Author pays homage to fashionably chic women of today

NEW YORK (AP) -- In "Beautylicious! The Black Girl's Guide to the Fabulous Life" (Harlem Moon/Broadway), author Jenyne M. Raines dishes out advice on everything from finding designer duds at bargain prices to hosting a literary salon, as A'Lelia Walker did during the Harlem Renaissance.
A former Essence associate beauty editor who has written for InStyle, Vibe, Mode and Girl magazines, Raines calls her book a manifesto "for going through life with a little swagger, a dash of sauciness and a lot of grace." She bases her philosophy on her "patron saints of beautyliciousness": Walker; her mother, beauty mogul Madame C.J. Walker; singers Josephine Baker and Bessie Smith; Paris nightclub queen Bricktop; and Broadway star Josephine Premice.
Raines also pays homage to chic women of today, whom she calls "the Dolls": Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Pam Grier and Grace Jones.