Black Designers Define Fashion Trends

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Dressing America: Still a Story of ‘We Shall Overcome’?

By Steven Barboza

America’s cultural and political landscape is a kaleidoscope of bright colors, and black is prominent among them.  We have had African American Academy Awards winners every year lately. Black singers and rappers rule the charts. Black chefs just might be cooking your chicken cordon bleu regardless of whose name is on the restaurant sign out front. Oprah is queen of TV land. And a black family occupies the White House.

But when it comes to who is dressing America, 30% of whose population is nonwhite, the issue isn’t so clear. Fashion runways and photo spreads are overwhelmingly white. And black designers are hardly common figures in leading fashion houses.

African Americans alone spent $27 billion on apparel in 2008, according to Target Market News. While that is a hefty sum, it pails when compared to the total spent by all Americans. Last year, Americans spent $326 billion on clothing and footwear last year, according to the University of Michigan.

Still, are we getting good value in terms of diversity in fashion? And what of black designers? If Americans can celebrate black actors on the screen, why aren’t we honoring blacks’ pursuits in couture?

The heroes of black fashion are few and far between. But they do exist.

Tracy Reese perhaps ranks as fashion’s most successful black female designer. Of course, it always helps when the First Lady models your designs, as Michelle Obama has done for Reese.  The whole world witnessed Michelle deplane Air Force One in a Tracy Reese blue and white dress, and she opted for a $395 Reese dress for the cover shot of People Magazine.

New York Magazine called Reese’s style “unabashedly girly.” She has a namesake label and has garnered recognition in many areas, from clothing and shoes to nail polish and hosiery.

She perhaps succeeded because she always knew what she wanted. “From a young age I knew I wanted to create beautiful things,” Tracy told the Atlanta Post. “I was influenced by the femininity of women like my grandmother. After growing up in Detroit, I moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design. Once I received my degree, I decided to move to Paris where I apprenticed under designer Martine Sitbon while working for the small contemporary firm, Arlequin. A few years later, I returned to New York and started working for Perry Ellis as the design director for Women’s Portfolio.”

By age 23, her collections were being sold in Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, and Ann Taylor. Her company’s sales topped $12 million in 2003.  Still, she is engrossed in every detail of her clothes, right down to the stitching.  “While I have a wonderful team to assist, I continue to build my brand with my own hands,” she said.

Was dressing the First Lady the pinnacle of her career? Not really. “While seeing my dress on First Lady Michelle Obama was one of the proudest moments of my career, I still design for the everyday woman,” she said. “I design because I want women to feel good in what they wear and to help solve their wardrobe problems.  Nothing is more satisfying then seeing a woman walking confidently in one of my frocks. It is also nice for the everyday woman to see the First Lady wearing something that they can also obtain.”

While Reese is among the newer designers in the legacy of black fashion leaders, Ann Lowe was one of the first African Americans to crash the racial barrier in fashion. Lowe, who attended design school in 1917 and had her own New York City shop in the early 1950s, created Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s wedding gown.

Willi Smith, among the most successful mainstream black designers ever, launched WilliWear in 1976. His natural-fiber sportswear line sold more than $25 million annually.  In 1983, he became the second black to win the Coty Award. He succumbed to AIDS in 1987 at age 39.

Then came Newark, N.J.-born Stephen Burrows, who is still designing today. He was one of the hottest young designers in the 1970s, considered the golden age of black fashion. Designer Mark Jacobs credits him as a major influence.

Called one of the most audacious and auspicious talents in contemporary fashion, Burrows spent the 1970s designing clothes said to make women feel beautiful. He won a Coty Award and in 1973 was chosen as one of only five designers to represent American fashion in France at the Palace of Versailles.

How did it feel to show his collection there? “Great,” he said. “And I met Yves St. Laurent and Josephine Baker – fabulous! St. Laurent told me my clothes were ‘ravishing.’”

Burrows has received a star on the Seventh Avenue Fashion Walk of Fame.  But he owes his start to sewing a doll’s outfit. “One of my grandmothers taught me how to sew when I was eight years old,” he said. “I was fascinated by her new Singer Home Sewing Machine, and the zigzag stitch that it had on it, and I wanted to make a birthday present for my girlfriend, a dress for her favorite doll.

“I got started in fashion after I went to F.I.T. (the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York, which he attended in 1964-66) and got my first job as head designer at a Missy Blouse House on Seventh Avenue in 1966,” he said. “I have never been an assistant designer.  Plus all my friends from F.I.T. wanted me to make them clothes like I mad for myself, and I did that also.”

How does he manage to innovate? “My muses inspire me when it comes to designing my collection,” he said.   “I am also inspired by the people I see on the streets of the cities I’ve traveled to.”

Burrows is bothered being labeled a “black designer,” saying, “I am an American designer period.” He has succeeded in spite of the difficulties faced by African Americans in the business. “It is a hard business full of fickle people and financial backing is especially difficult to secure, and is the biggest hurdle to overcome. It’s even more challenging for black designers.”

He is said to consider clothing to be art and that the best clothes are daring and make a statement. He has been quoted as saying he makes “colorful adult toys” because fashion should evoke playfulness.

“Clothes should have a sense of humor and hopefully be a fun experience even in sportswear,” he said.

He considers himself a ready-to-wear designer, but he has been known to take special orders for one-of-a-kind dresses.

For Burrows, the keys to success lie not just in design sensibilities, but in one knack for making business decisions. “Not every design can be successful,” he said. “Much depends on the buyers to give the key to a successful design. Business success is judged on many levels: making a profit, staying in business, getting in the press.  I think my success is that I have good business people around me.”

His advice to young designers? “Go to school and learn the craft and take some basic business courses because it is a business and you should have some knowledge of how to strive to have a healthy business aiming toward profitability.” He added that designers must stay on top of what is current. “Fashion is all about what is fresh and new. Think out of your comfort zone.”

Perhaps the leading black designer today is Patrick Robinson, executive vice president of design at The Gap. He was called in to reinvent the brand in 2007. His arrival at The Gap was hailed in a New York Times headline as “The Second Coming of Khaki.”

The Gap, which owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, operates more than 3,100 stores and earned revenue of nearly $15 billion in 2009. Elle magazine called Robinson the “megabrand messiah” perhaps for good reason. He cut his design teeth at Giorgio Armani in Milan and Anne Klein in New York. He also worked for Perry Ellis and went to Paco Rabanne, the French fashion house, in 2005, before moving on to The Gap.

And then there are the hip hop entrepreneurs: Russell Simmons and his Phat Farm, Sean Combs (or Diddy, depending on whom you ask) and Jay-Z (or Hova) and his Rocawear label. Combs earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for menswear designer of the year in 2004, the same year Simmons sold Phat Farm to Kellwood Company for $140 million.  Combs’s Sean Jean line has annual sales of $525 million. Rocawear has annual sales of $700 million.

There are others too: Beyonce has launched her clothing line, and Rachel Roy’s designs are Vogue-approved. Fashion editors have their eyes on these and other black designers and entrepreneurs.  Meanwhile, a handful of black editors occupy front-row seats at fashion shows. Andre Leon Talley, former American editor at large for Vogue magazine, has wielded tremendous influence for the past 25 years.  He mentors young talent, and introduced Michelle Obama to Jason Wu, who created her Presidential inauguration ball gown. Another great influence is Robin Givhans, editor for the Washington Post. She is the only fashion journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for fashion writing.

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