Schooled Fashion: Black Culture in Modern Fashion

Alex Curry

Hello everyone, HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH! This month is important for many reasons but mostly to celebrate Black Excellence. As history has shown us, African Americans are wonderfully creative when it comes to fashion. In fact, many fashion trends today have started within black communities - from hoops to oversized clothing, to monogrammed print. Unfortunately, oftentimes black creators or communities aren’t necessarily given credit for these trends, and then that style or item of clothing is rebranded into something different. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge where trends come from and who you’ve been influenced by.

I interviewed freshman, Neveah Bickerstaff, who shared their thoughts on their style and the relationship between the Black Community and fashion.


Neveah describes that the need for indiviualism tends to be overated, and within the black community that ideal has grown. Realizing that it is okay to recycle clothing and styles, but understanding that just because you have found it to be new, doesn’t mean that it is.


They also go into the hypocrisy of non-black communities when critizing black fashion and appearance. For example, black women are often shunned for the way we wear our hair or the clothes we wear, but when women of different races present themselves the same way, they are praised, often being called ‘fashionable’ and ‘trendsetters.’ But it’s not necessarily a new thing, seeing as there is a common pattern of the exploitation of black ideas.


They explain that they like a multitude of styles, so this plays a role in who they take influence from - from recent Instagram and TikTok influencers to black girl groups to 80s/90s movies. The versatility of the black community within fashion is a very unique thing.


Some of the influencers they mentioned were: @veondre @iambrattyb @fairynadia