Simone Biles’ Best Looks In Celebration Of Her Birthday …..Read More!! With Full Comment

The Olympic medalist has been winning on and off the mat for years now. Say happy birthday with us by looking though her best looks over the years.

Simone Biles has literal gymnastics moves named after her because she is that good. Over the years, she’s been deemed the best, scrutinized for her rightful confidence, and carried an aura of self-awareness and unbothered energy. Standing at not even 5 feet tall, Biles is truly one of the best athletes of all time, and ESSENCE is always down to honor deserving Black women. She’s broken every glass ceiling there ever was in her sport; she’s so good she’s had points docked because judges didn’t know what to do with that kind of talent.

In celebration of the history-making gold medal-winning gymnast, we compiled a few of Biles’ best looks. Take a look below.

This year’s street style corroborates the idea. As Fashion Week slowly resumed in Europe in early 2021, Vogue Runway’s Belgium-based photographer Acielle of Style du Monde documented “more genuine,” often quieter looks in place of the OTT outfits of the Before Times. By September, her photos reflected the optimism and excitement of re-emergence, but still felt dictated by personal style, not trends or brands. Head-to-toe runway looks were rare, while clashing prints, haphazard layers, and vintage proliferated. “You really felt how people love to get dressed and get back to their social lives,” Acielle adds. “It’s a huge difference when you compare [my photos] from September and March.”

For Fashion Week regulars, it reflects a dual desire to re-embrace fashion and retain a degree of self-awareness in a fraught world. But much of the shift also comes down to the changing crowd outside the shows. With travel restricted between Asia, Europe, and the United States, Milan and Paris had fewer New York editors in the crowd, while the opposite was true stateside.

Vogue’s longtime street style photographer Phil Oh was happy to see designers fill the empty seats with friends and family. “At these shows by emerging labels like Saint Sintra and Puppets and Puppets, I didn’t know anyone’s name,” he says. “It made it more exciting. In the past, you could go through my slideshow and figure out what shows happened that day based on what the influencers and major editors were wearing. But around the Lower East Side [between shows], there were so many well-dressed young people. It made me feel like, ah—New York’s still got it.”

These women are not only athletes at the top-of-their-game, but also the ultimate squad. The show emerges from their personal values of empowerment, friendship, positive body image, mental health awareness, and self-confidence. A crew of gymnastic dancers under eye-popping LED video screens and lights rounds out the experience.

The Athleta Presents Gold Over America Tour kicks off on September 21, 2021 in Tucson with stops along the way in Indianapolis Denver, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Newark, and Brooklyn, before concluding in Boston on November 7, 2021.

The creative team includes Director Mark “Swany” Swanhart and Associate Director Louanne Madorma, along with world-renowned gymnastics coach Valorie “Miss Val” Kondos Field, who serves as Supervising Choreographer for the tour. The tour is produced by Lee D. Marshall and executive produced by Mark “Swany” Swanhart, Louanne Madorma, Valorie “Miss Val” Kondos Field, and Guy Phillips.