Harlem: Fashion In Color

HARLEM MAY 2018, VOLUME 12

THE NEW SCENE

The Woman Who Told Black Fashion's Story Society's Greatest Secret: A Designer Finally Gets Her Day The Harlem Fashion Row: African Style, Today Black is Beautiful: A History

FASHION IN COLOR

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

THE WOMAN WHO TOLD BLACK FASHION'S STORY MASHA FOMITCHOVA Steve Jobs is known for saying “The most powerful person in the world is a storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” If telling stories brings an individual power, then perhaps the most empowered is the person who sets out to tell a story that not only has never been heard before, but one that has been hidden from the people by decades of ignorance, denial, and discrimination. Lois Alexander Lane seamstress, designer, social activist, and researcher, played the part of this storyteller for the history of African Americans in Fashion.

However, she and her sister would then rush home to sketch and recreate the designs that they had seen, filling dozens of notebooks with drawings of dresses they dreamed of wearing. Little did Lane know that those childhood wishes would become the basis for what became a lifelong passion, initially sparked and continually powered by an eagerness to learn, a will to work, and a refusal to be looked down upon.

Her influence spread from a single boutique in Harlem to the halls of one of our nation’s most prominent museums. However, the story that motivated her to take her first steps toward being an icon in changing black fashion is a simple, heartwarming one of a little girl with big dreams. Lois loved fashion from an early age. She often visited the local department stores with her older sister Sammye to stare longingly at the beautiful, luxurious fashions in the store windows. Those designs were inaccessible to Lane - her family could not afford them, and her skin colour barred her from even entering many of the boutiques.

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

LOIS: BIOGRAPHY AND BACKGROUND Lois Alexander Lane was a native of Little Rock, Arkansas - the very city that would later become known for the watershed moment for school desegregation that occured when, in September 1957, the “Little Rock Nine,” a group of nine black students, enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School, walking determinedly into the school building amid violence, insults, and protest.

Lane herself graduated from Dunbar High School in Little Rock and moved Northeast to Virginia to continue her education in what she hoped would be a more politically tolerant environment.

After graduating in 1938 from Virginia’s Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) with a B.S. degree in English and Social Studies, Lane relocated to Washington D.C.

She would spend over two decades working as a Federal Employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, she continued to pursue her underlying interests in social activism: in the 1950s, she did freelance photography for Black newspapers and was vice president of the Capital Press Club, an organization for Black journalists.

She was also a charter member of the National Council of Negro Women.

She also refused to part with her passion for style, and was owner of The Needle Nook custom clothing boutique from 1950 to 1955, which was located at 2700 Vermont Ave, NW.

May 2018

Issue 10 • Volume 12

NEW YORK'S FASHION SCENE

"BLACKS PLAYED NO SUCH ROLE" LOIS ALEXANDER LANE: THE MASTERS THESIS THAT CHANGED IT ALL

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student"

According to American essayist, lecturer, and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The secret in education lies in respecting the student.” Lois Alexander Lane, the creator of the Harlem Institute of Fashion, is an African American cultural icon and social activist who, in spite of being treated with ignorance, disrespect, and belittlement by teachers throughout her academic life, fought to obtain an extensive education and used it to make her mark both as a creative and as a leader. Lane’s adamant refusal to succumb to doubt and discrimination, and her determination to seize every opportunity that came her way, such as the chance to obtain a higher education, is just one individual’s demonstration of the incredible creative capacity

... and instinct to lead social change present in the African American community, which remained untapped and unappreciated for decades due to the burdens of inequality and institutional racism.

Lane would later move to New York City to pursue her dream of studying fashion. Although she was eager to learn about the rapidly evolving then-modern fashion scene and sought to familiarize herself with the “ins and outs” of the fashion industry in the big city, Lane was determined to remember her African American roots, and set out to prove that being proudly black and being a fashion icon were in no way mutually exclusive.

In the 1960’s Lane began her Masters education in New York University, where she would study retailing, fashion and merchandising. Perhaps the most pivotal moment of her time in NYU occured in 1963, when, after she proposed her masters thesis on the historic role of African Americans in Manhattan fashion retailing, her professor replied “Blacks played no such role at all.”

-Harlem: Fashion In ColourLane’s resulting thesis - and her greatest achievements later in life would come to prove her professor very, very wrong. Her thesis, "The Role of the Negro in Retailing in New York City from 1863 to the Present," actually received the Stern Brothers Award for Best Thesis. Although it was a groundbreaking achievement for a black female to win this award at the time, Lane had set her goals far beyond academic recognition. In her research for her thesis, she had discovered a great many unsung African American dressmakers who, with no name recognition, had been quietly steering and influencing fashion in Harlem for decades.

Lane’s work on her thesis had spurred a desire to inform others about the unrecognized African Americans who had been leaders and influencers in the history of American fashion, and to create opportunities for African Americans who wanted to enter the fashion industry. If the secret in education indeed lies in respect, then Lois Alexander Lane’s ability to maintain her passion to expose and promote Black influence in fashion, in spite of her having to overcome doubt and ignorance in academics and industry, is truly admirable.

Following her graduation from NYU in 1963, Lois Alexander Lane didn’t waste a moment in pursuing her goal to revolutionize the role of African Americans in the New York fashion industry. In 1964, she opened another custom clothing boutique, this time in Harlem: Lois Alexander and Company was located at 214 W. 125th Street and employed talented local seamstresses. In 1966, Lane founded two organizations that brought fashion education and work to Harlem in an unprecedented way - the Harlem Institute of Fashion (HIF,) and the National Association of Milliners, Dressmakers and Tailors (NAMDT.)

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

TEACHING A LIFECHANGING SKILL The Harlem Institute of Fashion made its mission to use empower, inspire, and educate New York City’s African Americans, particularly women and youths. Lane recognized that sewing and dressmaking was an immensely practical skill, and that mastering sewing, mending, and patternmaking could allow women, even those who had no formal or higher education, to seek out employment outside of homemaking and even to start their own businesses. For many women in Harlem, the chance to hone such a practical skill was absolutely life changing. Armed with a mastery of sewing, they could now find work outside of the home without resorting to factory labour.

A CHANCE TO MAKE A LIVING Women could now not only contribute financially to a household, but could work in circumstances that didn’t bar them from simultaneously looking after children, which was critical in communities where many families could not afford to pay for daily childcare for their youngest children.However, the skills taught by the Harlem Institute of Fashion had the most lifealtering potential for Harlem’s unmarried women and single mothers. A skill that could provide a means of income enabled young women to make a living for themselves, freeing them from being forced to marry before they were ready simply to provide financial security. Lastly, it is important to note that African American communities experienced statistically high proportions of single-mother households. For a woman faced with an unexpected responsibility to raise a family by herself, Lane’s Fashion Institute provided, through fashion, dressmaking, sewing, and mending, a path to independence and financial security, allowing single mothers to retain their footing and provide a full life for themselves and their children.

-Harlem: Fashion in ColourOf course, the true grand goals of the Harlem Institute of Fashion went beyond simply providing sewing classes. Lois Alexander Lane‘s was most passionate about the courses the Institute offered on influential African Americans in the fashion industry. It was her hope that, after learning about the often entirely unrecognized black presence in the world of fashion,

Harlem’s women and young people could have eye-opening moments similar to the one she experienced while working on her thesis. Lane believed that individuals with a creative passion who were interested in pursuing a career in the fashion world would feel empowered and inspired by learning about their predecessors, and would leave the Institute feeling that there was opportunity for them to make their mark on America’s fashion scene.

The National Association of Milliners, Dressmakers and Tailors (NAMDT, ) which Lane also founded in 1966, was a companion to the Harlem Fashion Institute, and shows her dedication to creating real, tangible opportunities for the members of her community. Lane’s motivation for creating the NAMDT was in part driven by the doubt she encountered when she chose the field of Fashion for her Post-Graduate studies - she was told repeatedly that she would never work and that such an education would yield no job prospects and would be fruitless from a financial standpoint.

Once again proving her critics wrong, Lane founded the National Association of Milliners, Dressmakers and Tailors to to develop practical means to assist HIF graduates find jobs in fashion by connecting them with labour unions and clients, seeking to ensure that HIF graduates were able to work in safe conditions and for fair pay.

