For over 90 years, Black History Month has stood as a time to reflect on how far society has come and how far it has to go. Turn the page to the present-day and Black creatives in fashion have risen in ranks and are now determined to create space for future generations to come. As February winds down and the fashion industry advances halfway through the runway season, contributor Shelton Boyd-Griffith zeroed in on the new-gen talent that made a mark this New York Fashion Week. A fashion & culture writer based in NYC, Boyd-Griffith focuses on the intersections of fashion, art, and culture, elevating emerging fashion talent, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ designers, and the ways fashion and politics collide. Here he weighs in on the emerging talents that should be on your radar.
Words by Shelton Boyd-Griffith
Introduction | Managing Editor – Irene Ojo-Felix
After a noteworthy week of runway debuts, interactive presentations, and celebratory dinners, the NYFW F/W 2022 season is officially over. Although this season felt the effects of COVID surges and falls, there was something particularly special in the air this season—many of this season’s shows centered around Black designers as the highlights of the week and took the coveted spots of NYFW pillars opting out of the schedule (see: Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, etc). From narratives surrounding socio-political movements to the inclusion of varying body types, ages, and identities to themes of folklore and Black liberation—this NYFW was all about rising Black talent.
The week kicked off with Nigerian-born, London-raised, and currently New York-based designer, Tia Adeola. Taking place at the arresting Prince George Ballroom, the show encapsulated the personal brand ethos of Adeola, known for her manipulation of tulle, ruffled sheer applications, and feminine romanticism. Sitting out last season, Adeola spoke on the difficult year as a young designer combatting the effects of COVID on production and the trauma of the 2020 Lekki shooting on unarmed EndSARS protestors, a movement against Nigerian police brutality and corruption. “I used that time to sit and think about everything that was happening around me since COVID, coupled with experiencing an uprising in my country,” she says. Using her platform, she interjected her feelings into the collection, along with signature ruffled motifs and odes to depictions of Black bodies in Renaissance art. “The Renaissance era is great but Black people are missing from that part of history,” she says. “My aim is to rewrite history through fashion and insert us [Black people of the diaspora] into the time periods we belong, through the garments, the music, my cause, and the hair.”
With the immense presence of Black brands showing this season, the runways accordingly reflected tangible diversity and inclusion. Iconic supermodel Beverly Johnson walked the Sergio Hudson show to thunderous applause, and over at Tia Adeola, legendary Patrick Kelly muse, Coco Mitchell graced the runway. At No Sesso’s East Village show, the casting reflected its ethos of being an affirming space with an array of sizes, identities, and complexions. Black queer, trans, and non-binary models jaunted down the runway, like trans model/activist Gia Love. As part of IN THE BLK’s three-part show, a diverse casting celebrated a future in which the industry is truthfully inclusive, from behind the scenes to the final stage. “I think it’s really important for us all to come together for this moment,” says Rebecca Henry of design mother/daughter duo, House of Aama, on the IMG/UPS/Color of Change sponsored event. Staying true to its mission of “the collective: to unify, build solidarity and economic independence for Black individuals in the global fashion industry,” IN THE BLK celebrated the work of three emerging Black designers; House of Aama, Khiry, and Third Crown.
With VS model and new mom Maria Borges kicking off the show, husband and wife duo Kofi and Kristen Essell of Third Crown showed first, presenting their Edelsteen collection—taking inspiration from the southern African language, Afrikaans, Edelsteen being Afrikaans for gemstones. “I think this kind of leaves the door open to maybe doing things that incorporate other fabrications and other mediums,” says Kofi. “Eventually we will expand—this is just one of your first steps and seeing what that could look like.” Following Third Crown, mother and daughter duo Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka presented their Heritage Bloodroot Collection – Into the Archives, delving into historical records to explore the folkways of the Black experience. “Part of our creative process is going into archives and looking back into history, including our own,” says Shabaka. This collection found them referencing and expanding upon silhouettes and themes from their first collection while focusing on their timeline. “We want to engage in slow fashion, we don’t want to continue to just develop new things,” said Shabaka.
“It felt amazing to have access to the resources needed to realize a vision and to do that alongside people I really respect, makes it all the more meaningful,” says Khiry founder, Jameel Mohammed. Much like Third Crown, Khiry is primarily a jewelry house, but through IN THE BLK, the brand was able to explore and expand upon aesthetic concepts both in terms of clothing and demi-fine jewelry. The Chicago-founded, Afrofuturistic luxury brand “channels the African Diaspora’s beauty, art, heritage and culture into modern-day jewelry.” Closing the show with a performance, this collection read as a performance art piece—a play on the state of Black Liberation. “I was looking at historical episodes of political violence and the ways that they interacted with ideas of strategies for creating Black liberation,” says Mohammed. “I wanted to represent the tension of different strategies and the limits of violence of the means to creating durable freedom.”
Building upon the crucial work established over the past few years, this season the Black In Fashion Council, spearheaded by The Cut Editor-In-Chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner and public relations titan Sandrine Charles, curated a showroom to house emerging Black brands. The Discovery Showroom, in collaboration with IMG, facilitated an intimate space for ten emerging Black brands to showcase their collections and engage with buyers, editors, and customers; Ashya, CISE, Claude Kameni, Dur Doux, Eugene Taylor Brand, Justin Wesley, Keama, Megan Renee, Salone Monet, and Ndigo Studio. From Ndigo Studio’s colorful, structured pleating, to LA-based Megan Renee’s custom print sets and voluminous shirt dresses, the cohort of designers represented the various narratives, aesthetics, and brand models of designers of the African diaspora.
To help close out fashion week, cult-favorite LA-based brand No Sesso, treated attendees to a ball—complete with a denim corset bucket bag, Vogue-house fusion beats, and hairstyles fitting of a Bronner Brothers beauty show. “In continuation of the Ghetto Gold collection, the mood board consisted of Black heirlooms and Sunday’s Best themes in contrast to sex and freedom,” said No Sesso co-designer, Autumn Randolph in regards to the collection. Titled The Girls with Dolphin Earrings, designers Randolph and Pia Davis created a collection that was distinctly American—denim, patchwork, camo, etc.—but through their distinct lens. Deconstructed garments, gabardine pinstripe puffer kimono, and denim corseted dresses, the latter a precursor to the duo’s upcoming Levi’s collaboration. “We worked with materials we hadn’t before like jewels, chiffon, and all of the dainty things—so this season we mixed them all together in a way that mirrors who we are as individuals living full and free lives.”
The show felt like something that had been missing in the New York scene for a while, full of clothes that emote a visceral reaction, a casting that represents, a safe space for marginalized communities and performance art. “Not just one culture of ours…we want all walks of life within the Black community to feel and wear No Sesso if that’s what they want,” says Randolph. “On the runway, we style looks that everyone can choose from and we want to make sure we are not confining us as a people and a brand to what [the mainstream] thinks we are.”
NYFW has always been known for its cultivation of new voices but this season one thing’s for sure; there was much in display in raw, sheer talent within the scene of rising, Black designers. “With the passing of Virgil [Abloh], we have such big shoes to fill,” says Adeola. “I think there’s a solid number of us doing just that—and it’s beautiful to see.” With varying aesthetics, castings that reflect the industry we’re all striving for, and important narratives to tell—the new vanguard of Black fashion talent is reshaping the New York shows, doing it their way, and making the entire industry take notice.
