The theme’s usage of the word lexicon is ironically apt, considering that the majority of the looks that ascended the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s steps require some sort of tool other than fashion as language to decode their substance and raison d’être. Perhaps a better theme for the amalgamation of fabric and stitches donned that night would be: “In America: A Lexicon of Confusion and Calamity”.
Increasingly though, since his death, I have begun to associate him with my clothing infatuation, and some of my most vibrant memories connected to clothing come from during his battle with stomach cancer.
The conversation between my style identity as a Black person and my political identity as a Black person have not always come into contact. But these identities have consistently been in conversation, as they both have an indelible impact on America’s broader sociopolitical context.
Here’s my conversation with one-half of Fashion For All, Ali Richmond, on Blackness, fashion and America’s racial complex
The reasoning behind Wintour’s sudden sympathy for Black people is allegorical to what some claim is the bedrock of fashion: trend.
Beyond my superficial connections to the former creative director of Vogue, my admiration for Talley comes from the respect I owe him for existing in an industry that has historically had little-to-no room for men who look like me. However, what is even more important to me is Talley’s permanence as a cautionary tale about the whims and woes of the fashion world for Black people and, more specifically Black men.
Scandals, weak policy positions and polarization all greatly influence how people assess politicians. But it would be simple-minded to remove clothes and appearance from the American people’s decisions about their …
