Fashion Weeks' Minority Report
Minority Report
Fashion week just closed off. You know what that means right? A whole lotta nothing. If you don’t keep up with fashion weeks, don’t worry, most people don’t. Most people (including myself) just check out the big names, our personal favorite brands, and a couple interesting up and comers.
The problem with fashion weeks is that they’ve become redundant. Much of the fits end up looking very similar due to the same recycled inspirations.
Most of this comes down to the people that get the creative positions of power. In 2019, 83.3% percent of fashion week designers were ethnically white.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the next year of contemporary clothing mostly stemming from the same cultural upbringings and inspirations we’ve endlessly seen before.
To save you some trouble, here is a list of important minority designers to keep up with during the previous and upcoming fashion weeks.
New York Fashion Week:
Taofik Abijako is one of the four designers to debut their brand, Head of State, in this season’s NYFW- Oh, he’s 19 years old by the way. Safe to say that he’s heading on the right path.
Started when Abijako was only 17, Head of State creates casual streetwear mixed with Abijako’s Nigerian upbringing and West African fashion at large. This season’s collection was inspired by a month-long celebration of Black culture in his hometown of Lagos called “Festac.” The festival happened in 1977, with much of the clothes referencing festival wear during the rise of disco.
The Nigerian born designer is important to future runways, both for his age and ethnic background. By introducing consumers to styles and cultures people hadn’t known they loved prior. Abijako contributes to the political dialogue to where modern fashion should veer.
Victor Glemaud is a NYFW titan. With this collection celebrating the 20th anniversary of his brand, Glemaud’s been around. And he’s staying around for all I know. Most people in fashion would tell you they don’t have anything all that bad to say about Glemaud. Just a sweetheart I guess.
In 2020, the Haitian American national started an organization called In The BLK- A business dedicated to giving a support system for up and coming Black creatives to achieve economic independence.
During Covid-19, many businesses had to shut down. With many of these Black businesses being unfortunately self funded, many of them end up going into debt and out of business. In the BLK is here to change that. The economic term for it would be a hedge fund for small businesses, essentially translating to a financial safety net- except this one has a focus on Black creatives.
Aside from Glemaud, In The BLK has garnered the support from The Fashion Confederation (the people responsible for organizing fashion weeks) alongside Instagram, as well as distinct contributors like Fe Noel and Virgil Abloh. Look ‘em up!
London Fashion Week:
Maximilian by Fashion east debuts their Spring 2022 as a non-profit collection (we’re already on a good start). Maximilian’s founder, (you guessed it) Maximilian Davis is a British fashion designer originally hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. Most of his collections pay homage to Trinidadian culture, with his last fall collection paying homage to his grandmother, the person who took him to the annual carnival he loved every year.
Maximilian often tries to incorporate other artists outside the fashion industry to help with his collections. In Davis’ most recent collection, he collaborated with Trinidadian photographer Nadia Huggins. She not only helped inspire the color scheme for the collection, but was also responsible for Maximilian’s set design.
This year’s Spring collection however, takes a turn to the Caribbean poolside. Maximilian is paying homage to childhood holidays spent at home through the help of just wanting to look damn hot.
There’s lots to say about Qasimi. The way this last collection came about for starters, is already crazy in itself.
The founder of the brand, Emirati designer Khalid Qasimi, sadly passed away last year due to a drug overdose. His sister, Hoor, now takes the reins by continuing her brother’s legacy for the first time in this London Fashion Week.
The collection itself, like many beforehand, aren’t just pretty clothes. Qasimi always incorporates political commentary in their clothing, much of which has to do with Arab warfare in relation to their heritage.
Qasimi always prided itself on its juxtapositions- the mix of old and new.
This season for example, you’d see someone wearing a safeefah, a weave native to the Emirates, styled with functional elements of sportswear. Aside from valuable exposure to the fashion scene, the term wearable (the most sought after word in ready-to-wear collections) is definitely applicable to Qasimi’s latest Spring collection.
Milan Fashion Week:
So Milan Fashion Week is great and all, but the designers I’ll be talking about are both related to Gucci. Gucci came out with GucciVault, a physical and online store dedicated to up and coming designers that have caught the brand and Allessandro Michele’s (the brand’s creative head) attention. Among these brands, several minority designers stand out such as Indian Jamaican designer Priya Ahluwahlia and Chinese designer Rui Zhou.
Preface: All designers are responsible from design to outsourcing and production, so GucciVault is more of a platform compared to say, Glemaud’s In The BLK.
Indian Priya Ahluwahlia is one of the big names when it comes to young designers. She’s an author, photographer, designer, you name it. Aside from working with GucciVault, Ahluwahlia also had its first showcasing in London Fashion Week.
Ahluwalia bridges the gap between fashion week and presentable streetwear. The brand often works with vintage and surplus clothing, making out for more personal prints and patchwork.
Aside from clothing, the designer’s most recent collection was inspired by a short film based on the Black liberation protests of the 70s that Ahlwahlia had directed herself.
GucciVault also decided to partner up with Chinese designer Rui Zhou. The best way to describe Zhou’s aesthetic would be Bodysuits.
Rui Zhou is my personal favorite designer of the bunch. Zhou is a good example of what the minimalist aesthetic can really be when it comes to creativity.
She has an elegant taste in stretch fabrics and sleek skin cutouts, and her bodysuits always seem to work around a model’s body seamlessly. Aside from using fabrics like wool and knit instead of cheap spandex, Zhou is an important designer due to her innovation.
A bodysuit is something that is intended to accessorize a statement piece, not be the statement piece itself. What makes Zhou an exciting talent to watch is her ability to flip the nature of a piece on its head.
Paris Fashion Week:
Shang Xia is a brand that’s going through both a daunting and exciting place in their fashion timeline. The brand is often called “The Chinese Hermes,” mainly due to their similar aesthetics and the fact that Hermes bought 90% of the brand several years ago.
With the brand clearly trying to appeal to the Chinese high fashion market, they appointed Beijing born designer Yang Li as their new creative director.
Aside from the intimidating transition phase, the brand also just showcased in Paris Fashion Week for the first time this Spring. Fear not however, have faith in Li.
Yang Li is an exciting prospect for two reasons: For one, he holds technical prowess due to his work experience in maisons like Gareth Pugh and Raf Simons- the techniques we saw applied to this most recent fashion week in Paris. And Secondly, Li keeps up with Asian fashion trends through music, most especially grunge- what Li fans hope to see more of in Shang Shia’s future.
Finally, Rok Wang. Wang was born in Korea, moved to Texas, then to London, and is now based in Paris. He got an MA from Central Saint Martins (THE Fashion School), soon after became a designer for houses like Céline, Phoebe Philo, followed by Louis Vuitton and Chloe. Anybody will tell you he’s an experienced vet of the industry.
Rok Wang has successfully been running his own brand independently for quite some time, with his most recent Spring 2022 being an all-round success from most critics. Think drama, glamour, elbow-length gloves and ostrich feather cuffs. Good ol’ classy glamour. What a stranger would imagine to see in Paris Fashion Week.
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That’s all folks. I hope you take away one main thing from this- we need more designers from minority groups. The majority of these shows are overrun with great, but repetitive inspirations.
If a designer were to make a collection based on, say, nostalgia, we’d get a hell of a lot more contributions if the inspirations stem from several different backgrounds and experiences.
Words by Hamza Fahmy