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By Steff Yotka
The ultimate satisfaction of fashion is that it touches each and every facet of your life, be it magical and practical, individualistic and communal, supportive and frivolous at the same time, clothes can help you blend, stand out, solve disorders or relax. Every day, you are forced to dedicate yourself to it, in a different way you will go naked, and through this, fashion becomes one of the main teams to talk to you.
Antoine Gregory’s Black Fashion Fair illustrates the excitement and perspectives of fashion. It is not a unique solution to all of the industry’s long-standing diversity and inclusion problems. It does not celebrate black designers only in retail or through publishers. aims to bring the essence of fashion to a network that has historically been excluded from those fashion systems. With its launch this week, Black Fashion Fair includes an e-commerce platform where black designers can organize their product selections, with 15% of sales for Black Fashion Fair student programs; a repertoire of black skill creators that corrects predominantly white European fashion narratives; and a series of publishers with creators and black stories. Already, in this first version, it is and revealing, and Gregory’s long-term plans are only growing.
For those who know Gregory, the fact that he believes this amalgam of writing, networking and commerce will come as no surprise. He’s had a long career in fashion, from corporate jobs to his own self-employment, but he’s probably the most productive known on his Twitter account, bibbygregory. Long before I met him, he knew his nickname from Twitter, an important source of fashion data. If you need to know what’s going on with fashion, stick to it.
The Black Fashion Fair concept has been floating in Gregory’s brain since 2016, when he created a Twitter feed of black designers. “It’s New York Fashion Week, and black designers have traditionally been excluded from this space. There is no visibility for black designers. . . so I created this thread, “The Black Designers You Want to Meet. “Me: we know black creators by name, ” he says.
Over time, Gregory “noticed that for some designers, his brands no longer existed. You clicked on the link and the online page disappeared, the brand disappeared. It’s like, how does this have to happen, where black designers enter space?But then you can’t help your business anymore? This also happens Array So I wondered: how can we build something that creates infrastructure, creates a network and creates sustainability?So, as I think over the years, I started to see what Black Fashion Fair may just look like.
Since then, Gregory admits that the concept has been superseded several times: “I’ve probably made 50 games!” he says with a smile, explaining that other black creatives like Kerby Jean-Raymond from Pyer Moss and Felisha Noel from Fe Noel have helped him refine his vision. “Kerby, a very smart friend because he helped me perceive what the Black Fashion Fair might look like and what it could mean,” Gregory continues. “When I tell you that Kerby is the genuine deal, you see him speaking for blacks, speaking for black designers, but he does the work. He does the work, and he’s someone. I really appreciate it. “
In collaboration with an Internet designer and communications manager, Gregory began setting up the framework for the site and contacting black designers to participate in his e-commerce aspect. “I think it was the only option,” Gregory says of resolving have a retail component. “Because black designers don’t yet have a selection to sell directly to consumers. You enter any branch, you enter any popular fashion street in the country, you don’t see black designers. Black designers sell directly to consumers, consumers, through online or ephemeral stores. They do not sell wholesale regularly and are not in retail stores. Therefore, it was vital for me to be able to bring all those designers together in one space”.
The launch organization covers the industry and includes the names Pyer Moss, Hanifa, Telfar, Phlemuns and Johnny Nelson. Jason Rembert, founder and designer of Alientte and stylist of Issa Rae, Michael B. Jordan and Ezra Miller contributed to the exclusive creations for the righteous, encouraged through their local Martinique. “It’s great to see so many creators come together and help in this initiative,” Says Rembert. “Growing up and not seeing many blacks or not meeting many black designers who have succeeded in global fashion, for me, was a skinny favor because other black people have encouraged global fashion and have been at the forefront of what is fashionable and fashionable right now. They’ve been at the forefront in this area, now, being able to come in combination and help each other and raise each other, I think it’s amazing to look and see, it’s one of the most beautiful things you can think of, because it didn’t exist before. , and now we cannot do without it”.
Rembert’s resolve to participate almost instantly. “I followed Antoine on Twitter. I see this amazing young man talk about everything similar to Blackness from the point of view of his wisdom from the fashion world; the way he’s able to articulate so many references is amazing,” he says. So when he came up to me about this project, I just . . . I’m grateful, honored.
Together, Rembert and Gregory designed their collaborative T-shirt and hoodie, making sure the products were sized up to 4X. “I said to everyone, “They can sell what they need, just be representative of the logo and how you need everyone to see you,” Gregory says. Martinique’s mes of interest creations are evolutions from Rembert’s newest hotel collection, a marked replacement for the evening suits and red carpet ensembles with which Aliétte presented, and a translation of this glamour into life (saying it’s a good fortune is to fall short; all, from Issa Rae to Zerina Akers , wear Aliette’s camp shirts and short sets of silk).
“What I hope more than anything is that a black child or a little black woman who is sitting in their parents’ space, and they have dreams, aspirations to become a wonderful designer or someone in global fashion, can look up and see that some of their favorite fashion designers have come together. And for the first time, they can look and feel encouraged, “says Rembert. ” That is what I hope is to be able to motivate and help young people who do not see each other. see themselves in us, in what we have among them, in the way we encourage their generation.
“Representation counts,” Gregory repeats. ” In fact, it can make all the difference. I think my pleasure of going to school and running fashion would have been so different, and probably much better, if I’d noticed. I didn’t see myself, so it was an edition of myself that wasn’t really who I was, and you shouldn’t have to exist that way. “
The repertoire of black designers, which covers not only catwalk fashion, but also dresses from designers like Akers, who disguised Black Is King, and Ruth E. Carter, who designed the dresses for Black Panther, is another way. to highlight the representation and influence of black people. “Our directory of designers is for everyone from Ann Lowe to Nicole Zazi, who is a new designer from Haiti. She uses recycled fabrics from Haiti and Honduras to make her clothes, to help with cleaning efforts there, but also to give back. It has so many other things that you can click and search and move to your websites. This is a loose directory; I worked it for a long time.
He continues: “I’m going to have to keep creating black history, documenting it, and maintaining it, because no one does that. When I was at school, I couldn’t refer to black designers. I had no reference to have, and for me. “it’s about creating those references for the future. He adds: “How many young black people need to go to fashion school, then spend a stopover on a campus and don’t see anyone who looks like them?I went to FIT for 4 years. I had a black teacher. It doesn’t make sense, when other blacks have given so much to fashion and blacks give so much, and they get so much stolen. The least an industry can do is worry enough about representing and recording our history. “
As it continues to evolve and grow, Black Fashion Fair can be this source for black creatives and the fashion industry. Through his scholarship and grant programs, Gregory says the exhibition will help blacks skill in everything from design to retail and fashion law. They will also be face-to-face reports as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other long-term projects, diminish.
“It was a journey, yet I sought to be able to set up other people on all levels,” Gregory says. “If you want to see an editorial, or if you want to be told about something, let’s go. more about a designer? Here, do you want to buy something from a designer who has just been informed?Here’s all the equipment you want for black creators, look at black creators and black creators – here are the teams here. Black Fashion Fair . . . We gave it to you.
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