Coco Mitchell / Photographer: Anthony Artis / Make-up: Imani Rose / Style: Adrian Alicea
On Friday, January 31, Pratt Manhattan Gallery will open Black Costume II: Homage, an expansive group exhibition celebrating 10 years of the Black Costume Challenge. Curated by Adrienne Jones and Rachelle Etienne-Robinson, the present builds on the momentum of the unique extremely profitable Black Costume exhibition (2014) by persevering with to discover the contributions of Black designers and different vogue professionals to the trade. Black Costume II: Homage highlights the exhibition’s many distinctive contributors by way of thematic shows which embrace clothes, equipment, artifacts, and movies.
“It is an unprecedented endeavor to coalesce a diverse array of creatives that inform and educate the New York fashion community, as well as new audiences, on the commemorative work of Blacks in the field of fashion,” says Jones, who can also be a professor at Pratt.
Since its inception, the Black Costume Challenge has expanded right into a multi-faceted vogue useful resource with a web site, a YouTube channel that includes interviews with vogue legends, and “Black Dress Talks,” a collection of stay discussions with notable vogue creatives. This second version, Black Costume II: Homage, integrates these components right into a multi-media, interactive expertise that showcases the triumphs and accomplishments of Black designers, tailors, dressmakers, fashions, journalists, hair and make-up artists, and stylists. The exhibition delves into the private {and professional} journeys of those practitioners, highlighting how familial, group, socio-economic, and political components have formed their artistic processes and model growth.
The present not solely addresses the underrepresentation of Black professionals within the mainstream vogue trade but additionally celebrates the varied vary of artistic influences shaping the way forward for vogue. For Jones, “it marks a moment in time where we embark on a new chapter in fashion history, rich with a greater range of creative influences and professional opportunities.”
Black Costume II: Homage is open from January 31 by way of March 22 at 144 West 14th Road. Pratt Manhattan Gallery is free and open to the general public.
To study extra, go to pratt.edu.
Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s program is made doable partially by the New York State Council on the Arts with the assist of the Workplace of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
