Shateria Moragne-El Is in Her Rule-Breaking Era

Photo: Maridelis Morales Rosado

Shateria Moragne-El has been influencing style since way before influencers existed. Her signature curly blonde hair went viral on Pinterest over a decade ago, followed by her style that she deems “tomboy chic.” She’s often in jeans and a tee but always with an edgy flair. When she strays from her go-to uniform, she’s in lots of leather and plays with texture. Moragne-El doesn’t lean into being glam — in fact, quite the opposite. She prefers being “undone,” her formula for her most effortless style.

The Maryland-born, New York–based designer admits that she grew up in a household where there wasn’t a lack of style. “My parents dressed their asses off — they are fashion people,” she says. Her eye for style and creative passion stems not only from them but also from a childhood rooted in being a classically trained dancer. “I’ve been in the arts all my life, so expressing myself through what I wear and how I feel is a big part of who I am to my core,” Moragne-El says.

From dancing, she became a stylist, consultant, and eventually designer of Front Row, which she launched in the summer of 2013. By that September, she presented her debut runway at New York Fashion Week. Now the brand is over a decade in, creating signature pieces like unique paneled denim, leather tops, and outerwear.

This New York Fashion Week season, Moragne-El is attending events for the first time as a guest and not as a designer putting on a show. Here, she talks with the Cut about how her edgy, cool-girl style came to be and where she seeks inspiration and shares her recipe for finding young new designers.

Your sense of style has been inspiring so many people for a decade now; how would you define it? 

My sense of style is very tomboy chic. I’m not really glam; I’m more chill and edgy — elevated chill, I like to say. I think as the years have gone by, I’ve elevated my style more. Normally, my favorite uniform is jeans, a T-shirt, and a combat boot. I’m so comfortable in that, over the years, I have elevated things; I’ll add a heel or a boot. I prefer a denim cool look. I also like to experiment with different things, but I always stay true to my downtown-tomboy-chic kind of vibe; I’ll always say something in my head like, “I want to make it cooler.” Even if I’m wearing a dress, I’ll add something that’ll make it feel less glam. I want to wear a gown with a biker jacket.

When did you start playing around with personal style?

I got it from my mother and father, if I’m being honest. I’ve always been into my look and my outfit. In high school, I used to cut up jeans and shorts and do different things. We didn’t really have a lot of designer stores like New York, but we had a Nordstrom, and I worked with what we had. That really creates good personal style, because if you have a pair of shoes, a pair of jeans, and a T-shirt, you’re going to find so many ways to maneuver through these outfits with what you have. If you have one store, you get creative. When I was younger, I became very creative and experimented with different things.

I watched a lot of television and read a lot of magazines; that helped me elevate my style as a teenager. I would also watch a lot of music videos. I’d be tuned into BET, and if I was watching Aaliyah and she had on her baggy jeans, I’d be like, “Oh, that’s fire.” Between experimenting and observing the things around me at that time, I was pushed to get creative. Everybody could have a pearl necklace, but I’m like, “Hmm, everyone’s wearing it around their neck. What can I do? I want to try something different.”

Photo: Maridelis Morales Rosado

I wanted to ask you about that, because you’ll wear something that’s trendy, but you wear it in a way that is so uniquely you that it doesn’t feel like the same item we’re seeing everywhere. 

As a creative, I like to really create looks and I like to show my perspective. I’m a classically trained dancer: I went to the Baltimore School for the Arts, and I used to dance from 8 a.m. to noon every day, ballet and modern. I danced to a live piano and to a live drum every day, and every summer I would come to New York and dance at Alvin Ailey for eight weeks. It’s a full-circle moment that I’m back in New York now and I take classes at Alvin Ailey. I say all of that to say, I am so used to expressing myself through dance, so following what someone else is doing and not giving myself a chance to express myself or get my creativity out there literally drives me crazy.

You can feel it when you’re not being authentic to yourself. 

Yes, and I’m a feeler. Even when I’m on my toes and I’m dancing or the drum is going, or I’m doing my jazz and I’m tap dancing, these things are feelings and emotions. It’s a part of the arts. I’ve been in the arts all my life, so expressing myself through what I wear and how I feel is a big part of who I am to my core.

I enjoy finding new ways to do different things, even something as classic as a pair of denim jeans. When I see different designers pushing the envelope with classic pieces, it excites me. Designers are adding the skirt to the jeans. I wore a pair of Acne jeans recently, and they’ve got all these prints on them. I love them.

You just never know with me: I can really be in my sneakers one day and something completely different the next. Every day is different.

It’s always so unexpected. No one can predict what you’ll wear next.

Me either, but it’s so much fun. I’m a Pisces and it’s a lot of imagination here. Being boring is not a part of me. I’m here for the expression and the creativity and the flow of it.

So when it comes to Fashion Week, what does prep look like for you?

I’m against planning looks, because I feel like in the end, it never turns out that way. I’m always grabbing something else or changing something at the last minute. But for the most part, I have a canvas of what I’m going to wear. This Fashion Week, I wanted to be a little bit more risky and break some rules. I’m in my rule-breaking era.

What style rules are you breaking for yourself?

I’m very conservative and very sophisticated, usually covered. I want to break a few rules and show a little leg, a little thigh here and there. Mostly, I really want to wear pieces that are very unique. There’s so many designers and there are so many things going on [in fashion], but I want to wear things that say art. I want people to say “That’s so artsy, wow. How does she get that on? That’s so cool. How does that go?” I want deconstructed and unique works of art in my wardrobe.

What is the most unique piece you have in your closet?

