Tems: A Force of Nature on the New ESSENCE Fashion Issue

Serving a déjà vu of her global namesake hit track with Wizkid, Naija’s star girl Tems covers the latest fashion issue of ESSENCE.

The award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter, who just completed her Born in The Wild tour, looks every bit stunning in a golden satin headwrap, her face flawlessly glammed with her signature facebeat — straight 90s brow, cocoa-lined glossy lips, poppin’ eyes and a fabulously irresistible gaze — on the September/October issue.

You should be yourself even if something else is expected of you.

— Tems

She sits with fashion editor and the first black woman to style a Vogue cover, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, to discuss more than style and music. Tems unpacks staying true to herself while navigating the pressures of fame and building the life she wants.

You win, automatically, when you are yourself, no matter what that looks like. That’s why there’s variety. We’re different and are not all meant to be the same. And I know there’s a standard, but there shouldn’t be one.

There shouldn’t be a standard of what people should dress like if they’re artists, or what people should dress like if they’re women. I just feel like we’re all unique. There shouldn’t be a requirement. That’s what I mean by standard. There shouldn’t be a requirement or some kind of expectation that you dress a certain way.

— Tems

Leather, feathers, fur and more, swipe through the carousel below to see some of her looks:

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I’m just a girl. I can’t wake up every morning thinking about what people expect of me. The better question is: What is it that I expect of myself? What is it that God expects of me? Why did I wake up, and why was I born into this world?

Let’s start there, rather than thinking about other human beings. Nobody has it figured out. You have to live your life in a way that is real.

— Tems

According to ESSENCE, “Karefa-Johnson’s groundbreaking role as the first Black woman to style a Vogue cover, paired with Tems’s rapid ascent in the music industry, highlights the unique challenges and triumphs that trailblazing women experience.

As the two share and connect on the specifics of their journeys, they reveal the resilience that propels Black and diasporic women forward, inspiring us to follow our own paths with similar courage and passion.”

I just want to know where that impulse to protect that identity came from. Ways in which you lean into showing up as a Nigerian woman. Ways in which that is successful in your fashion.

— Gabriella Karefa-Johnson

I feel like now, in the world, everybody wears many different things from different places. We’re not always wearing our traditional clothing that we’re used to wearing, from where we came from. But it doesn’t change who we are.

 

I’m always going to be Nigerian. You have to show up as who you really are, in your blood. I know my culture: I’m Yoruba. And I know—if I was to get married tomorrow, I know the attire that we’re all wearing as a family. And anything that has to do with representing Nigeria always needs to reflect that.

As a Nigerian, I feel emotional, which is what I think art should be. Art is emotion expressed.

— Tems

ESSENCE’s September/October Fashion Issue hits newsstands on August 26th. Read the full cover story with Tems here

CREDITS

Talent: @temsbaby
Photographer: @lizjohnsonartur
Stylist: @gabriellak_j
Hair: @am_stagrams
Makeup: @kaylaaperez_
Nails: @tinubellomanicurist
Set Design: @the_setstylist
Tailor: @laima_andrijauskaite
Post Production: @onehundredberlin
Location: @sunsetstudioslondon
Special Thanks: @rosewoodlondon
Production: @themorrisongroup
ESSENCE, SVP, Creative: @coreytstokes
ESSENCE, VP, Content: @itsnandibby
ESSENCE, Visual Director: @_mq______
ESSENCE, Design Director: @anthonybones_

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