The Afrofuturist Beauty Renaissance Is Happening Now

Missy Elliott built upon Jones’s legacy in the ‘90s, tapping into Afrofuturist aesthetics with her debut project, 1997’s Supa Dupa Fly. Its breakout single and video bearing the same name birthed her most iconic look: The inflatable black jumpsuit that she paired with rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses, which stretched up towards her hairline before curving back over her head like a bike helmet. Much like Jones, her style embraced the bizarre, the androgynous, the otherworldly. She wasn’t afraid to get weird with it and maintain a version of glamour that diverged from the norm. She didn’t need to present as conventionally “pretty” in order to assert her beauty.

But make no mistake: there’s always been space in Afrofuturism to be pretty. See the video for Janet Jackson’s 2000 single, “Doesn’t Really Matter.” At one point, her nail extensions change with just a flick of her wrist — it’s the type of beauty innovation we wager a lot of Black women could get behind. En Vogue’s vampy glam in their 1997 “Whatever” video evokes a mysterious sensuality that is both alluring and intoxicating. Aaliyah’s glossy, red pout and impossibly inky, smoky eye makeup in 2001’s “We Need a Resolution” is a masterclass in balancing a bold lip and eye.

With these references, younger Millennial and Gen Z female artists, along with their glam teams, weave elements of the androgyny, femininity, and Black beauty traditions into the visual components of their art. In 2021’s “Wild Side,” Normani sports a headpiece shaped and dyed to look like dice, a side pony that curves and bends to the heavens like an undulating spine, and a leopard headpiece, set atop a sleek ponytail anchored by delicate loops of baby hair. 

Willow Smith moves freely between hairstyles in both her art and real life. (The singer famously shaved her locs onstage during a show.) In her performance visuals for 2021’s “Transparent Soul,” she wears a set of Fulani braids at least four different ways: adorned with hoops, piled high in a bun, and twisted into Bantu knots. In one scene, Smith appears in smoky black cat-eye shadow. In the next, the makeup is more intense, sprouting a few extra wings for good measure. Watch a little longer, and you’ll see her in washes of lavender shadow blended out to her temples, framed by painterly strokes of white.