Coco Mitchell / Photographer: Anthony Artis / Make-up: Imani Rose / Trend: Adrian Alicea
On Friday, January 31, Pratt Manhattan Gallery will open Black Gown II: Homage, an expansive group exhibition celebrating 10 years of the Black Gown Challenge. Curated by Adrienne Jones and Rachelle Etienne-Robinson, the present builds on the momentum of the unique extremely profitable Black Gown exhibition (2014) by persevering with to discover the contributions of Black designers and different style professionals to the business. Black Gown II: Homage highlights the exhibition’s many distinctive contributors by thematic displays which embrace clothes, equipment, artifacts, and movies.
“It is an unprecedented endeavor to coalesce a diverse array of creatives that inform and educate the New York fashion community, as well as new audiences, on the commemorative work of Blacks in the field of fashion,” says Jones, who can be a professor at Pratt.
Since its inception, the Black Gown Challenge has expanded right into a multi-faceted style useful resource with an internet site, a YouTube channel that includes interviews with style legends, and “Black Dress Talks,” a collection of dwell discussions with notable style creatives. This second version, Black Gown II: Homage, integrates these components right into a multi-media, interactive expertise that showcases the triumphs and accomplishments of Black designers, tailors, dressmakers, fashions, journalists, hair and make-up artists, and stylists. The exhibition delves into the non-public {and professional} journeys of those practitioners, highlighting how familial, neighborhood, socio-economic, and political components have formed their artistic processes and model improvement.
The present not solely addresses the underrepresentation of Black professionals within the mainstream style business but additionally celebrates the varied vary of artistic influences shaping the way forward for style. For Jones, “it marks a moment in time where we embark on a new chapter in fashion history, rich with a greater range of creative influences and professional opportunities.”
Black Gown II: Homage is open from January 31 by March 22 at 144 West 14th Avenue. Pratt Manhattan Gallery is free and open to the general public.
To be taught extra, go to pratt.edu.
Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s program is made doable partially by the New York State Council on the Arts with the help of the Workplace of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