Lastly, Lane sought out instructors to provide as courses in English, mathematics and African American history at the Harlem Institute of Fashion.

-Harlem: Fashion in Colour-

HARLEM:

THE STREETS WHERE IT ALL HAPPENED

- Lois Alexander and Company was located at 214 W. 125th Street - Black Fashion Museum was located at 155 West 126th Street - Harlem Fashion Institute was located at 157 West 126th Street

Offering classes in areas outside of fashion not only enabled the Institute to serve more individuals, including youths and adults who sought to pursue jobs outside of the dressmaking industry, but also erased any doubt that an education from there was not “practical”.

Lois Alexander Lane came to be extremely admired and respected for her dedication to to improving the lives of members of the Harlem community through education, practical career assistance - with a side of empowerment and some fashionable flair! She would come to receive many community honors, including the 1992 Josephine Shaw Lowell Award, for her efforts to improve the lives of the New Yorkers who perhaps struggled most with poverty, discrimination, and were unfairly deprived of opportunities for decades.

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

SPONSORING A COLLECTION

NOT "NEWFOUND TALENT" Be it by slaves working for plantation owners or by free black designers and dressmakers, a great many of the dresses, gowns, trousers, hats, and simple shirts that Americans had been living in, working in, visiting towns in and attending fancy galas in had been the result of African American labour and design - something few people realized. In 1981, Lane would explain to the Washington Post how the combination of experiences she got through academic research, her work in Harlem, and her field work gathering fashion artifacts around the United States fueled her passion for sharing the untold history of African Americans in fashion. In her interview, Lane explained: "In the process I discovered that few Americans -- black or white -- are aware of the contributions made by black Americans in the creative fields of fashion.” “"There is an oft-quoted myth that black people are 'new-found talent' in the fashion field and we want to change that."

However, awards were far from the most gratifying recognition that Lois Alexander Lane received for her push for progress. In 1978, after a decade of bringing education, employment, and a pathway into the fashion industry for Harlemites, Fashion Institute received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for $20,000 "to establish a fashion museum and sponsor seminars and workshops." This grant allowed Lane to create what she would consider her magnum opus - the Black Fashion Museum. The using the NEA’s funds, Alexander-Lane began to travel across the country to find and acquire garments created by black designers. Determined to preserve an even more troubling part of American and African American history, she also sought to collect both clothes that had been worn by slaves, and garments that had been designed and sewn by slaves for their wealthy owners. The collection she garnered throughout her travels gave her a tangible showcase of the true scope of the long overlooked presence of blacks in American fashion.

May 2018

Issue 10 • Volume 12

NEW YORK'S FASHION SCENE

"ENSURING THE AFRICAN STORY IS TOLD" THE LEGACY OF LANE'S COLLECTION

The research collection amassed by Lane is impressively extensive and diverse. At the time of her death, her collection of historical artifacts of fashion comprised more than 700 garments, 300 accessories, and 60 boxes of archival material. Highlights of the collection include a dress sewn by Rosa Parks shortly before her famous arrest in Montgomery, Alabama, a beige-patterned skirt worn by an enslaved child in Leesburg, Virginia, and the original Tin Man costume designed by Geoffrey Holder for the 1975 Broadway musical, The Wiz." Michèle Gates-Moresi, a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (which inherited the artifacts of the Black Fashion Museum after Lane’s death,) describes the collection in which "Clothing and bonnets worn by slaves in the mid-1800s appear alongside an elaborately constructed opera cape made by a former slave.” Other highlights of the collection included a collection of dresses created by Ann Lowe, whose designs were worn by members of America’s wealthiest families, and even by then First-Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Unfortunately, the original Black Fashion Museum, along with the Harlem Institute of Fashion, would close its doors in 1994.

