by Catherine Chen

When the fashionable friends around me have their hair braided, are rapping and wearing sneakers and oversized clothes, it is hard to perceive the meaning behind the black culture. Fashion is not about piling the most expensive brands on yourself. Culture is the source of fashion, which has roots in generations of style icons. The process of black culture becoming mainstream is far more complicated and emotional than anyone can imagine.

Gallery Wrapped Canvas Neon Effects by Shirl Theis

The Harlem Renaissance

Millions of blacks migrated from the South to live in the North after the Civil War that ended in 1865. From 1920s to mid 1930s, the Black community in New York began the Harlem Renaissance, which developed the mainstream recognition of black culture through fashion, music, stage performance and literature.

At this point, the "cultured and rebellious" look becomes the fashion trend for men.

Whereas women emphasized the "graceful lady" to highlight their figure

The Harlem fashion trends transformed the image of an African American as a sophisticated cosmopolitan dweller. The trend enabled the black community to establish themselves in the cultural field and began to produce the earliest fashion icons –– the greatest jazz singers of the generation: including Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

By this point, black culture has been formally integrated into American mainstream culture.

The Street Fashion

Since the 1960s, the once underrepresented black fashion trends began to be exported around the world, and evolved into two styles inspired by two distinct points: The Civil Rights movement and music.

Black fashion in the Civil Rights movement was serious and profound. Inspired and influenced by cultural figureheads like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and the Black Panther Party, the black community began to worship a tough intellectual style.

With the awakening of identity, the black community began to show their racial identity with confidence: the afro, fur, and African patterns became the favourite elements of style at the time.

At the same time, another street fashion style comes from the black community emerged, which was inseparable from the black music of the time.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Motown Records, with its focus on black music and soul music, contributed greatly to fashion trends of this era. Musicians and bands including Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye were all signed by Motown Records, and their style has reached and influenced the world fashion trend even until today.

The Jackson 5 (The Jacksons), symbolic style: pointed collared shirts with double-breasted high-waisted trousers.

The Golden Era

By the 80s, black fashion was on the home stretch with the rise of Hip-Hop. Hip-hop culture pioneered street fashion, which originated in the black community and radiated around the world.

In the 1980s, Run-D.M.C and NWA were the two leading rappers in American rap industry. They were not only the pioneers in street music, but also in street fashion. White T-shirts, loose tracksuits, sneakers and gold chains became their symbols.

In the 1990s, the rise and sudden fall of the rap emperor Tupac Shakur made hip-hop become an important facet of mainstream culture in America. The melody, lyrics and the style of the rappers became an inseparable whole and a popular element in the world.

While people around the world, regardless of skin colour, began to embrace hip-hop as a fashion, it is important to understand the cultural significance of these fashions. They are not merely trends or mindless imitations, but pay respect to black culture and history while simultaneously emphasising the power black culture has on the fashion industry.

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