With help from Quil Lemons, Grace Wales Bonner, and Kerby Jean-Raymond, Antoine Gregory’s Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN aims to “preserve Black fashion, style, and culture as it is.”
February 8, 2022
A new publication documenting the style, beauty and culture of Black fashion has launched, creating space for and exploring the talents of Black designers, photographers and creatives in the industry. Launching today, “Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN” is the first ultra-limited edition print edition created by founder, curator and editor-in-chief Antoine Gregory. A specially edited collection that reimagines the essence of Black fashion imagery through the lens of those in the community, some of the issues revisited and celebrated key moments in Black fashion, while others introduced and elevated new names.
“Black designers need space, allies and community to thrive,” says Gregory, who also serves as brand director for Theofilio. “Black Fashion Fair embodies all of this. We wanted to make sure there was something tangible that documented and preserved Black fashion, style and culture in its truest form.”
The publication’s arrival was first announced in September 2021, building anticipation and fostering a community of Black talent and those inspired by them. The debut issue features three stars on the cover, photographed by up-and-coming Black photographers who have recently made a name for themselves in the luxury industry: Maria Borges and Aleya Ali, photographed by AB+DM respectively, and Joan Smalls, photographed by Quil Lemons.
16 Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN
At nearly 200 pages, Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN is designed as a coffee-table-style keepsake, digging deep into stories centered around Kerby Jean-Raymond’s historic Pyer Moss Couture 001 collection and looks from Theophilia’s Edvin Thompson, CFDA’s 2021 Emerging Designer. “I really wanted to consider the cultural and artistic work that comes through Black designers and Black image-makers,” Gregory explains. “I wanted to make sure that through this project, I gave them agency, which is a privilege they haven’t always had over their own image.”
When recruiting collaborators, Gregory looked for people who shared his vision and excitement about the future of Black fashion and its inclusive role in the industry as a whole: “Fashion has the power to transform spaces, and I wanted to work with people who are excited about that potential.”
Gregory prioritizes emerging talent as much as established ones, counting everyone from Brandon Blackwood, Grace Wales Bonner and Ricky Byrd to Bethan Hardison, Aria Hughes, Byron Lars, Mikkel Street and Brooklyn White among his contributors. Quil Lemons, known for her beautiful photography exploring the black community, is also one notable name on the project.
Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN
“The launch of the Black Fashion Fair is a sign of hope,” said Lemmons, whose cover story with Joan Smalls highlighted black excellence. “I felt I had to be a part of this historic moment in fashion.”
That’s the history this groundbreaking publication aims to build and preserve, telling the story of Black representation and what it means to be visible in fashion through essays, interviews, and visual stories. “What I want people, everyone, to take away from this book is that Black people have always contributed to the fashion canon,” Gregory says, “and our contributions deserve to be documented and preserved.”
Black Fashion Fair: Volume 0: SEEN is now available.
