Black Style RIGHT NOW!

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With its usual fanfare and paparazzi, Olympus Fashion Week came and went with a couple of notable contributions to the fashion industry. Sartorial stalwarts Carolina Herrera and Oscar De La Renta did not disappoint those thirsting for the latest ready-to-wear refreshment. Golden boys Zac Posen and Marc Jacobs definitely upped the fashion ante with their trend-setting, imaginative yet wearable collections. There were even a few surprises from Donna Karan and Vera Wang. High-end dressmaking and full-scale production were again the rule of the day.

As a member of the "black stylemonster contingent" (thanks Rob!), I'm always keenly aware of where people of color are making their mark along the fashion spectrum. Once again, the overall "color palette" of the designers- if not for Tracy Reese, b. michael, Lafayette 148's Edward Wilkerson and the "Project Runway" finalist Michael Knight- was almost devoid of the color BLACK. Yes, there were plenty of "people of color" (De La Renta, Posen, Herrera, Jason Wu, Narciso Rodriguez, Kimora Lee Simmons, Carmen Marc Valvo, Vera Wang to name a few), but the presence of CFDA-recognized BLACK stylemakers continues to be melanin-deficient to almost non-existent. However, that doesn't mean that black designers do not exist. This was the rather ambitious point that the BLACK STYLE NOW exhibit seemed to drive home. With its mission statement being to explore "how black style has evolved in New York City and how the hip-hop revolution has turned fashion on its head”, it was certainly a breath of fresh air in the homogenous swarm of European-descended designers. Nothing was higher on the black fashionista's agenda this past season than getting a ticket to opening night at the Museum of the City of New York (it runs now through February 19, 2007).

Stepping into the main hall, one is presented with style choices from black America's current style-conscious contingent: Polo worn by Kanye West, Lil Kim in Marc Jacobs, Beyonce at the CFDA Awards, Diddy and Lenny Kravitz. Behind this is a semi-circular staircase hugging a "style mural" of pictures featuring black folks at their sartorial best- tuxedos, dresses and gowns attending awards shows and banquets, casual sportswear posing in parks and gardens and ghetto fab chic ramping down 125th Street. This is Black Style in some of its splendor. Entering the official exhibit space, you are immediately transported back to the genesis of black taste and aesthete. Pictures showing the inimitable style of black visionaries Jackie Robinson, Eartha Kitt, Langston Hughes, and others provide a brief throwback to Harlem's Renaissance period. One particular image, entitled "Boys wearing Looted Formal Wear, August 2, 1943", provides a poignant analogy of how hip-hop style may have invented itself. According to the picture's text, following a race riot sparked by the killing of a black soldier by a white police officer three young men looted a formal pawn shop and stole oversized tuxedo suits and tails in their attempt to emulate their idol at the time, Duke Ellington. As the tuxedos were entirely too big for them, they simply rolled up sleeves and hems, cocked their hats to the side and came up with their own style. Although not exactly sporting couture, they are sartorially-turned out, dignified and somewhat braggadocios. If that's not a metaphor for the creation of ghetto fabulousness, I don't know what is.

Moving into the first major grouping- The Early Black Designers- Irma McLindon, Ruby Bailey, Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes (who is credited with designing the first Playboy bunny costumes), Ann Lowe (famously known for designing Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding dress in 1952 for her nuptials to John Fitzgerald Kennedy) and "mad hatter" Willard Winter all get their fifteen minutes. These pioneers established themselves fashionably when most blacks were disenfranchised in the early 1930's to the 1950's. It was great to see them get props. The other side of the wall gave us images of Harlem's black bourgeoisie- a "fashionable Harlem couple" decked out in matching raccoon coats driving the latest Cadillac coupe, debutantes being presented ballroom-style, Madame CJ Walkers' daughters and other depictions of middle-class black life, including a rather charming picture of Easter Sunday in 1941 Harlem.