However, when Lane died from Alzheimer's in 2007, her daughter Joyce Bailey donated the entirety of her mother’s collection to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Thus, just under a hundred years after Lois Alexander Lane was born in the discrimination-riddled Little Rock, Arkansas, her rare and beautiful collection of treasures of Black fashion in America is exhibited in one of D.C.’s most prominent museums - an institution which shares her goal of ensuring that the African American story is not doomed to remain hidden as a collection of dusty unshown artifacts under a veil of denial. Lois Alexander-Lane was willing to challenge monumental odds, to inform the world of the achievements of African American seamstresses, dressmakers and designers throughout American history. She dedicated her life to making spaces for African Americans to dream, and to realize their ambitions to be part of the fashion industry. Upon making her decision to donate her mother’s collection, Lane’s daughter insisted: “The biggest priority of this museum matches that of my mother - ensuring that the African Story is told.”

'THE OBJECTS NOT ONLY TELL THE STORY OF BLACK FASHION, BUT OF THE WOMEN AND MEN WHO CREATED THEM, WORE THEM AND HELD ON TO THEM FOR YEARS.”

"SOCIETY'S GREATEST SECRET"Â ANNE LOWE: EXPOSED, AND RIGHTFULLY REWRITTEN INTO HISTORY

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

BEST-DRESSED AT THE BUS PROTEST Although Rosa Parks is most famous for her honourable act of protest on a bus in Montgomery, she made a living as a seamstress in addition to being a civil rights activist, and was known throughout her community as always being well dressed in addition to extremely well spoken.

This was the dress Mrs. Parks had been working on when she refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. Her refusal to move led to her arrest and the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, the a watershed moment of the Civil Rights Movement in America.

THE "AMERICAN BEAUTY" DRESS "An ivory dress decorated with swirls of handmade fabric rose vines, designed by Ann Lowe. The variety of rose depicted on the dress is the American Beauty, which has led to it being called the "American Beauty" dress. The bodice of the dress is sleeveless, with a scoop neck front, princess seams and a deep "v" in the back reaching to the waist. The skirt of the dress has a flat front, and the skirt gathers toward the center-back waist with box pleats to create a small bustle silhouette. Green silk vines and leaves, covered in two-toned pink rose blooms and buds, begin at each front shoulder above the bust, cover both shoulders, and run along the edges of the open back bodice to the center back."

“I love my clothes and I’m particular about who wears them. I am not interested in sewing for café society or social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for families of the Social Register" - the true 'American Beauties'" -Anne Lowe, Ebony Mag.

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

"WHO MADE THIS GOWN?" Anne Lowe, one of America’s most significant fashion designers, was born in Clayton, Alabama as the daughter of a seamstress. Like Lois Alexander Lowe, her grandmother had been a slave - she’d been a dressmaker who stitched elaborate frocks for her white owners. Lowe’s journey was a source of inspiration not only to Lois Alexander Lane, but also to many students at the Fashion Institute.

From quite meager beginnings, Lowe’s talent and relentless pursuit of her dreams would lead her to work on commissions in New York at some of America’s best design houses, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel and Chez Sonia. She would come to design for wealthy patrons such as the Rockefellers, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, and the DuPonts. Her work designing outfits for famous socialites and Hollywood stars from the 1940s to the end of the ’60s made Lowe known as “society’s best-kept secret.” These were America’s wealthiest and most influential families at the time, making them an extremely impressive clientele for an African American designer in those years. It is even said that, when Christian Dior first beheld her handiwork, he exclaimed, with probably a bit of envy, “Who made this gown?”

-Harlem: Fashion In ColourLowe's greatest achievement, however, was designing the iconic wedding gown of future first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, in addition to the gowns worn by the bridal party and attending family members.

Although this gown is revered as “One of the most remembered bridal gowns of all time,” Lowe passed away without receiving credit for designing it.

Shockingly, when asked who made her dress, Jacqueline Kennedy simply said it was a "colored woman.”

"A Colored Woman" Such stories of black fashion influencers being discredited are unfortunately in no way few and far between, making Lowe’s mission to finally tell the long-hidden tale of African Americans in fashion even more important. It is a massive injustice that the designer of one of the most iconic wedding gowns in history would die broke and unknown at age 82.

OUR LATEST WINTER OUTFITS

SRENGISED KCALB

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

“I'm underscoring what might today be obvious but bears repeating. The show is about black makers, models and designers, as opposed to ‘black style,’” “There really isn’t a black style.” - Elizabeth Way, Curatorial Assistant

THE MUSEUM at the FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY December- June 2016

First Annual Exhibition

The designers featured in FIT's "Black Fashion Designers" work in a diverse range of individual styles; just like African Americans as a people, they do not all speak in one voice.

