First Time Here?

Fashion doesn’t exist in a vacuum, there are major players working hard to make it happen, all while doing it fabulously. BJ Coleman is one of those players and he is about as fabulous as it gets.  As Senior Director of Public Relations for Baby Phat, it is his job to make the brand hot, hot, hot and he has definitely succeeded considering the Baby Phat fashion show is one of the hottest tickets in town during Fashion Week.  BJ is Kimora Lee Simmons’ right hand man and you’ve probably seen him on the hit reality show Life in the Fab Lane. This year is Baby Phat’s ten-year anniversary so I thought not only should we celebrate the brand but let’s celebrate BJ, who started his fashion career there when the company was brand spankin’ new. We met over lunch where BJ talked to me about fashion, fun, fabulousness, and Baby Phat.

We met at the The Modern and when he arrived, it was obvious BJ is no stranger to glamour. Sporting sexy Lanvin sunglasses and an outfit to match, he glides over with a big smile, gives a few kisses and takes his seat. I wanted to know what it’s like to go from behind-the-scenes at Baby Phat to full-fledged reality TV star on Fab Lane. To my surprise, BJ has a lot of experience in front of the camera, “I have been on television since I was fifteen. I used to be on a show called Teen Summit on BET with Ananda Lewis. I did that for three seasons and then I went to Boston College. I then started doing stuff on VH1 and BET so I have always been on television.”

We stop our conversation so he can answer text messages and calls from Rihanna and Vivica A. Fox. Really.

So after television, BJ found his way to fashion. He began by interning with Kimora when she started Baby Phat in ’99, and during his senior year of college, Kimora hired him as her personal assistant.  After that, he became Brittany Murphy’s personal assistant, where BJ got his first taste of PR. “I started experiencing PR through the studio’s publicist and Brittany’s publicist and then I started working as Naomi Campbell’s assistant. After that, I started at NC Connect so I did PR for PM [the nightclub] and clients like Alicia Keys. Then, Kimora was creating departments for Baby Phat and she brought me on as PR Director in 2004.”

So what are BJ’s top trends for spring? “Bubblegum colored nail polish, I am loving the juiciness of the excitement of it, the edginess of it, the glossiness of it. Clutches are big. I love big clutches, I love small clutches, they are all on trend. And every time you leave the house you should always wear a smile,” laughs BJ.

I told him how much I respect and appreciate his role as a major fashion industry player, and being the down-to-earth guy he is, this admiration seemed to offset him, bringing out the humility in him.  “It’s funny that all of this talk about me and I am the same crazy wild ‘anything can come out of my mouth at any moment’ person from high school,” he says, “And now here I am with a great job with a hit show and my friends are fabulous, who am I?”

You’re BJ Coleman, fashionisto extraordinaire.