Black Style Now

This panel was a public program in conjunction with Black Style Now, an exhibit curated by Michael Henry Adams (author of Harlem: Lost and Found and Style and Grace) and designer Michael McCollum (who was not present) at the City Museum of New York that ends on February 19. Michael showed up 40 minutes late and that really did not help matters. Geoffrey Holder was not pleased, but added an effervescence and a sense of style and history that was not to be missed.

Michael had some questions prepared for the panel, but his tardiness and general extemporaneous manner didn’t really provide the structure that this conversation so desperately needed and deserved. And Bergdorf Goodman’s Global Beauty Expert certainly gets points deducted for not being able to name even ONE influential Black fashion designer. Well, at least he mentioned Sammy Davis, Jr. earlier, who I’m sure provided at the very least a partial inspiration for the outfit he wore. Perhaps he would have been well served by a copy of Lloyd Boston’s great book, Men of Color: Fashion, History and Fundamentals. For posterity, I’d like to name some men that I personally regard as vanguards of Black style: Ozwald Boateng, esteemed panelist Geoffrey Holder (whom I adore, get his book, too), Vogue magazine’s Editor at Large André Leon Talley, Quincy Jones, Renauld White, Moshood, Nat King Cole, Willi Smith, Patrick Kelly, Jason Olive, Billy Eckstine, Dennis Rodman, Lenny Kravitz and last but certainly not least, Prince.