The tug-of-war between wanting to dress in traditional feminine attire and desiring the same respect their male colleagues gain from wearing suits is a battle that has been fought since the days of Joan of Arc.

We all want to fit into a mold. Surely, we display our individuality with the pieces we choose to wear, but no one can deny that trends, potential compliments and self-esteem influence our style. The concept of self-esteem, however, has dramatically shifted since the start of quarantine.

A few months ago, Givenchy announced their new creative director, Matthew Williams. He took over the world-renowned French fashion house when ex-creative director Clare Waight Keller stepped down in April 2020.

Renata is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumni who graduated with a B.A. in Public Relations and Political Science in 2019. She has worked for Oscar de la Renta, Tibi and LaFORCE. She currently lives and works in New York City as a production coordinator at Coach.

Paris Hilton. Lagerfeld’s Fendi. Britney Spears. Von Dutch. The 2000s were an era of flashiness and high fashion, which introduced new fashion trends. One of these was logomania, a design strategy taken from Black artists. 

In life, you can either be a minimalist or a maximalist.

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.