By the 1970s, however, as designer Willi Smith later recalled, “There was this tremendous exposure given to designers based on their blackness.” The fashion press made an obvious point of reporting on "black designers" of that period, including Stephen Burrows and Scott Barrie, who became wellknown for their curve-conscious styles.

However, creatives were worried, and felt limited by the “black designer” label - both in the 1970s and today. Smith added, “When the hype was over, people thought there were no more black designers. In a way it’s a blessing. Now we can get on with being what we are: designers.”

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

A CHANCE IN THE SPOTLIGHT Luckily, Lowe is finally getting her chance in the spotlight - or perhaps on the runway. Three Lowe gowns are on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC. In December 2016, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan displayed several Ann Lowe gowns in an exhibition on black fashion and the influence of African American Culture in the New York City fashion scene. There are even two children’s books about the designer in the making! According to Margaret Powell, a costume historian and the author of one of the books, “Lowe showed that an AfricanAmerican could be a major fashion designer. She made it to that highest level. She’s an inspiration.”

LOWE'S CONTEMPORARIES The black experience does prominently figure in the work of other designers featured in the exhibition. Paris-based Patrick Kelly, for instance, drew inspiration from his American Southern roots. The colorful buttons on his knit dress reference the mismatched buttons his grandmother used to mend his family’s clothing.

Duro Olowu, a Nigerian-Jamaican, London-based designer draws on multiple cultural perspectives and emphasizes Africa’s historic role in cultural production and international trade.

A section of the exhibition devoted to activism comprised of fashions that send political and social messages. For example, a cover image of the antiapartheid magazine Drum adorns an ensemble by South African designer Nkhensani Nkosi of Stoned Cherrie, and a Kerby Jean-Raymond ensemble inspired by Ota Benga, a nineteenthcentury African who was caged at the Monkey House in the Bronx Zoo, expresses Jean-Raymond’s frustration at being labeled and pigeon-holed, as not only a black designer, but also a black person.

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

NATURAL: A CONCEPT "NEVER SEEN BEFORE" One day in late January 1962, a group of artists staged a fashion show in Harlem that would change American culture forever.

The event was held in the basement of the Harlem Purple Manor, a popular nightclub on East 125th Street. The show was called “Naturally ’62” and its creators hoped to promote African culture and fashion.

What made the show unprecedented were the models: a group of normal-sized women with unlightened dark skin and natural, unprocessed, curly hair - something unseen before in the runway fashion world.

“It was a pioneering concept, women coming out on stage wearing their hair in a natural state,” former AJASS member Robert Gumbs told The New York Post. “We didn’t know how the community would respond. I think a number of people came to laugh.”

ACCEPTING "AFRICAN" “You have to realize what the visual landscape was of Africa in the 1950s and early 1960s, By and large, these images consisted of black folks in Africa in the jungle wearing a loincloth with a bone through their nose."

“This was the representation of Africa that folks across the US began to associate with the continent,” Ford, a "Black is Beautiful" pioneer told The New York Post. "Never mind that it was “a very diverse continent with several urban cities and multiple thriving fashion industries.”

The fear and,, unfortunately, shame of appearing too conspicuously “African” created a social mandate in the late 1950s and ’60s for most black women to have their hair chemically processed or straightened with a hot comb.

Even black-culture-centric magazines, for instance Ebony preferred models with lighter, "cafe au lait" skin and straightened hair. If they were half white?

Even better.

Black women who didn’t process their hair often faced particular discrimination and taunts - even within black communities! Women could get fired from their jobs [for wearing their hair natural] because it was interpreted as being "militant."

-Harlem: Fashion In Colour-

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

A PHRASE THAT LAUNCHED A MOVEMENT The phrase "Black is Beautiful" had remained unspoken in the world of runway fashion until the 1962 show in Harlem: "Naturally '62."

By the end of the evening, audience members were cheering on the model!

The show’s slogan, “Black Is Beautiful” — printed on fliers and posters announcing the event — would become a rallying cry and movement celebrating natural hair, darker skin and African heritage.

