Sha’Carri Richardson’s look is over the top – that’s why it matters | Fashion

Despite not being part of Team USA after a failed drugs test, Sha’Carri Richardson made a reappearance yesterday in an advert for Beats by Dre soundtracked by a new song from Kanye West. With her trademark long nails, long lashes and fire-cracker hair, Richardson has underlined the point that, Olympian or not, she is one of 2021’s most electrifying style icons.

That style, which has been called “extra” (in a good way), is a celebration of aesthetic excess. “Being ‘too much’ is an important act of self-possession, self-expression and self-affirmation,” says Eric Darnell Pritchard, professor at the University of Arkansas’s English department (who goes by the pronoun they). Pritchard says that this visual statement of “over the top”-ness also plays as an important statement about the agency of black womanhood. “We see it in Richardson’s statement ‘I am THAT girl’ but we also see it in her aesthetics. It is imperative for black women to do and be supported in doing it because it is not space that is freely given to them in the world.”

Another aspect that feeds into Richardson’s unique aesthetic is her birthplace of Dallas, Texas. “I think there is some southern sensibilities and pride within her style aesthetics,” says fashion historian Darnell-Jamal Lisby. “From her hair, nails, outfit and attitude, the desire to visually elicit…