new black fashion designers exhibition at fashion institute of technology is everything & more

Fashion designers in the African diaspora are underappreciated and overwhelmingly invisible in conversations about modern fashion. The influence of Black culture in fashion has always been present and has been a hot topic in the past few years for white designers blatant use of Black/urban culture for inspiration, without citing their sources. But the Fashion Institute of Technology is making sure that Black fashion designers are celebrated, appreciated and revered for their contributions to the art form. The exhibition draws exclusively from the permanent collection of The Museum at FIT and is organized according to categories and themes, such as eveningwear, menswear, street style, experimental fashion, and African influences. It features work by Zelda Wynn Valdes and Ann Lowe, Willi Smith, Stephen Burrows, Scott Barrie, Patrick Kelly, and more. For more information, visit the FIT website.

By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor