My Global Hustle

NOT long ago, Vashtie Kola — a downtown party hostess, fashion designer and music video director — started wearing a chambray shirt, which she would pair with cutoff denim jean shorts and tights.

She didn’t think much of the outfit — in fact, she called the top her “stanky chambray” — until she noticed that young girls at her parties were working the same look, including wearing their hair flipped over one shoulder, just like hers.

“It was really weird,” Ms. Kola said. “They were mostly brown girls, girls who wouldn’t normally wear chambray.” It soon became very clear that they were trying to dress like her.

It’s not the first time that Ms. Kola started a trend. A kind of renaissance woman who moves easily among fashion, film and music, she has emerged as a role model for young tastemakers. “There are a lot of little Vashties running around right now,” said the rapper Theophilus London, who is a close friend of Ms. Kola.

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