From Elizabeth Keckly's designs as a freewoman for Abraham Lincoln's wife to flamboyant clothing showcased by Patrick Kelly in Paris, Black designers have made major contributions to American fashion. However, many of their achievements have gone unrecognized. This book, inspired by the award-winning exhibition at the Museum at FIT, uncovers hidden histories of Black designers at a time when conversations about representation and racialized experiences in the fashion industry have reached all-time highs.In chapters from leading and up-and-coming authors and curators, Black Designers in American Fashion uses previously unexplored sources to show how Black designers helped build America's global fashion reputation. From enslaved 18th-century dressmakers to 20th-century star designers, via independent modistes and Seventh Avenue workers, the book traces the changing experiences of Black designers under conditions such as slavery, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Black Designers in American Fashion shows that within these contexts Black designers maintained multifaceted practices which continue to influence American and global style today.Interweaving fashion design and American cultural history, this book fills critical gaps in the history of fashion and offers insights and context to students of fashion, design, and American and African American history and culture.
List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction; Elizabeth Way Section I: Anonymous Histories 1.The Fabric of Fast Fashion: Enslaved Wearers and Makers as Designers in the American Fashion System; Katie Knowles 2.Liberty's Warp, Slavery's Weft: A Look at the Work of Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Enslaved Fashion Makers and Their Descendants; Jonathan Michael Square 3.A Matrilineal Thread: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Black New York Dressmakers; Elizabeth Way Section II: In the Atelier: Modistes and Independent Designers 4.Dressing Up: The Rise of Fannie Criss; Kristen E. Stewart 5.Ruby Bailey: Making for Oneself, A Regional Fashion Designer Case Study; Joy Davis 6.Arthur George Art Smith: An Artist About Form, A Man About Substance; Kristen J. Owens Section III: Into the Mainstream: Seventh Avenue and Beyond 7.Wesley Tann: The Glamour and the Guts; Nancy Deihl 8.Jay Jaxon: An Unsung Couturier; Darnell-Jamal Lisby 9.Dapper Dan: The Original Streetwear Designer and Influencer; Ariele Elia Section IV: The Star Designer: National and International Impact 10.Color Story: Stephen Burrows's Impact on the World of Fashion; Tanya Danielle Wilson Myers 11.Scott Barrie: Designing 1970s New York; Elizabeth Way 12.Race WERK: Williwear and Patrick Kelly Paris; Eric Darnell Pritchard Postscript; Elizabeth Way Index
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