Then we get into the nuts and bolts of the exhibit, most of which any black fashionista worth their salt should already be familiar with, but which is always a pleasure to be reminded of; early 70's style featuring black models in pioneering black publications Ebony, Essence, Jet and the like. Beverly Johnson becoming the first black model on the cover of Vogue, Pat Cleveland on the cover of the debut issue of Essence magazine and dancing down the runways of Paris, Tyra Banks as the first black model on the cover of Sports Illustrated sitting next to Alek Wek on the cover of Elle magazine. Menswear line ELEGANZA running ads that ran in black magazines circa 1973 ("Things happen when you wear ELEGANZA!") alongside the handsome visage of the original black male super model Renauld White (Tyson Beckford notwithstanding). Gangsta-inspired 70's Superfly looks bring us to the memorable Jay-Z "Reasonable Doubt" CD cover and the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy pimped out under the tracks at 125th Street and Riverside.

The introduction to Hip hop style reigns when it takes its turn in the spotlight of the exhibit, from Dapper Dan's ubiquitous custom made "MGM" track suits to the first hip hop style accessory of note- the Cazal eyeglass frame- to the hip-hop chick must-have Manolo Blahnik "Tims" from 1996. In between we get everything from Salt n Pepa "8ball" jackets, thick shoelaces in pumas and adidas, Cross Colours and FUBU. The point here is to show street fashion and how the look was "borrowed" by style giants such as John Galliano for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and Norma Kamali. Even Louis Vuitton got in on the street aesthetic (remember the graffiti print purses from 2001?). The interplay between mainstream fashion and its quest for ghetto fabulosity makes for an interesting commentary on exactly where designers found their "inspiration" for those collections, and the irony is not lost on the viewer. Urban brands Sean John and Baby Phat are the big hits here, accompanied by the "bling" of platinum and diamonds adorning everything from chains and rings to Playstations.

When the viewer is veered back from hip hop style, newer designers take the forefront. The "unsigned Talent" display boasts underground favorites Sistahs of Harlem, Michael Butler, and 'Douglas Says', who has been on every scene- from Fashion shows given by The Links, Ebony Fashion Fair and the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington DC to Magic Johnson's "Salute to Black Designers" show on Seventh Avenue during New York fashion week a couple of years ago. Natasha Allen, who was the first African-American to win the Parsons School of Design 'Designer of the Year' award in spring 2004 also shows up here.

Bringing up the rear of the experience are today's black fashion soldiers who have Seventh Avenue cred- the CD Greenes, the Gordon Hendersons, the Stephen Burrowses and the Edward Wilkersons sit alongside a gorgeous chocolate brown evening gown by b. michael, an ingeniously deconstructed wedding dress by Epperson, a STUNNING paillette-embroidered dinner dress by Tracy Reese. THIS is black style NOW!


And now...the RE-EDIT...

I appreciate the labor of love that this exhibit must have been for curators Michael Henry Adams and Michael McCollum. It must have been an anthropological thrill to produce a time capsule of the genesis of hip hop style and what it has evolved into. Some of the acquisitions were GREAT coups that needed to be seen. That being said there was no connective thread for all the other stuff that was there- giving me the feeling that the scope should have been more tightly edited. Point being, the exhibit would have completely spoken to its mission statement had it concentrated ONLY on hip hop-inspired fashion, but in its attempt to provide some historical fashion context and probably to give props to NON-hip hop stylemakers by profiling them, they attempted to cover all facets of black style- with some blaring omissions. If you're going to attempt to lay out the map of the somewhat labyrinthine concept known as the "black style" story-even if you confine it to New York City- you have to tell the WHOLE story. Moreover, black style and hip-hop style are not completely interchangeable. If it were, successful hip hop labels like Marc Ecko would fall outside of it. For the sake of simplicity, it would seem to me that "black style" is any fashion form created by any BLACK person regardless of the music form that adapts it- and that's where the confusion on the exhibit's definition of black style comes into play. If we are talking solely about hip-hop style, the exhibit should have stayed within those confines. Bundling the compendium of contributors to black fashion style in all of its splendor with those who solely earned their fashion cred from a black musical subculture muddles the topic. Namely, if we are talking about ALL black style, mention and show how black folks' unique style choices differentiate them from the majority's tastes in ALL categories. If not, just concentrate on hip hop, connect the dots between general fashion and hip hop and rename the presentation HIP HOP STYLE NOW.

