To commemorate Black History Month, I curated a series of essays on the Black designers who have items in the exhibition In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. Sequoia Barnes, my colleague in The Costume Institute, unpacks the meaning behind designer Patrick Kelly’s penchant for gifting Black baby-doll pins; curator Monique Long delves into Dapper Dan’s relationship with her beloved Harlem; and the ever-fabulous madison moore, assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, explores the queer aesthetics of the iconic Liberian American designer Telfar Clemens. I assembled these authors because I admire their work and knew they would be able to provide more context about some of the Black designers in the show.
A Lexicon of Fashion includes a piece from a collaboration between designer Greg Lauren and the famed Gee’s Bend quilters. I had the opportunity to consult on that collaboration as part of my digital humanities project, Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, a curatorial platform that explores Black fashion, especially its relationship to the visual culture of slavery and its legacy. Fashioning the Self provides a forum and laboratory for me and other scholars to explore our identities through creative expression and critical reflections. These online conversations are expanded through limited-run zines, exhibitions, conferences, and—as in the case of MOSAIC: Gee’s Bend & Greg Lauren—collaborations with designers. The Gee’s Bend and Greg Lauren collaboration highlights the creative genius and masterful needlework of the Black women from Gee’s Bend, an artistic community in rural Alabama that is known for its abstract quilt designs.
Gee’s Bend quilter Mary Margaret Pettway with Jermaine Spivey who models pieces from MOSAIC. Photo courtesy Menelik Puryear/Greg Lauren
A set from another collaboration, between Denim Tears and Levi’s, is also in Lexicon. Denim Tears’s creative director, Tremaine Emory (who was also recently made the creative director of Supreme), consistently makes thoughtful sportswear that interrogates the meaning of American identity. Emory has roots in cotton-growing counties in rural Georgia dating back to at least the nineteenth century, and he drew inspiration for this particular collection from his own family’s relationship with the history of enslavement and sharecropping in the American South.
Through Denim Tears, Emory draws inspiration from his background as a descendant of enslaved people to celebrate the sartorial ingenuity of Black people, a pursuit that is central in my work with Fashioning the Self. As a Black Southerner who was born and raised in Louisiana, I was steeped in the history of slavery from a young age. This is a personal pursuit as much as it is an area of academic inquiry. I am working through my own history as a descendent of enslaved people. In the process, I am also attempting to “fashion myself” into a new kind of more radical, public-facing intellectual.
Tremaine Emory (American, b. 1981) for Denim Tears (American, founded 2019) and Levi-Strauss and Company (American, founded ca. 1853). Ensemble, 2020. Cotton. Courtesy Denim Tears
Emory grew up in Jamaica, Queens, near the Liberty Rock, a large rock painted the red, black, and green of the Pan-African and Black Power movements. The colorway has become fully embedded in Denim Tears’s visual narrative, splashed over many of the brand’s products, from socks to jackets to Chuck Taylors. In the promotional images for the collaboration with Levi’s, an American flag made in the Pan-African colorway is used as a pall. Another item by Emory in the exhibition, a sweater with the Pan-African flag knitted on the front, riffs on the iconic Ralph Lauren American flag sweater.
A post from the official Denim Tears Instagram featuring Liberty Rock in Jamaica, Queens
The pieces from the Denim Tears x Levi’s collaboration are embroidered with a motif of cotton wreaths, for which Emory found inspiration on artist Kara Walker’s Instagram. In one promotional image, a cotton wreath is placed atop a coffin; in others, the models wear large, floppy “plantation hats” covered in the same wreath motif. Emory sees the cotton wreath as a “talisman for Black people” and “a call to return back to what built this country,” referring to an African American origin story that is rooted in both a history of enslavement and creative ingenuity borne out of resilience to racial discrimination. Thus, the wreath celebrates the contributions of Black people to the American experiment but mourns the suffering that accompanied them.
All aspects of Denim Tears’s collections are thoughtfully designed in accordance with the socially conscious ethos of the brand. In the styling for this campaign, Emory references the wide-brimmed hats that enslaved people and, later, sharecroppers wore to protect their heads and eyes from the sun. Moreover, the historic resourcefulness of African Americans inspired him to upcycle vintage Levi’s jeans to make the pieces in the collection. Though denim is often associated with the Old West and the Gold Rush, enslaved people prior to the mid-nineteenth century wore rough, durable workwear made out of “jeans.”
A short film about the Denim Tears/Levi’s collaboration
As Emory notes, he uses fashion as a conversation starter, to highlight communities that have traditionally been excluded from the fashion industry. For him, fashion is not only fashion but also, and more importantly, a conduit for change. Emory uses the product line to educate the youths who follow his brand, in part through presenting his personal and familial journey. To accompany the launch of the Levi’s collaboration, he created a film, shot by his father in his family’s hometown of Harlem, Georgia, that features Emory’s grandmothers, Evelyn Sanders and Eliza Emory, discussing their experiences as African Americans.
I consider myself to be knowledgeable of the past and current fashion industry, but it was students in my “Fashion and Slavery” class at the Fashion Institute of Technology who introduced me to Emory’s work. His is a brand that connects with the kids who follow its Instagram account and activate the garments through their unique senses of style. Last September, I bumped into a young Black man at the opening of Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”, an exhibition devoted to the late designer’s work at the ICA Boston, who was proudly wearing the jeans from the collection. I loved the way he styled them with his BAPE t-shirt and clean Air Force 1’s.
A guest at the opening of the exhibition Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” at the ICA Boston, wearing jeans from the Denim Tears x Levi’s collaboration. Photo courtesy the author
As a Black Louisianan, I am particularly moved by Emory’s newest collaboration, this time with UGG, for which he partnered with the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans. The history of the Mardi Gras Indians dates back to slavery and speaks to the relationship forged between runaway slaves and the native people of the Mississippi Delta. More than a century old, the practice of African American men dressing in elaborate handmade costumes inspired by American Plains Indians is one of many contributions New Orleans has made to the cultural patrimony of the United States. It is inspiring to witness how Emory has thoughtfully and creatively collaborated with local culture makers, moving the conversation forward in fun, innovative, and poignant ways, without relying on hackneyed tropes to describe African American creative expression. Instead of vaunting a corporate entity, he highlighted the skilled needlework of a marginalized Black community. The collection was released on February 1, 2022, exactly one month before Mardi Gras and the first day of Black History Month.
In Lexicon, works are categorized according to the emotional qualities they evoke. The set by Denim Tears appears in the section titled “Consciousness”—a fitting categorization for a designer who is mindful of the power of fashion to propel important conversations about representation and righting historical wrongs while bringing youths closer to their cultural heritage.
Marquee: Tremaine Emory (American, b. 1981) for Denim Tears (American, founded 2019). "Tyson Beckford" Sweater, 2021. Wool. Courtesy Denim Tears
