Simbarashe Cha joins The Times

We are pleased to announce that Simbarashe Cha will join The Times as a photographer and visual columnist focusing on style and style coverage.

Simbarashe has been a contributor to The Times since 2020, when he began shooting for the Metro section. He continues to write about and capture street style and fashion in his Fashion Week Diary and Style Outside columns. He has photographed and reported for The Times from New York, London, Paris, Milan and Dakar, showcasing street style at Paris Fashion Week, Easter hats, men in pink, layered looks, Wimbledon looks and more. Simbarashe’s fresh eye and unique voice are based in the tradition of beloved Bill Cunningham – where fashion coverage is brought to life as much by the people beyond the runways as by the people behind it.

“At Styles, we’re always trying to decode dress messages and help readers identify what’s noteworthy and forward-thinking. Simbarashe is able to focus our gaze on what’s interesting and then explain it,” said Stella Bugbee, editor of Styles magazine. “It adds depth and dimension to our robust fashion coverage.”

As an Emmy Award-winning director and photographer, Simbarashi has created editorial images for Harper’s Bazaar, Architectural Digest, The Atlantic, and others. He has photographed commercially for a wide range of clients, including Ralph Lauren, Veuve Clicquot, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Before becoming a photographer, Simbarashi spent nearly a decade working in banking. Outside of his day job, he spends much of his time pursuing art through music and writing, both fiction and non-fiction. He bought his first camera at the age of 31 and started street photography as a hobby. In 2012, he created a blog called Lord Ashbury. Although the site was widely known as a fashion photography blog, it originally started as a technical read where he wrote about the process of learning photography.

His big break into the fashion world came in 2014 when brand Carolina Herrera hired him to work as their unofficial in-house photographer, a job he remained in until Ms. Herrera retired in 2018. He credits her and her team with giving him his informal education in fashion.

Born in Los Angeles, Simbarashi has made New York his home since 2007. He is a fan of both the NBA and the English Premier League. He is a lifelong Dallas Mavericks fan and Tottenham Hotspur fan, and tries to get in a Spurs game whenever schedules allow during London fashion. One week every year.

Please join us in giving Simbarashe a very warm welcome.

-Megan and Becky