To a large degree, the actual scope of Black fashion history is a race against time. For ages, Black designers, style innovators and enthusiasts have served as “the muse” behind fashion’s most significant moments, yet their contributions are almost always redacted in favor of maintaining “slanted” accounts of record.
Despite this egregious, deliberate stifling, Black creatives continue to give more to the fashion industry than they will ever get in return. But thankfully, there is an emerging group of historians who are devoted to uncovering and documenting these narratives before they are gone.
Through galleries, books, social media and more, they are shining a long-overdue spotlight on the everlasting influence of Black fashion. And they’ve made it more visible, accessible and easily shareable.
Ahead are three of these Black fashion archivists – and the important work they do.
Shelby Ivey Christie
New York-based fashion and costume historian Shelby Ivey Christie is well known for changing and challenging the way the world views fashion. She combines her encyclopedic knowledge of its history, masterly analysis skills and uncanny social media flair to unearth and highlight overlooked Black fashion contributions for her massive Twitter following.
With an academic background in history and costume design at New York University, along with extensive practical experience from having worked at Vogue, W Magazine and In-Style, Christie keenly examines fashion through the lens of race, culture and class.
Her Twitter handle, @bronze_bombSHEL is where she curates and shares with her highly engaged and loyal audience, threads of digital lessons of the unrecognized impact African Americans have on fashion’s history. “When I’m not obsessing over the story behind the clothes, I am partnering with [various companies] to create impactful and engaging fashion content”, she says – “…that brings awareness to the cultural importance of fashion and dress.”
Teleica Kirland
Teleica Kirland is the founder, creative director and principal researcher at the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora (CIAD), a London-based resource center that provides information on fashion history, costume, textiles and more.
A highly decorated academic, Kirkland’s journey as a fashion historian began long before she acquired the qualifications or even the vocabulary to describe what she wanted to do specifically. In 2007, she curated a solo exhibition about the Yoruba Orishas and wanted to know why the Oshun, the supreme deity, was regularly characterized wearing diaphanous yellow clothing. When she searched for an answer, she was astounded by the lack of established sources available and felt beckoned to fill in the gap.
As she laid the groundwork for new knowledge, Kirkland earned a Master’s degree in the History of Culture and Fashion in 2015 and began her research with travels across the Caribbean and to kente weaving communities in Toso and Kumasi in Ghana. The exposure set the foundation for the scope of her work through CIAD, as its mission is to preserve African cultural heritage through the study of clothing, music, art and other mediums.
“The whole push towards decolonizing is basically trying to get to the other side of the story,” Kirkland tells OkayAfrica.com. We’ve understood the European context of history for…forever actually. This is really [about] providing another side to the context of history.”
Nichelle Gainer
Nichelle Gainer is a writer, producer and author of Vintage Black Glamour (2014) and Vintage Black Glamour: Gentlemen’s Quarters (2016), two stunning pieces of coffee-table literature of rarely seen images and revealing stories of the African American contribution to fashion. It highlights and celebrates many of fashion’s most groundbreaking and inspiring Black legends, as well as lesser-known figures of our time.
Gainer, a Newark, NJ native who has contributed to many major magazines and websites, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR, discovered the rich photography in library archives in Newark, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Library of Congress, to compose the visual stories that weren’t always out in the open.
An epic photo of Eartha Kitt is emblazoned across the cover of Vintage Black Glamour, but joining her in the book are women who aren’t celebrated nearly as much, such as Matilda Sissieretta Jones, the first Black singer to perform at Carnegie Hall and opera singer Margaret Tynes. In one of the photos, Tynes has her hair styled by Rose Morgan, who had been married to professional boxer Joe Louis, but additionally – as owner of Harlem Rose Meta House of Beauty – became a pioneer in hair salons for Black women.
Throughout her work, Gaines beautifully uncovers and conserves the wonderful history and influence of the Black sartorial experience with extraordinary imagery and resounding stories of great struggle and triumphant achievements.
