Mary J. Blige suffered bigotry even after her rise to stardom.
The singer released her hit debut album, What’s the 411?, back in 1992, but Blige and her stylist Misa Hylton recalled that they still encountered prejudice during their shopping trips in the early 90s.
“Mary J Blige is the first artist I ever styled. When we met, we automatically got each other. We understood each other. We loved the same fashion. We loved hip hop. We loved style. So at this time, the early ’90s, we were making money, and we were able to shop and able to buy things that are more expensive and more luxury,” Hylton shared in the new docuseries “In Vogue: The 90s.”
Blige‘s debut album was a critical and commercial success. The chart-topping star recalled “blowing our credit cards to smithereens” at the time.
“I’ve been in a lot of stores with Misa. We were shopping so much because we never had a lot. Once we were able to shop and get the things we wanted, we were blowing our credit cards to smithereens,” the singer said.
Despite this, Blige and Hylton still struggled to find “respect” in some quarters.
“We went to a boutique and we were shopping. When it’s time to pay, the sales associate keeps telling us. ‘The card’s declining.’ They keep trying. We call the credit card company. The card’s not declining. It’s actually not even being rung,” Hylton stated. “Like, ‘Oh, okay. You don’t want us to buy these items.’ It’s because we were young and we were Black, and they could not figure out how we were spending this much money. They didn’t even realize who Mary J. Blige was yet, and so you see how luxury fashion brands didn’t really value us or didn’t respect us. They didn’t see their brands on us.”
