date going so well, he decides to take Litia out for dinner and the other women will go back to the house.
They go to City Hall to have dinner together. He tells Litia about his family life and how his father suffered from his addictions and his mom kept the family going. Litia shares her backstory as she lets him know that her father passed away and they both see that they want to have a solid family. She is given the rose.
Allegedly, Rose tells Carolina that during their first group date, while he was dancing with her, he was actually thinking of Rose which kept her going into a deeper spiral. As the girls talk about the date, Carolina is annoyed that Litia has a rose and even told women earlier that she wishes she didn’t even have her date although it went well. The cocktail party is themed with a prom theme and he sends corsages to all of them. He arrives and let them know that he never went to his high school prom because he focused on basketball. Gary, Jack, Keith and Jonathan from The Golden Bachelorette are with him They all start dancing and take in all of the fun! They enjoy games, pictures, and advice from the men. Even Jack is grilling up a storm - as per usual.
Carolina is so annoyed that while Rose is chatting with Grant, she calls him loudly to say that someone told her that he was thinking of her while she was being danced with. He asks her who said that and lets her know that not only is it a lie, but he doesn’t like that his character is being questioned. Carolina says that she doesn’t want to make it a thing and won’t tell him. Through a process of elimination he realizes it has to be Rose. He asks her and Rose says that that is what she thought she heard him say. He lets her know that that is not what was said and we think that her time is going to be shortlived in the house. The Golden Bachelorette men give Grant the crown as King and each of the women get them as Queens. In dealing with the Rose and Carolina situation the remaining ladies that didn’t have a chance to chat with him are even more annoyed as Carolina had a rose and they had been watching her spiral over the past few days.
RECEIVED A ROSE | Alexe, Carolina, Dina, Litia, Julianna, Natalie, Rose, Sarafiena, and Zoe.
DIDN’T RECEIVE A ROSE | Alli Jo, Bailey, Beverly, Chloie, and Parisa.
Each night during this season, we will tweet about The Golden Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!
Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.
We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!
Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.
