In celebration of Black History Month, EDGExpo offers a glimpse into the lives of eight Black fashion makers and influencers who have used the power of fashion to transform their identity and culture.
“A Study of Eight” celebrates the extraordinary contributions of Black fashion designers and influential people to fashion history. This curated editorial project highlights culturally and historically significant people and events from 1880 to 1980.
Publications editor Rhonda P. Hill said she had always wanted to be involved with a project like “A Study Of Eight,” which showcases the work of underrepresented people and delves deep into overlooked parts of history.
“African Americans have contributed to fashion in ways that we don’t know about,” she says, “and I wanted their voices to really be heard.”
Two African-American women from Georgia. This photograph is part of the exhibition “American Negroes,” which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Award. (Courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress)
The eight-part series explores fashion during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, beginning with cotton mills. The Coleman Manufacturing Company in North Carolina was the first cotton mill to be black-owned and operated from 1899 to 1904.
But during the same time, Hill said, white factory owners engaged in discriminatory labor practices against black workers, exploiting lower-wage workers, including black and female workers, to save money.
Dress worn by First Lady Mary Lincoln during Washington’s winter social season, 1861-1862. (National Museum of American History)
White men opposed the practice to protect their wives and daughters who worked in factories, she said.
“[White men] “I wanted to speak out and really speak out against the exploitation of black workers,” she says. “Even though we’re seeing progress in this era, [are these] We condemn the oppressive and discriminatory practices that took place within the industry.”
The project focuses on extraordinary people like W.E.B. DuBois, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley and the founding poet Amanda Gorman, and Hill said she wanted to celebrate pioneering black supermodels and designers as well as highlight events like the Ebony Fashion Fair and the Battle of Versailles fashion show.
Hill said the first black fashion designers, including Hobbs Keckley, Fanny Chris Payne, Ann Cole Rowe and Zelda Wynn Valdez, used their looks and talent to connect with elite clientele.
Hobbs Keckley made his name as Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker and confidant, Cole Lowe designed Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress and bridal party dresses, and Mildred Brandt, the first black member of the Screen Costume Guild, created the hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.
Jacqueline Kennedy in her wedding dress, designed by Ann Cole Law, featured in the December 1966 issue of Ebony magazine. (Courtesy of EDGE)
But history hasn’t acknowledged the work of these influential black designers until recent decades, Hill said.
After coming across Amanda Gorman’s poem during the editing process, Hill decided to include it in “A Study of Eight.”
“When I saw her enchanting poems, I was reminded of [Gorman] “He really shared my desire and my responsibility to get this work out to readers,” she said. “I was really touched by that.”
Naomi Ruth Sims was the first black model to appear on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in 1968 and Life magazine in 1969. Beverly Johnson famously became the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue in 1974, and Donielle Luna appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in 1965 and British Vogue in 1966.
Hill said that until women like Sims, Johnson and Luna appeared on the covers in the 1960s, the black community was not represented in mainstream fashion magazines.
Yet in the midst of this progression in fashion, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated and James Brown released “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” in 1968. That same year, Sims made history with her cover for Ladies’ Home Journal.
“The power of fashion neutralized that prejudice. You can dress a black model or a white model, and the result is the same: fashion,” she says, “and when you compare this to what was going on at the time, the contrast is astonishing.”
Hill worked on the project for eight months, experiencing emotions ranging from enlightenment to dismay to disgust as she learned new information about fashion history. Born in the Civil Rights era, Hill takes readers back to that time to tell stories that have only recently come to light.
Exhibition view of “Willie Smith: Street Couture.” (Ahn Sang-woo © Smithsonian Institution)
For example, the American fashion industry reached a turning point with the “Battle of Versailles” fashion show in France in 1973. Black American designer Stephen Burrows garnered a lot of attention at the show, and his work and the visibility of black models changed the perception of American fashion and black American culture, Hill says.
“I didn’t know much about this event,” she says, “but thanks to oral histories, written books, and two documentaries, I’ve learned a lot about this part of our fashion history.”
The key question still remains how the fashion industry today can become more inclusive. She says the industry has become lax over time and needs to become more inclusive, including established as well as emerging designers.
“My hope is that ‘A Study of Eight’ [fashion’s] “Fashion needs to shed its reputation of being boring and frivolous and have a more enlightened approach to seeing fashion as a transformative force for cultural identity, inclusion, respect and perception,” she says.
Marcel Hutchins produced and edited this interview with Todd Mant for broadcast; Alison Hagan edited it for the web.
