When I first began my university experience in 2019, the degree of knowledge about the history of black fashion was Dappers Dan, Andre Leon Tully and Anne Lowe. By the time I graduated, I got a degree in fashion and be careful – I added Stephen Burrows to my list. I summarise that about that. I was able to write a research paper on Coco Chanel, Yves St. Laurent, and Elsa Ciapareli, but I’d come across a blank stare as I asked about black designers from the same period.
It’s a sad reality, but not a surprising reality. Frequently, it is based on the same few questions as the conversation about fashion diversity. Who holds leadership positions? How many colors do you have in fashion month? Which models are cast for the runway? Who is covered in the media and who is excluded? Certainly, they are all valid and important. However, there is another white space that is relatively incompatible. This is the omitted of black fashion in fashion history education. If I can’t trust that the contributions of historically marginalized communities will be recognized in higher education, what hope do I have as I continue to climb the industry ladders?
Jonathan Square of the conversation at Fit Associate Curator Elizabethway for an event on the role of fashion in the Black protest.
Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan Square/Irene Costa
“It all comes down to education,” Dr. Jonathan Square, assistant professor of black visual culture at Parsons School of Design and founder of creating self in slavery and freedom, tells Fashionista. “People don’t start these important conversations until they enter the fashion industry. Often, it’s the result of Snafu or Faux Pas or something that’s a problem. Instead of having these conversations at 18, 19, 20, they’re forced to confront the problem. [years old] At a fashion school. While many fashion schools have done the right thing and progress, rather than everything, I think they are harming students by focusing solely on craft and skills. It’s important to take a step back and understand the context of what you’re doing. I think some fashion schools can do a better job of providing that kind of education to their students. ”
Square has always sought opportunities to explore and teach black culture in the fashion space, either through courses or as a lecture topic. At Harvard University, he taught the class “Black Beauty Culture.” This examines the dialogue between different aspects of black beauty and other aesthetic traditions that span the enslavement into the age of social media. Now, as an assistant professor at Parsons, he finds a way to connect black history to his class.
“There’s a lot to do with the relationship between the beauty of black fashion and black and the history of enslavement and fashion history. That’s a big part of the syllabus,” Square says. “But there should be a certain amount of width, so we’re covering other topics as well.”
At Howard University, one of the few historically black universities (HBCUs) offering fashion design programs, approval of black contributions to fashion has been incorporated into the curriculum from day one.
Dr. Elka Stevens.
Photo: Courtesy of Howard University
“We are a great fan of our fashion design program,” said Dr. Elka Stevens, Associate Professor at Howard and Fashion Design Program Coordinator. “If we’re HBCUs, that discussion of race is a very natural fit because people enjoy representing. People want to see and hear about people who look like them and can succeed within the industry.”
Design students must take courses such as “History of Design” and “History Clothing.” This provides a broad overview of fashion that begins and advances in ancient Egypt. There, they learn about many black designers from different eras, including Mary Todd Lincoln’s African-American tailor and personal dress maker Elizabeth Keckley.
“In the marketing class, you can talk about African Americans and people of color,” says Dr. Stevens. “We talk about them from a sustainability perspective. We talk about them in the pattern making class. We talk about them in the design class. Almost every class has the opportunity to showcase designers of color or black.”
In a background in fashion research, Kimberly Jenkins, founder, director and principal researcher of the Fashion and Race Database, found ways to bring this subject to a higher educational environment. While serving as a part-time lecturer at Parsons in the fall of 2016, she stripped off the layers of fashion history and launched Fashion and Race, a course that examined the intersection of the influences of racism, discrimination and colonialism.
Kimberly Jenkins hosted the 2017 panel discussion, “Fashion, Culture, Justice: A NYFW Dialogue.”
Photo by Kimberly Jenkins/Jonathan Grassi
What “fashion and race” is trying to do is to reveal and reexamine the faces and moments of fashion history that have been ignored due to the effects of racism, discrimination and colonialism,” explains Jenkins. “It unleashes whiteness in fashion history. Up to that point, we persuade almost white European and American designers, tastemakers and fashion experts. [by] Black, Indigenous, Arab and Latinos. ”
She continues: “From a conceptual and theoretical perspective, we talk about cultural appropriation and how we function through some design systems under the norm, the way we operate our fashion business. [are] It has been established in white supremacy and gender. It also works to show how race and gender work together when it comes to systematic oppression. ”
An outsider, unfortunately, a general question is why this is important. Not only on racial issues, but why are you studying fashion from a historical lens worthy of an academic exam? Fashion is one of the biggest global industries, but is often considered frivolous. A conversation about how it leads to history not only to race, but also to history, is the opposite and beneficial to more than students.