The phrase would launch magazines, modeling careers, fashion trends and TV shows, changing the landscape of American pop culture by making it far more open, diverse and colorful.

The “Naturally” shows are “a reminder of how even when faced with intense social violence, black people continue to find ways to [express themselves with] style,” said Ford.

“They show that black people have long been having our own conversation around beauty and style, and have influenced the most popular fashion and beauty trends around the world.” - NYP The “Black Is Beautiful” movement remains as vital as ever. Stars such as Solange Knowles, Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya often wear their hair naturally, either in a short crop or in elaborate braids — and speak out when fashion magazines lighten their skin or digitally alter their locks. And the year’s most anticipated film, “Black Panther,” out Feb. 16, not only features a black superhero but draws inspiration from African fashion, art and beauty, an aesthetic that its actors have adapted for their red-carpet appearances.

May 2018

Issue 10 • Volume 12

NEW YORK'S FASHION SCENE

HARLEM FASHION ROW PRESERVING THE BLACK LEGACY IN FASHION During the recent spring shows in New York, a handful of New York designers and brands celebrated anniversaries. Harlem’s Fashion Row was among them. The concept behind Harlem’s Fashion Row is simple enough. Brandice Henderson, its founder, was attending a fashion show in Brooklyn and thought her own neighborhood, Harlem, deserved a showcase as well. She introduced Harlem’s Fashion Row in 2007 with a small show staffed by 15 volunteers.Five years later, Harlem’s Fashion Row became the primary collective platform for designers of color during New York Fashion Week, enabling emerging artists to showcase their talent among industry heavyweights, including top buyers, editors and bloggers.

"When I read Lois Alexander Lane's book, 'Blacks in The History of Fashion', my passion for Harlem's Fashion Row made sense to me. She passed in 2007, the same year that Harlem's Fashion Row started.

In 2011, I went to DC to meet her daughter, Joyce Bailey, and once again it was confirmation that I was on the right track. " "My work, and the work of our designers and models, is dedicated to Lois Alexander Lane, my biggest inspiration. I hope that The Harlem Fashion Row plays a part in continuing her legacy. May she rest in peace but never be forgotten" - BRANDICE HENDERSON FOUNDER OF HARLEM'S FASHION ROW

The Chino Valley Post

THE HARLEM FASHION HUB THIS SEASON'S PICKS

OUR LATEST WINTER OUTFITS

CHER SILVER TOP Our Cher silver top glistens in the light making it perfect for parties. The single-shoulder neckline and the elongated sleeve are just two of the details that makes it a standout must have.

GOLD BACKLESS TOP

TAYSH TURTLENECK

This backless turtleneck top works well as an alternative to a gown when paired with its matching wide-leg pants. Crafted with pleated gold lame, it has a high neckline and turns to reveal the back.

The idea was to add a touch of glam to a comfortable silhouette. This sweatshirt is printed with dark lines and accented with a gold and stripe. Continue the laid-back feel with jeans or pair with its matching pant to make a statement.

DESPITE PROGRESS OVER THE PAST HALF CENTURY, THE FASHION INDUSTRY IS NOT AS WELCOMING AS WE MIGHT EXPECT. HOWEVER, THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY IS INCREASINGLY BEING RECOGNIZED. BLACK DESIGNERS CONTRIBUTE ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES TO FASHION THAT MAKE IT MORE CREATIVE, MORE INCLUSIVE, AND MORE VARIED AS BOTH AN ART FORM AND AN INDUSTRY. - BRANDICE Â HENDERSON

Works Cited “About Harlem Fashion Row.” Harlem Fashion Row, www.harlemsfashionrow.com/about.

“About The Museum.” National Museum of African American History And Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/about/museum.

Andrews, Jessica. “Harlem's Fashion Row Celebrated Five Years at New York Fashion Week.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Sept. 2012, runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/harlems-fashion-rowcelebrated-five-years-at-new-york-fashion-week/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1.

Bernstein, Adam. “Lois Alexander Lane; Founder Of Harlem Institute of Fashion.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Oct. 2007, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102602221.html.

“Black Designers: Recognized.” Fashion Institute of Technology, FIT, NYC, blog.fitnyc.edu/volumesandissues/2016/10/19/woman-written-back-into-history/.

