Celebrating Black History Month in FASHION!

As we honor and celebrate the vast contributions of African Americans to American History, FASHION is our focus. This collage includes African American Trailblazers in different aspect of the Fashion Industry. Most who have past on, but left their marks on history and some who are still with us.

Black History in FASHION

(Wikipedia)

Jan Ernst Matzeliger

(September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889) was an inventor whose lasting machine brought significant change to the manufacturing of shoes.

Ann Lowe

American fashion designer and the first African American to become a noted fashion designer. Lowe’s one-of-a-kind designs were a favorite among high society matrons from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Willi Smith

American fashion designer. At the time of his death, Smith was regarded as one of the most successful African-American designers in the fashion industry. His company, WilliWear Limited, launched in 1976 and by 1986 grossed over $25 million in sales.

Naomi Sims

 American model, businesswoman and author, She was the first African-American model to appear on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal, which occurred in November 1968, and is widely credited as being the first African-American supermodel.

Amsale Aberra

Ethiopian American fashion designer and entrepreneur. Her main field of design was in couture wedding gowns, and her flagship store is located on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Tyra Banks

American television personality, model, businesswoman, producer, actress, and writer. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15, and was the first woman of African-American descent to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared three times. She was a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world’s top-earning models.

Anthony Mark Hankins

 American fashion designer who founded Antthony Mark Hankins Inc. in 1994. By his mid-twenties he had built his own $40 million business and was named by Newsweek as one of the top 100 people to watch in America.

Helen Williams

Working as a stylist in a New York photographer’s studio, Williams was discovered at age 17 by celebrity clients such as Lena Horne and Sammy Davis, Jr.^[1]

Her career began as an exclusive model for magazines such as Ebony and Jet. However, the discrimination she faced in the United States as an African-American^[2] led her to relocate to France in 1960, where she found success modeling for designers such as Christian Dior and Jean Dessès.^[3]