Seconds after seeing a pair of Dior sunglasses, Todd White can already picture the girl who would wear them in his head. She’s outfitted in the early ’00s-indebted street aesthetic that’s the stylist’s current obsession.
The rose-tinted shades, with three diamond piercings on one frame, are paired with a tank top emblazoned with the Playboy bunny. A belly chain hugs her waist, dotted with cherry charms. The bottoms of her low-rise pants, possibly Dolce & Gabbana, skim monogrammed Dior sandals that match her handbag. A silver Dior choker, one of White’s favorite accessories, rings her neck. The look is finished — maybe.
“She’s missing some things!” the 24-year-old Kent State student suddenly exclaims, adding a pair of bamboo earrings and a handful of plated rings to his mental picture. “But that look goes with those glasses because it says she’s fun, she’s edgy and she’s chill. She’s not trying to do too much.”
White, however, is doing everything.
Since the launch of Fashion Haus two years ago, a fashion collective and styling company White continually developed while at Kent State University, the Cincinnati native has already styled stars for the Grammys and was part of the local launch of Beyonce’s Ivy Park fashion line.
That’s thanks largely to rapper Megan Thee Stallion — a Rolling Stone cover star and slick-voiced Houstonite who spawned the #HotGirlSummer movement with her cool swagger and biting bars — who hired White as her stylist for a year.
After hearing her Tina Snow EP, he reached out via Instagram direct message in 2018, when Megan was still rising in the zeitgeist. He pitched his vision, taking cues from ’00s video vixens and Blaxpoitation icons such as Pam Grier.
“When I heard her, it lit a fire in me,” says White, who only has two classes left for his fashion degree. “I just had to work with her.”
Soon, the student was balancing trips to Paris and video shoots for tracks like “Big Ole Freak” with term papers and homework.
“It was kind of hectic,” White says.
These days, Megan and White are not currently working together, though they’re still friends. He’s splitting his time between Cleveland and Los Angeles, where he’s helping rising rap and R&B artists Coi LeRay and Paloma Ford boost their styles, and by extension, their careers.
That ethos extends to Fashion Haus, which allows Kent students and Ohio creatives to take their careers into their own hands by completing photo shoots to build their portfolio, collaborating on designs and hosting Cleveland mixers to network.
White knows Cleveland isn’t the style hotbed of New York City or Los Angeles, but he’s not looking to just level up and leave.
“I want to give back in the sense of doing something for Ohio. That’s my biggest thing right now,” says White, who’s planning a relaunch of Fashion Haus’ Cleveland creative mixers. “Jobs come and go, but I’m trying to do something more for my brand and intertwine that with Ohio. That’s the next big thing.”
