Advocating for originality while living in a Y2k kind of world
Graphic by Daija
One designer that changed fashion for me was Zelda Wynn Valdes. I discovered Zelda in my junior year of high school in 2018. She had the first Black-owned business on Broadway in New York and is considered by many to be the first Black fashion designer in the United States. In the late 1930s, she began her career, making the most exquisite gowns for clients such as Dorothy Dandridge, Jessye Norman, Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West and Gladys Knight. She was remarkable and unique in the way she paid attention to detail.
She's an icon that I hold dear to my heart. One of the most remarkable designs she created was the Playboy bunny costumes presented in 1960; she was original without trying too hard. Fashion, in my opinion, used to be special, odd and thought-provoking. It was treated as a form of art; it still is, but the appreciation for it has faded.
Fashion icons like Alexander McQueen challenged traditional shaping and drapery when it came to all his designs. He designed clothing that could revolutionize clothing that he would wear. In the same way, Lady Gaga thinks outside of the box and has continued to this day to wear and create art that no one has ever seen before. Laquan Smith, another remarkable Black designer, creates clothing that is organic and universal.
The rise of the Y2K aesthetic shows us how trends are continuously brought back into fashion and recycled. I'm hesitant to welcome it back with open arms because of the way whiteness and fatphobia plague it. We must continually ask ourselves, was the outfit giving or is she just skinny? Unfortunately, we tend to give White skinny women more credit than is due. Let's stop that.
As consumers, artists and designers, we can change the course of fashion today and create better ways to showcase ourselves through clothing. It's always scary to dress how you really want to, in fear of criticism or judgement. It feels easier to blend into the crowd, but when we take those steps to be ourselves and dress for ourselves truly, we may be able to discover parts of ourselves we never knew we had.
We can always add our own spin to our old clothes by cutting, painting, sewing and reworking. JENerationDIY on YouTube is an excellent example of someone who does this. She creates pieces that are simple yet wearable. We deserve individuality, freshness; our society shouldn't be uniform! Everything in this world and under capitalism is created to conform, but clothing separates us, so let's have fun with it again.
By Daishyera Garner (she/they)