If we're talking black style's INFLUENCE on hip hop, cover other sartorial avenues like "church fashion", for example. New Yorkers, black southerners, and participants in the Great Migration to the Midwest alike took the reigns of general fashion and defined the way worshippers chose to dress: somewhat outlandish 'first lady' hats and bold-colored and patterned yet tailored men's and women's suits. It could be argued that this mixing of high fashion with an ostentatious swagger gave rise to the 'ghetto-fabulous' proponent that became the trademark of contemporary black artists like Mary J. Blige and Lil Kim. Talk about the African influence on African-American style. The adaptation of kente-inspired accessories, materials and cuts rocked by conscious hip hoppers The Jungle Brothers, De la Soul, early A Tribe Called Quest and Queen Latifah were showcased in the 'Native Tongue' movement in hip hop. Caftans, kuffes, and dashikis replaced Le Tigre shirts and Lee twills, wooden ankhs hung around necks in place of 'dooky' gold rope chains. We need the WHOLE spectrum, not just the bling culture that black people are almost exclusively known for.

On the exclusively black style front, if we're going to talk about and show pieces from Stephen Burrows World, why not profile Patrick Kelly, who both revolutionized and re-defined what style, black or not, was? To be fair, The Brooklyn Museum did a retrospective on Kelly 2 years ago touching on how he took Paris by storm, becoming the first American member of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter (the governing body of the prestigious French ready-to-wear industry). However, his omission was tantamount to the elephant in the room.

If we're going to truly understand what drives black style ( and thus hip hop style) now, profile those in the industry right now that propelled black style forward. What about Lloyd Boston, fashion author (dare I say authorITY?), whose perch at Tommy Hilfiger as creative director simultaneously brought hip-hop fashion to the hood and the masses with broad-stroked insignia-laced polos and such. Someone who had so much to do with hip-hop fashion and marketing at its inception gets no mention. At all. Huh?

In a thorough analysis of black style and its subcategory hip hop, who better to pontificate on the direction of black style post-2000 than those who DEFINED how we saw ourselves in the "hip hop-Camelot age" of the 1990's going forward? You can find them in the form of style denizen and fashion editor Michaela Angela Davis, Vibe fashion director Memsor Kamarake, or fashion stylist extraordinaires Llewelyn Jenkins, Misa Hylton-Brimm and Kithe Brewster, who have creatively changed the perspective of black style in video, runway and editorial. These are the people that in most cases introduced those artists featured in the first display of the exhibit (Kanye, Beyonce, Lil Kim, P. Diddy) to what black style is NOW. Not to mention Andre Leon Talley, whose creative direction at the fashion bible known as Vogue catapulted him into the fashion stratosphere and established him firmly in the annals of American fashion history.

Realizing that you can't be all things to everybody, and that to thoroughly delve into the entire spectrum of what black style is would probably have been cost-prohibitive, the best part about the exhibit is that someone dared to even tackle such a broad subject. Other saving graces are the features that are offered in conjunction with the exhibit, such as the October 22nd film presentation 'Stylin on Screen: Urban Chic' by Jamal Joseph that traces black fashion across the country in the 30's through the 50's. I would definitely love to see a more comprehensive exhibit, i.e., one that addresses hip hop as just one facet of black "style" and expounds on the rather extensive topic. However, the BLACK STYLE NOW exhibit was a great jumping off point to open the discussion.