“When you look at the history of fashion, you get a history of colonialism and imperialism. You get a history of race and racial consciousness. You get a history of cosmopolitanism.” “When you look at the world through that lens, you bump into many other things we hope to study at university. That’s not frivolous at all.”
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During the fall semester of 2016, I registered for Jenkins’ Fashion and Race course at Parsons School of Design.
Photo: Courtesy of Kimberly Jenkins
Dr. Miller is the author of Fashion for Slave: Styling the Identity of Black Dandism and Black Diasporics. Although she is a literary scholar, her early interest in visual culture and her studies of visible blackness in history, her ability to study and understand the nuances of literature has led to her interest in fashion, race, and identity.
“I really think about this relationship between what is visible and what is invisible, the relationship between race and identity,” Dr. Miller tells Fashionista. “The creative space between the skin and fabric is where everything can happen in terms of black bodies, like visual mystery and visual dynamics.”
From an interdisciplinary lens, fashion and race studies can be explored in a variety of ways, informing us how we view other aspects of culture. For Dr. Miller, it “considers the politics of self-expression and self-fashion in a variety of political climates.” Her colleagues explore different paths and teach a class simply entitled “clothing.” This sees how clothing and identity provide connections to people from different cultures and periods.
“As an academic field outside of art schools where fashion design and other forms of fashion history may be taught, I think it’s a bit of a challenge because it’s art or not serious,” says Dr. Miller. “But I believe the opposite, and I believe it’s an incredible lens to see the world.”
Fashion Scholar and founder of Black Fashion Archive, Rikki Byrd shares similar sentiments.
Dr. Monica Miller.
Photo: Courtesy of Bernard College
“Fashion education crosses a variety of fields. There are students studying fashion design, fashion business, fashion photography, fashion history, theory, research, etc. … They study race and actually return race to these histories. “That doesn’t mean that it appears in student design, but what does it mean to recognize the world around you?”
Byrd taught a course called “black fashion” at the Chicago Institute of Art School. There, students “see the performance aspects of dresses throughout the black living experience” and “engaged in conversation and reading from slaves.” They studied the works of scholars, historians and activists, including Uri Macmillan, Evelyn Higginbotum, Lorraine O’Grady and Tanisha Ford.
“This course goes through so many different things and tries to actually reach the performance aspect of the dress through performances of escape, performances of resistance, performances of protest, performances of joy beyond the living experience of black people,” says Bird.
Given our current political climate, where racial subjects often encounter intense backlash, there is uncertainty about how we will broach subjects at an educational level in a way that allows students to acknowledge their importance, regardless of race.
Rikki Byrd.
Photo: Provided by Rikki Byrd/Shabez Jamal
“When I teach it, I try to explain it as a methodology,” says Dr. Square. “I often focus on black beads or black fashion, or marginalized communities, but I can take the tactics and strategies I use and apply them to different fields… I try to teach students who put students who put students who don’t come from defensive minorities. Students and Color Faculty. [through] Everyone is involved in the liberation process. ”
“I don’t want to acknowledge the long road we need to walk to address these issues,” Jenkins argues. “We just want to restrain things from filling up and burning them, and being told these stories. But if these schools give a chance to courses like these, students will be able to hear the real stories, facts, truths, and the unpleasant truths of what happened in fashion history, like other history courses.”
After all, what really ties it together is history for black people. And those who contributed to shaping it should be recognized.
“It’s history, it’s an era. It’s a segment of our story as a human being, and it’s a part of what people were left out,” says Dr. Stevens. “The fact that we include black people and others in our discussion is not unique. It’s something to be expected. We should talk about diversity, and when we’re talking about history or a single industry, we shouldn’t talk about a single group of people.”
“This should be comprehensive,” she continues. “And when we start these discussions, it enriches us all.”
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