(Picture credit score; College of Vogue – Vlisco print – Perelman Museum, Philadelphia)
As we rejoice Black Historical past Month 2025, I believed it becoming to discover the historic contributions that African People have made to the world of style and which Black designers to look at in 2025. Earlier than I do, I’d like to check out 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 (often called the “Father of Black Historical past”). In 1970, the Black United College students and Black Educators at Kent State College expanded the thought to incorporate all the 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
(Picture credit score – College of Vogue- Vlisco African dashiki print Perelman Museum, Philadelphia)
When most of us consider African costume, the very first thing that involves thoughts is the dashiki, a loose-fitting garment fabricated from a colourful printed cotton. However, have you learnt the origin of these prints? African Prints are wax prints which can 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 approach. The 2 factories that initially created these prints, ABC (an English wax firm that moved to Ghana), and Vlisco, (positioned within the Netherlands), finally discovered a marketplace for them in West Africa round 1867. Since then, the prints caught on and have been made standard by African distributors who assign that means and worth to them. The highly effective businesswomen who promote these prints in Africa are nicknamed “Mama Benz” after the flowery automobiles they purchase with their earnings.
Within the U.S., African prints are worn as a logo of pleasure and so they proceed in recognition amongst designers on the worldwide stage.
To study extra about West African textiles, view our collection: West African Textiles: Manjak Fabric of Senegal, West African Textiles: Mali-Bògòlanfini and West African Textiles: Faso Dan Fani Fabric of Burkina Faso.
(Picture credit score: College of Vogue – Vlisco print at Perelman Museum, Philadelphia)
In actual fact, the Vlisco bull’s-eye sample under was utilized in Burberry’s spring/summer season 2012 assortment. And Studio 189, a Ghana/U.S.-based sustainable style line debuted their print assortment at NYFW 2019.
(Picture credit score: College of Vogue- Vlisco print designed by Piet Snel 1936)
African Head Wraps
One other main contribution of African costume is the top wrap, head tie or head scarf, worn both for day-to-day actions or for ceremonial/non secular functions. These headdresses go by varied 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 discover ways to tie 10 completely different variations of head wraps.
Head Wrap(Picture credit score: Oladimeji Odunsi)
African Costume Symbolism
African clothes patterns usually depict non secular beliefs and political commentary. The colours are additionally of specific significance, as they interpret the that means of the sample, with pink symbolizing loss of life, inexperienced that 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 costume worn by males.
Males’s agabada (Picture credit score: Fikayo Aderoju)
For girls, it’s the gomesi and the kanga (a colourful piece of printed cotton cloth with a border that’s wrapped across the physique).
Ladies’s gomesi (Picture credit score: mywedding.co.ug)
African American Design Pioneers
Zelda Barbour Wynn Valdes was the primary African American style 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 have 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 (Picture 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 likewise labored in her uncle’s tailoring store. She started work as a inventory woman at a high-end boutique round 1920 and labored her approach 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 referred to as her retailer, Chez Zelda. Valdes’s boutique quickly attracted quite a few celebrities and society girls. In 1949 Valdes was elected president of the New York Chapter of the Nationwide Affiliation of Vogue and Accent Designers (NAFAD), a company of black designers that was based by educator and political activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Within the early Nineteen 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, nevertheless 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 profitable African American designers within the style 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 (Picture credit score: Cooper Hewitt)
The primary black feminine designer to be acknowledged by the up to date style trade was Tracy Reese, who based her eponymous model in 1998. Primarily based in Detroit, Reese not too long ago introduced the launch of a brand new ethically-diverse label, Hope for Flowers, constructing on her already numerous and size-inclusive platform.
Tracy Reese (Picture 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 Vogue 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 distinguished Veritas Award for his achievements and his dedication to international socio-economic growth.
Ozwald Boateng (Picture credit score: ozwaldboateng.com)
6 Black Designers to Watch in 2025
Regardless of having traditionally pushed traits in industries equivalent to meals, magnificence, style, music and media, Black shoppers have been neglected for many years. Based on a 2022 Neilson report, “Black shoppers possess extra energy and affect within the retailing market than ever earlier than given their rising shopping for energy and inhabitants fee.” 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 achieve $1.8 trillion by the top of 2024. An evaluation by McKinsey & Firm means that Black shoppers’ spending on attire and footwear alone will develop by about six p.c 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, Home of Aama, and Sergio Hudson.
Care to share your ideas with us about Black Historical past month?