Black Fashion Designers, currently on view at The Museum at FIT, is fitting of an educational institution: a thesis is stated, examples are given, and the viewer walks away convinced of the project’s merit.
The project, in this case, is an overdue gathering of spectacular works by designers who happen to be black. They include the granddaughter of an Alabama slave who created Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress, and a Trinidadian man working on London’s Savile Row. These talents’ varied backgrounds inform unique designs. As the exhibition’s curators note repeatedly, there is not a “black style” of designing clothing, and the compact, powerful show embraces an intentional eclecticism to drive this point home.
Opening with a dynamic neon-sequined Tracy Reese gown and proceeding through themes from eveningwear to African influence, the work defies stereotypes through education. Topics like cultural appropriation and so-called street style are addressed with historical context, the designers’ experiences and intentions, and strikingly different examples for each theme (think an embellished fuchsia jacket and full skirt by Geoffrey Holder sitting beside a slinky bias-cut jersey slip by Stephen Burrows).
The show also dedicates space to the concurrent rise of black fashion models and performers, including a Burrows two-piece evening dress from the “Battle of Versailles” fashion show in France and a fabulous CD Greene dress for Tina Turner’s 1996 tour that is crafted from nylon net and a generous quantity of Swarovski crystals.
A stunning knit gown by Karl Davis is from his last collection, before he died of AIDS at the age of 23. Other must-see works include a tailored jacket and muslin horsehair skirt by Joe Casely-Hayford, and a leather dress with curves evocative of ritual scarification designed by Ghanaian-born designer Mimi Plange. If such variety sounds overwhelming, it is, but with a positive effect. While perseverance emerges as a thread between the artists, the work itself brilliantly defies any characterization at all.
Black Fashion Designers is on view at The Museum at FIT through May 16, 2017.