I have a really cool Balenciaga blazer that I still think is so amazing. I’ve had it for a long time. It has Eiffel Tower crystals all over it, and it’s structured so perfectly. I love a blazer, by the way; they can be turned into a million and one things. That specific blazer is so multipurpose and it’s made so well. I have so many cool shoes. I got my YSL Diamond slouch boots, another unique thing from my wardrobe, about three or four years ago; they were $10,000 and they have rhinestones all over them. They’re so good and something I pull out occasionally. I have a cool Judith Leiber bag that’s shaped like a phone — it’s actually insane. I look at it in my closet from time to time; it just sits there and I’m like, “You’re so amazing.”

Most recently, I got a woven yellow leather Bottega skirt (worn here), and it’s so sick. Bottega has completely coined woven, from the skirts to the pants and tops; it’s too good. Bottega and Alaïa are the moment for me right now.

You’re good at finding really great young designers, too. What’s your secret to finding them? 

I travel a lot and it’s my favorite time to spot them. When I go to Paris, I go to the department stores like Printemps, and there are sections for designers you’ve never heard of. Something that people need to stop doing when they go into places like this is only going to what they know. Gravitate toward the things that are fire and that you like; don’t look at the name, you’re already in a cool place. If you go toward the pieces that you gravitate to and see how they make you feel, you’ll discover new fly shit. Please stop looking at the name — it’s as simple as that. If I see a blazer in the middle of a department store in Paris and I’m like, “Oh, let me try on this, I love it,” a lot of times, I’ll look them up later and they’re killing it.

I’ve found designers outside of traveling on socials, mostly on Pinterest and Instagram. As for retailers, I found a lot of them on Ssense. Take some time out if you’re shopping on their website to look through the designers and try different things. If you just go to the dresses category, look at all the dresses. It might be 30 pages worth of dresses, but it takes time.

Photo: Maridelis Morales Rosado

Sometimes you get to that 29th page and you’ve discovered your new favorite designer.

And then that’s how you put people on and put yourself on. Majority of the time, you’re not going to look like everybody else, which I really think is the goal out here. If your outfit doesn’t look like hers, I think you’ve won already.

Your hair is something else that’s really unique about you. It’s the perfectly colored curls that’s been on every Black girl’s mood board.

Everybody always tells me this, and it’s so crazy, because even before Instagram, I was wearing my hair like this. My mother is a cosmetologist. I grew up in the hair salon; after school, I would go to my mother’s hair salon. I was 10 years old at my mother’s shop watching her do hair. I learned how to do my hair myself and still do.

I am Team Messy Hair, so I actually don’t like my hair straight. It just feels too neat. I don’t like neat hair. I’ve mastered my hair being all over my head and effortless.

How does that influence your style?

It’s freeing. It’s in the wind, it’s flowy, and that’s how it goes with my style because my style is just that, with edge. It all aligns. Sometimes I do change my hair up because I feel like certain outfits call for certain styles, but even if I pull it up, I still want it to be a curly bun or a curly ponytail.

Beauty to me is undone. We’re more undone than we are glammed; running errands, working out, taking Zoom calls, working, planning, creating. Majority of life, we’re undone, so I’ve found beauty in that and that’s what my hair is about, as well as my style.

What advice would you give to someone who is trying to find their personal style?

I think people should always dress for their body type. Your clothes fitting you and being accustomed to how you’re shaped and how you move is key. I have hips, so jeans, pants, trousers, and cropped blazers or certain kinds of dresses work for me.

Aside from that, you should gravitate toward staying true to yourself. If you’re not into pink, that’s fine. There are lines dedicated to black dresses, black boots, black hoodies, black everything. I don’t think that people should compromise who they are. You can be chic, fly, beautiful, and everything that you personally like. We’re living in a time where people are scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and it’s like, yes, scroll, admire, and stay true to yourself. You can say “Oh my gosh, you look so pretty,” but know that you would never personally wear a pink dress because that’s not you, and that’s okay. Stay true to you and what you’ve got going on and dress your body type, finding what works for you. That’s when you kill it.

Scroll, admire, stay true to yourself — what a trifecta.

We’re all inspired on a daily basis, but you can still pose the question to yourself: What is my personal style? An outfit can inspire you, but how would you wear it and what would you add or what would you take away? Don’t be afraid to do that. Try different things, because I promise you, when you try different things, you’re going to be like, “Oh my God, I just discovered my new vibe.” Lean into you. There’s no right or wrong. Just be authentic because once you become somebody else, then you’re wrong. Playing it safe is a big thing with people; they can’t get out of that safety net, but that safety net is killing you.

Photo: Maridelis Morales Rosado

What’s one piece of clothing everyone needs in their closet this fall?

I have two: a long leather coat to the ground and denim jeans. Not just regular denim jeans — they need to be extra long, the ones that still touch the ground in your heels, and they need to be tailored so good to your behind, that changes everything.

Where are your favorite places to shop? 

I’m so mad Opening Ceremony closed that was one of my favorite places. They had a bunch of new designers. One of my absolute favorite places to shop now is H.Lorenzo, another place you can find a lot of cool designers too and a lot of unique looks. H.Lorenzo and Ssense would have to be my top two favorites.

If I had to walk into a store to shop, I would have to say Bergdorf Goodman. I still really do love going to try on my clothes, but the stores just don’t have it like online does. I don’t know what happened, but online is where it is at.

Shateria’s fall wishlist:

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Citizens of Humanity Mori Corset Shorts

$298 at Revolve Clothing

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Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili Chain Skirt

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The Ballet Crop

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Saint Laurent Travel Mug

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Loewe polo sweater in mohair blend

$3700 at Loewe

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Balenciaga Biker Over-the-Knee Boots

$8700 at Balenciaga