‘Volume 0: Seen’ Antoine Gregory’s Black Fashion Fair Debuts in Print
The digital archive of leading Black talent in the industry has commenced its first print edition.
Antoine Gregory’s discontent with the image of fashion culture, and its white, euro-centric fixation, began in 2016. At the time he was an undergraduate student at New York’s prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology, but felt beleaguered by the lack of Black designers, talent and vision at New York Fashion Week that same year.
The mainstream fashion industry’s white narcissism is of course a fallacy, when the history of design includes countless people of color globally, yet erased from the Western white narrative that is so often regurgitated.
Revising these narratives was the mission statement of Gregory’s Twitter thread in 2016, essentially the first domino to fall in a chain of events that would kickstart Black Fashion Fair as it stands today.
Black Designers You Should Know: A Thread
— AB/G (@bibbygregory) September 13, 2016
In 2020, the initiative was launched, with the aim of galvanizing erased individuals of color from the cultural narrative, while providing a platform for new talent. It doubles as a creative hub of fashion, photography, writing and more and a business-to-consumer platform with a directory of Black-owned design businesses from A through Z.
“Our focus on fashion relates specifically to the contributions of Black designers and the impact of Black culture. We will tell the often forgotten stories of Black designers while also documenting and preserving Black fashion: past, present, and future.”
Its subsequent successes, and the support of eyewear brand Warby Parker, have lead to its first print edition ‘SEEN’ featuring contributions from industry titans like Kerby Jean-Raymond and his Couture 001 collection, Bianca Saunders, Mowalola, Quil Lemons, Sergio Hudson and many more.
With four covers shot by Quil Lemons, AB+DM and Amber Pinkerton respectively, the inaugural issue is over 200 pages long, and includes a variety of interviews and essays by Brandon Blackwood, Bethann Hardison and Brooklyn White, furthering the conversation about Black creatives in the fashion industry.
“These pages are about collaboration and the power of community,” believes Gregory. “As we continue to create references for the future, Black Fashion Fair becomes our own institution of exhibition, discovery and research.”
In the space of four years, Gregory’s vision has jumped from a Twitter thread, to a collective and finally into the physical realm. The magazine has already sold out, with many hoping a second drop is on the cards.
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