Celebrating Black Fashion History: Then & Now

As we rejoice Black Historical past Month 2025, I assumed it becoming to discover the historic contributions that African People have made to the world of trend and which Black designers to look at in 2025. Earlier than I do, I’d like to try the origin of Black Historical past month. Began as Negro Historical past Week in 1926, it was the brainchild of Harvard-educated historian Carter G. Woodson (generally known as the “Father of Black Historical past”). In 1970, the Black United College students and Black Educators at Kent State College expanded the concept to incorporate the whole month of February, coinciding with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas (chief of the New York & Massachusetts abolition motion). Since 1976, each U.S. president has designated February as Black Historical past Month in observance of African People.

African Prints

(Photograph credit score – College of Trend- Vlisco African dashiki print Perelman Museum, Philadelphia)

When most of us consider African gown, the very first thing that involves thoughts is the dashiki, a loose-fitting garment product of a colourful printed cotton. However, are you aware the origin of these prints? African Prints are wax prints which might be industrialized variations of hand-drawn, hand-blocked and hand-dyed batik patterns that date to eighth century China and India. It wasn’t till later within the thirteenth century that islanders on Java refined the method. The 2 factories that initially created these prints, ABC (an English wax firm that moved to Ghana), and Vlisco, (positioned within the Netherlands), ultimately discovered a marketplace for them in West Africa round 1867. Since then, the prints caught on and have been made fashionable by African distributors who assign which means and worth to them. The highly effective businesswomen who promote these prints in Africa are nicknamed “Mama Benz” after the flamboyant automobiles they purchase with their earnings.

Within the U.S., African prints are worn as a logo of pleasure and so they proceed in reputation amongst designers on the worldwide stage.

To study extra about West African textiles, view our collection: West African Textiles: Manjak Cloth of Senegal, West African Textiles: Mali-Bògòlanfini and West African Textiles: Faso Dan Fani Cloth of Burkina Faso. 

(Photograph credit score: College of Trend – Vlisco print at Perelman Museum, Philadelphia)

In actual fact, the Vlisco bull’s-eye sample beneath was utilized in Burberry’s spring/summer season 2012 assortment. And Studio 189, a Ghana/U.S.-based sustainable trend line debuted their print assortment at NYFW 2019.

(Photograph credit score: College of Trend- Vlisco print designed by Piet Snel 1936)

African Head Wraps

One other main contribution of African gown is the pinnacle wrap, head tie or head scarf, worn both for day-to-day actions or for ceremonial/spiritual functions. These headdresses go by numerous names relying upon which a part of Africa. For instance the gele id from West Africa, whereas the doek and the duku are worn in Southern Africa.

Take a look at this cool YouTube video to learn to tie 10 different variations of head wraps.

Head Wrap(Photograph credit score: Oladimeji Odunsi)

African Gown Symbolism

African clothes patterns typically depict spiritual beliefs and political commentary. The colours are additionally of explicit significance, as they interpret the which means of the sample, with purple symbolizing loss of life, inexperienced which means fertility, white expressing purity, and blue signifying love. In West Africa it’s the agbada and in East Africa, the kanzu is the standard gown worn by males.

Males’s agabada (Photograph credit score: Fikayo Aderoju)

For ladies, it’s the gomesi and the kanga (a colourful piece of printed cotton material with a border that’s wrapped across the physique).

Girls’s gomesi (Photograph credit score: mywedding.co.ug)

African American Design Pioneers

Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes was the primary African American trend and costume designer, in addition to the primary black designer to open her personal store in 1948 positioned on Broadway in New York Metropolis. Her designs had been worn by such well-known entertainers as Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Marian Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Ruby Dee, Eartha Kitt and Sarah Vaughan, amongst others.

Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes (Photograph credit score: blackthen.com)

Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes was born on June 28, 1905 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She studied her grandmother’s work as a seamstress and in addition labored in her uncle’s tailoring store. She started work as a inventory lady at a high-end boutique round 1920 and labored her method as much as turn out to be the boutique’s first black shop clerk and tailor. In 1948, on the age of forty-seven, Valdes opened her boutique in Manhattan on Broadway and West 158th Road together with her sister, Mary Barbour, who labored as her assistant. She known as her retailer, Chez Zelda. Valdes’s boutique quickly attracted quite a few celebrities and society ladies.  In 1949 Valdes was elected president of the New York Chapter of the Nationwide Affiliation of Trend and Accent Designers (NAFAD), a corporation of black designers that was based by educator and political activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Within the early Fifties, Life Journal described Valdez because the “Black Marilyn Monroe.” In 1958 Playboy Journal founder Hugh Hefner employed Valdes to design the primary Playboy Bunny costume, nonetheless the unique design had taller ears and the ensemble lacked the trademark bow tie, collar and cuffs.

In 1976, designer Willi Smith launched his firm, WilliWear. Smith is taken into account one of the vital profitable African American designers within the trend trade, grossing over $25 million in gross sales by 1986. To commemorate his work, New York’s Cooper Hewitt Museum held a retrospective of his work in 2020 entitled, Willi Smith: Road Couture.

Willi Smith and his mannequin sister Toukie Smith (Photograph credit score: Cooper Hewitt)

The primary black feminine designer to be acknowledged by the modern trend trade was Tracy Reese, who based her eponymous model in 1998. Primarily based in Detroit, Reese lately introduced the launch of a brand new ethically-diverse label, Hope for Flowers, constructing on her already numerous and size-inclusive platform.

Tracy Reese (Photograph credit score: Dimitrios Kambouris)

Meet Ozwald Boateng. Born in London to Ghanaian dad and mom, Boateng was the primary tailor to current a group throughout Paris Trend Week. In 1994, he opened his retail institution simply off Savile Row and was the youngest and first black tailor ever to take action. In 2014, Harvard College introduced Boateng with the celebrated Veritas Award for his achievements and his dedication to international socio-economic growth.

Ozwald Boateng (Photograph credit score: ozwaldboateng.com)

6 Black Designers to Watch in 2025

Regardless of having traditionally pushed tendencies in industries akin to meals, magnificence, trend, music and media, Black customers have been ignored for many years. In response to a 2022 Neilson report, “Black customers possess extra energy and affect within the retailing market than ever earlier than given their rising shopping for energy and inhabitants charge.” The report additionally notes that the Black inhabitants is predicted to develop by 22% between 2020 and 2060, together with their shopping for energy, which is predicted to succeed in $1.8 trillion by the tip of 2024. An evaluation by McKinsey & Firm means that Black customers’ spending on attire and footwear alone will develop by about six % a 12 months to equal $70 billion by 2030.

The 6 Black designers to look at in 2025 and who’re serving to form the style trade are: LaQuan Smith, Diotima, Bishme Cromartie, Frederick Anderson, House of Aama, and Sergio Hudson.

Care to share your ideas with us about Black Historical past month?