5 Ways Black Women Have Impacted the Fashion Industry

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Black people are the reasons why most if not all of the fashion trends that are popular exist. We are where the ideas and style are stolen from then replicated and sold back to us but watered down. Black people, the ghetto, our culture, our history, our heritage, our mannerisms, our taste, our class and everything that is us has always been what draws people to want to try to be like us but not accept who we are or even want to accept us into their spaces, which makes no sense. But you can’t have our culture and our fashion without us. We are the blueprint and the handbook.

What Black Women have done for the Fashion Industry:

  1. 90s Fashion The Collide of Hip Hop and High Fashion:

    The impact of Foxy Brown and Lil Kim and the deals they had with high fashion brands like Jean Paul Gaultier, Dior, Chanel, Fendi, Louis Vuitton etc and appearing in their campaigns and with the designers in paparazzi isn’t something that was being done but when people like Lil Kim and Foxy Brown showcased who they were to the world unapologetically, of course others wanted a piece of what comes naturally to us. In the 90s not only did we get supreme songs and rap lyrics that we all loved but we got looks that still reign as iconic to this day.

  2. Stylists Power, Building image:

    Many of the looks we love from our favorite artists is the work of incredible stylists and visionaries such as Misa Hylton and June Ambrose. For Misa Hylton she styled the likes of Lil Kim, Mary J Blige and other artists signed to Bad Boy Records, June Ambrose is responsible for styling many of our favs such as Missy Elliot giving us the iconic trash bag look from ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ music video and the story behind the look is so crazy and funny, she’s styled Diddy, she has styled MJB, Jay-Z has been her long time client and a list of many others. There are many other amazing stylists that did great work during this time but June Ambrose and Misa Hylton are two women that really are pioneers in the fashion industry and created timeless moments that will never be forgotten.

  3. Moodboard Inspiration:

    Many times these different brands use Black people and Black women on their moodboards to copy their style and looks to build their next collection or their next project but its all without our knowing. They want to replicate what we have to offer, they have people that watch our social media, that watch what we post, that watch how we style certain pieces or where we shop so they can ATTEMPT to replicated it but with social media being the power tool that it is many brands and artists have been caught utilizing Black Women and Black people for more than just “inspiration” but to downright copy and not even do it well. Also aside from just using us as their inspiration without trying to pay us there are even designers that bite off of Black designers and try to remake those pieces seasons or years later, some try to be discreet with their thievery and others are way more blatant and don’t care about being called out (as we all know, its been happening forever. i.e. what Gucci tried to do to Dapper Dan). Also back in the day when racism was even thicker than it is now Black designers like Zelda Wynn Valdes who created the Playboy Bunny costumes never got her credit, Ann Lowe that was a designer for many of the white socialites and designer Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress never got her credit and another designer was named as the creator all because they didn’t want it known Black women created these things, there are many other Black creatives up to this day that have never gotten their credit for their work that had such an iconic and important impact.

  4. Wanting our likeness:

    As I previously stated brands always want likeness from who we are and like to try to bite off of our audience and platform that we have created for ourselves to promote their products but they don’t want to ay us (such as sending products for payment like they don’t have the budget). We create the trends, we create original content, we are naturally creative, we are who we are naturally because its in us not on us we don’t have to learn to be us we are just that way. We are IT and what we like always sells and that’s what they want a piece of. They want the flavor that we come with and how we improve everything we touch. We don’t have to watch trends for ideas and that is what they have always admired.

  5. Being What you want to be:

    As everyone should be able to see they have tried to replicate us or tried to make others be like us when they can’t. From trying to replicate our body types and features, from taking our hairstyles and using them during fashion shows, from using make up/editing to change the skin color and features of other women to be like ours when they didn’t accept these things when they were seen on us or called them low quality or ghetto. From stiletto nails to cornrows that they tried to call “boxer braids” they tried to become us but it just doesn’t work.

    We are so glad to see Black people being celebrated in the fashion industry more from black models being used especially in shows for Black designers, to Black artists wearing Black designers, to Black stylists, make up artists, photographers and other creatives being used on set. I am so happy to see Black people celebrating Black people and giving each other our flowers while we are still here to smell them. We no longer need acceptance from people that don’t want to accept us, we are going after the resources needed to sustain our businesses and continue bringing our talents to larger platforms that truly support us and that are many times now run by other Black people.