Who, What, Wear

Where Style Meets Substance

Who, What, Wear: Selections from the Permanent Collection, opening this Thursday at the Studio Museum in Harlem, frames style as substance. This exhibition aims to question how what one wears ultimately fashions the body as a symbolic vessel of meaning. Whether this meaning be social, cultural, or political, the clothing we put on our bodies speaks loudly – and if desired, proudly.

This was the message emphasized last Thursday at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where Studio Museum Director Thelma Golden presented on the subject of “Black Fashion Icons” for their annual Fashion Symposium. At the beginning of her talk, Golden revealed her personal black style icon: Diana Ross as Tracy Chambers in the 1975 film Mahogany. Watching Ross play a young, aspiring fashion designer in this rags-to-riches tale, Golden established not only a personal connection to the starlet, but also discovered an association between power and fashion. Through examples found both in art and reality, Golden presented style icons as much more than just arbiters of fashion: through their personal self-expression, they may become mediators between appearance and meaning – individual role models inspiring a collective consciousness.

Golden’s investigation of black self-representation in art history started fittingly with James VanDerZee, the pioneering Harlem Renaissance photographer whose portraits framed style as cultural status and the historic neighborhood as an influential authority of creative expression. She proceeded to exceed the local, however, by offering a global consideration of cultural exchange and fusion exhibited in the mid-20th century photographs of West African artists Seydou Keïta and Malik Sidibé. In their portraits we see how fashion functions as a record of historical transition, and in these specific cases, documentations of the dialogue between traditional African and postcolonial influences and the subsequent creation of appropriated dress and nuanced modes of self-representation.

These historical and global inter-connections can also be found in contemporary West African photography series, such as Daniele Tamagni’s Gentlemen of Bacongo (2009), Nontsikelelo "Lolo" Veleko’s Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (2004), and Yinka Shonibare’s Diary of a Victorian Dandy (1998). Each of these series focuses on the cultural incarnations of the black dandy in cosmopolitan society, bridging historical and contemporary expressions of cultural subversion and sociopolitical opportunity. Diary of a Victorian Dandy by the British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare exhibits a twist on William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress (1732-1733) critiquing bourgeois debauchery. By casting himself as a frivolous yet esteemed and ultimately triumphant fop, Shonibare reveals the limited roles awarded to black people during the Victorian era, shrewdly challenging while playfully indulging in the values and excesses of Western aristocracy. In this series, the artist tackles serious social and art historical restrictions while simultaneously living out the fantasy of a black dandy and asserting the empowerment achieved through self-fashioning. We can even see interpretations of this confident and chic fashion gracing the web pages of style blog Street Etiquette, where NYC bloggers Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs modernize black dandyism and styles of the Harlem Renaissance into a uniquely diverse, dignified, and current sense of cool.

Ultimately, Golden’s presentation established that fashion-consciousness can lead to empowered cultural consciousness: being clothed in poise and pride. By presenting an inspiring group of black female icons, Golden reflected on how style is an essential external tool to reveal internal tastes and ideologies. From protestors in the civil rights movement to dazzling singers and fashion models, black women have used style to communicate to culture at-large, introducing standards of talent and beauty in both mainstream culture and the black community. From Josephine Baker (the first African American female to star in a major motion picture), to Naomi Sims (the first African American supermodel), and Michelle Obama (the first African American First Lady of the United States), these role models all use fashion as an arsenal for expression and opportunity. By achieving these groundbreaking firsts, they proclaim a vital need to be seen, both literally and figuratively, in order to find a sense of identity, belonging, and self-representation that is at once individual and communal. When style meets substance, Golden asserts, it is not just about how we see ourselves – it is about how we see our history, our future, and our purpose.

It is with this imperative notion of the symbolic function of fashion that the Studio Museum proudly presents its upcoming permanent collection exhibition: Who, What, Wear. Viewers will encounter figures and fashions as thought-provoking as they are aesthetically pleasing, encouraging reflection upon the power of who we are and what we wear. The diverse figures on view present a fluid and nuanced aesthetic, marking stylistic expression as a vibrant and constant evolution.  We invite you to feel nostalgic resonance with the adolescent affectation in Samuel Fosso’s Self-Portrait (1976), or solemn admiration for Barkley Hendricks’s Lawdy Mama (1969), whose afro, symbolic of the Black Power movement, is visually equated with the spiritual significance of a Byzantine icon painting. At the close of the exhibition, all bodies and fashions and accessories are stripped in a text-based print by Kerry James Marshall. Here, simplicity serves to evoke an especially renowned and resounding articulation of cultural pride: “Black is Beautiful.”

Who, What, Wear: Selections from the Permanent Collection will be open at the Studio Museum in Harlem November 10, 2011 – May 27, 2012.