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When was the last time you visited the Museum of the City of New York? “Black Style Now” would be an excellent reason to visit this brick and marble, Colonial Revival mansion at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street on the park. This exhibition offers a celebrity-driven view of the hip-hop and fashion mesh that has taken place since Run DMC hit the charts in 1981. At the entrance to the exhibition are mannequins sporting the looks and gowns backed by photographs of music stars like Beyoncé Knowles, Lil-Kim, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz and Sean “Diddy” Combs. |
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When was the last time you visited the Museum of the City of New York? “Black Style Now” would be an excellent reason to visit this brick and marble, Colonial Revival mansion at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street on the park.
This exhibition offers a celebrity-driven view of the hip-hop and fashion mesh that has taken place since Run DMC hit the charts in 1981. At the entrance to the exhibition are mannequins sporting the looks and gowns backed by photographs of music stars like Beyoncé Knowles, Lil-Kim, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
While the “Way Back When” section is comprised of the most unassuming materials in the exhibition, the collection of black and white photographs is truly impressive; so much so that this reviewer chose just to list some of the names of their subjects and to urge you to go and see them: Lana and Eric Turner, Joe Louis, Lena Horne, Sugar Ray Robinson, Cab Calloway, The Walker Women, Eartha Kitt, Marvin Smith, Lester Young, Sidney and Juanita Poitier, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Hazel Scott, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Bayard Rusti.
Rusti, who grew up in a Quaker environment, was an exceptionally effective and self-effacing force in the Civil Rights movement, who was also a wonderfully eccentric, gay man. He collected walking sticks and five superb examples are on view.
There is a vitrine, giving special attention to the work of milliners prior to the 60s, within which some wonderful hats by Mildred Blount for Marian Anderson are on view, along with the work of Ruby Bailey and eight other talented hat designers that may be seen in photographs. This leads to the breakthrough in mainstream fashion consciousness of black beauty in 1965, personified by Donyale Luna, who was the first African-American model to grace the cover of a major fashion magazine, Harpers Bazaar.
Andy Warhol’s Screen Test, is black and white, silent and runs for the length of a film can, at 16fps, and whose subject is certainly quite fascinating. It is a beautiful example of this body of work in 16mm. In 1969, Naomi Sim hit the cover of LIFE Magazine in a cover story titled “Black Models Take Center Stage.” And, you can see why, but may well wonder what took so long for this to happen?
The exhibition is well conceived and arranged by its guest co-curators, Michael Henry Adams and Michael McCollom. The 70s, 80s and 90s are well represented by a bright and lively array of mannequins rendering Ghetto Fabulous and Bling, the Gangsta Mystique and New Black Style, respectively. While there was a distinctly street-driven aspect (even the prison inmates’ use of shoes without laces and oversized pants had their influence) to the evolution of the hip-hop style, it is now big business and a major American export to the rest of the world.
The clothing on display represents brilliant fashion designers, three-time Coty Award winner Stephen Burrows, also Scott Barrie, John Haggins and Willie Smith can all be sampled in this show. One dress, which was worn by Tina Turner on her Wildest Dream tour, is the prototype for ten translucent dresses, skillfully dipped in fantastic mirror jewels by CD Greene, Inc. Words certainly do not do justice to an exhibition of this magnitude and ambition, go and see this excellent show at this wonderful museum!