Chance, Julia. “Society's Stylish Secret: Designer Ann Lowe Was a Fashion Force Few Knew (Until Now).” The Glow Up, Theglowup.theroot.com, 9 Mar. 2018, theglowup.theroot.com/societys-stylish-secret-designer-ann-lowewas-a-fashio-1823499194.

“Dress Designed by Ann Lowe.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, NMAAHC, nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2007.3.21.

“Ensemble: Apartheid.” Fashion Institute of Technology, FIT, NYC, fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/asitem/People$00407297/0?t:state:flow=4b8f2961-b129-4327-a126b9d60a88ebc9.

“Explore Our Collection.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/collection.

“The Founder of The Harlem Institute of Fashion.” Black Then: African American History Today, blackthen.com/lois-k-alexander-lane-founder-harlem-institute-fashion-black-fashion-museum/.

Givhan, Robin. “Black Fashion Museum Collection Finds a Fine Home with Smithsonian.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 May 2010, www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/05/21/AR2010052101654.html.

Givhan, Robin. “Perspective | Fashion Is Finally Figuring out Diversity - in Ways That Actually Matter.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Sept. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fashion-is-finally-figuringout-diversity--in-ways-that-actually-matter/2017/09/06/a16333a6-88f0-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html? utm_term=.479639979c21.

“The Harlem Black Fashion Museum Founded By Ms. Lois Alexander Lane.” Harlem World Magazine, harlemworldmag.com/the-harlem-black-fashion-museum-founded-by-ms-lois-alexander-lane/.

Works Cited “History Of Style: Designer Lois K. Alexander-Lane.” Luxe Colore, Luxe Colore Magazine, 3 Feb. 2016, www.luxecolore.com/luxe-colore/history-style-designer-lois-k-alexander-lane/.

“Lane, Lois Alexander.” African American Registry, aaregistry.org/story/lois-alexander-lane-born/.

Laneri, Raquel. “How a Harlem Fashion Show Started the 'Black Is Beautiful' Movement.” New York Post, New York Post, 6 Feb. 2018, nypost.com/2018/02/05/how-a-harlem-fashion-show-started-the-black-isbeautiful-movement/.

Laneri, Raquel. “Why Jackie Kennedy's Wedding Dress Designer Was Fashion's 'Best Kept Secret'.” New York Post, New York Post, 16 Oct. 2016, nypost.com/2016/10/16/jackies-wedding-dress-designer-is-finallyrecognized/.

A Look at the Black Fashion Museum Collection and Designer Peter Davy At the National Museum of African American History and Culture. National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“The Museum at FIT.” FIT Museum, Fashion Institute of Technology, www.fitnyc.edu/museum/.

“Obituary: Lois Alexander Lane.” Chicago Tribune, 30 Oct. 2007, articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-1030/news/0710290877_1_black-fashion-museum-black-history-harlem-institute.

“Our History.” Black Fashion Museum, Official, BFM, Washington DC, bfmdc.tripod.com/html/founder.htm.

Peoples, Lindsey. “Why Aren’t More Fashion Designers Black?” The Cut, New York Magazine, 16 Jan. 2017, www.thecut.com/2015/09/meet-fashions-best-advocate-for-black-designers.html.

Syphrett, Shani. “How Brandice Henderson-Daniel Is Building An Epicenter For Designers Of Color.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/shanisyphrett/2017/08/01/how-brandice-henderson-isbuilding-an-epicenter-for-designers-of-color/#665f69b2a97d.

“WALK: Harlem's Forgotten Fashion Institute.” Harlem Bespoke, 22 Apr. 2012, harlembespoke.blogspot.com/2010/04/walk-harlems-forgotten-fashion.html.

“Introducing Anne Lowe.” Hidden Fashion History, hiddenfashionhistory.com/history/introducing-ann-lowe/.

Blyge, Mary. “Harlem's Fashion Row Kicks Off NYFW with Mary J. Blige, Tracee Ellis Ross, and InStyle's Kahlana Barfield.” InStyle, InStyle Magazine, www.instyle.com/news/harlems-fashion-row-2015-show-styleawards.