The Fabric of Fashion
Our newly commissioned art piece; 'Black Fashion Exhibitions'; why Adire matters in fashion and more.
Hello everyone,
I hope that the sunset of this month has you feeling somewhat invigorated and has offered an opportunity for you to set your motivations and aspirations for this new year. Here at the database, I’ve had a desire to sharpen our focus in terms of what we do, which has been motivated by fellow educators, students, curators, scholars, non-fashion folks and industry leaders who have reached out to support and partner with us.
When I was at a Christopher John Rogers show back in 2018, a respected fashion veteran told me that I needed to give up on the idea of being seen or heard by the fashion industry–that I should just go do my own thing because the industry is too hopeless to reform or work with. While some may believe that the latter is true, I used that conversation to propel my work forward and build a platform for educating the industry as well as everyday people when it comes to the most pressing social issues of our time. And you know what? The industry is listening.
Whether the industry wants to admit that it needs to enrich its cultural intelligence or whether ‘doing the work’ is something that they sincerely want to do, the fact of the matter is this: The fashion industry must prioritize diversity and sustainability or it will collapse. Compassion, consideration and respect are three principles that lay at the heart of diversity and sustainability, and I have hope that our allies in this effort along with a new generation (Millenials and Gen Z) will work to see this through.
Now, in other news…
We have a newly commissioned art piece that greets you on our website! I want to thank our Project Manager Rachel Kinnard for coordinating this with me, and we are both thankful to Mexico City-based artist Museo de Moda for her interest in creating the visuals for our new look and feel. I’ve added her exquisite collage below, ‘The Fabric of Fashion,’ but I encourage you to get a closer look on our website.
What I love about this image is that it not only includes the typical signifiers of ‘fashion’–a Balenciaga tag, an elegant wrap dress, shopping bags–but it also includes a photo of 1960s fashion icon Hanni Yu (a nod to ‘Our Fashion History’ and ‘Profiles’), ascending black models (you’ll see why it matters next week), and cotton. It was key that we included cotton in this art piece, as it is the primary plant that birthed the textile industry. In the Americas, this plant has blood on its roots, as a lucrative textile and clothing industry was made possible through slave labor (followed by sharecropping), and the overflow of cotton you see along the bottom of this piece can be mistaken for ‘happy,’ fluffy clouds–an interesting play on perception.
I invite you to check out more of Museo de Moda’s work on Instagram, and I also want to thank artist Fabiola Jean-Louis for graciously allowing us to showcase her work, ‘Rest in Peace,’ since I first created the database in 2017.
From The Library: A Spotlight on Black Fashion Exhibitions
This week Research Assistant Kai Marcel has gathered a selection of exhibitions that have centered the Black subject and reflects upon its significance:
The museum is an essential space within historiographical discourses because it facilitates, in part, the ways we collectively remember our pasts and the ways in which we createand curate our own histories. In this way, exhibitions about fashion remain a site of negotiation, veneration, and collective remembrance that contain guiding and hierarchical knowledges about taste, fashionability, and artistic mastery. Fashion exhibitions help make static the influence and approbation of certain designers and tastemakers, while often obscuring others. This perpetuates a canon of fashion history that often emblematizes, institutionalizes, and disseminates white hegemony. These five exhibitions deconstruct this cycle by centering those who are often the least represented in historical and contemporary discourses about high-fashion, fine art, and fashion museology.
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me: Michelle Elie Wears Comme des Garçons, curated by Michelle Elie, Mahret Ifeoma Kupka
Worn: Shaping Black Feminine Identity, co-curated by Julie Crooks, Dominique Fontaine, and Silvia Forni.
Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion x Hair x Design, curated by Beatrace Angut Oola
Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love, curated by Dilys Blum
Tignon, curated by Chesley Antoinette
‘The Library’ is where we collect and organize countless educational sources all in one place. Referenced by educators, students, fashion enthusiasts and curious minds, this multi-faceted repository provides an expanding selection of tools for learning about all matters connected to fashion, appearance, power and the impact of ‘race.’
Objects That Matter: Adire
"Adire is a type of textile originating among the Yoruba indigenous people from the Southwestern states in Nigeria. In Yoruba, the word Adire translates as (adi) “to tie” and (re) “to dye.”"
A textile indigenous to the Yoruba people in the Southwestern states of Nigeria and influential to contemporary designers of African heritage, the significance of the Adire technique matters to our guest contributor, Jareh Das, a Lagos and London based curator, writer, and researcher.
We invite you to read on about Adire, learning more about why this object matters in fashion today.
'Objects That Matter' gathers numerous fashion objects outside of the Western lens and provides a brief history, showing why they matter, as many of these items have been widely appropriated or referenced.
Opportunities: Call for contributors for a BLM Focused Special Issue of the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal (CTRJ)
New Manuscript Submission Deadline: March 31, 2021
The tragic murder of George Floyd, Summer 2020 has caused a global recognition of the importance of the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) – https://blacklivesmatter.com/ . The Black Lives Matter movement was “founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer.” As stated on the BLM website, “By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.” Black individuals have provided unrecognized and undocumented imagination and innovation within the apparel, fashion, and textile industries.
The contributions of Blacks to the global apparel, fashion, and textile industries are vast, profound, and multifaceted. These contributions can be addressed from an array of scholarly methods. Contributors are challenged to unearth new information, relay untold stories, provide new perspectives to demonstrate that Black Lives Matter in the disciplines of apparel, fashion, and textiles.
To learn more about this call for contributors, visit our post for this opportunity.
A global network of events, conversations and opportunities will continue to evolve the discourse on fashion and race. ‘Opportunities’ remains on the pulse and keeps you looped in.
That’s it for now. Please stay safe and we’ll see you next week.
Yours in service and solidarity,
Kim Jenkins
The Fashion and Race Database Team: Rachel Kinnard, Daniela Hernandez, Kai Marcel, Laura Beltrán-Rubio