Amy Orchard-King led a talk on ‘Fashioning Blackness: Fashion, Style and the Diaspora’ earlier in the month. Amy is an Associate Lecturer across the University of the Arts London campuses, and a postgrad student at London College of Fashion.
Her specialist area of research is Fashion Histories and Cultures, where she looks at Black contributions to fashion and the work of Black fashion practitioners. Amy’s talk focused on colonialism and questioning how Black history is used in the fashion world. Amy spoke about how in the past, Black people would use fashion to communicate such as marking escape routes in their cane rows and in protests such as the Black Panther Party.
Amy also explored cultural appropriation as brands such as Marc Jacobs and Moschino have been inspired by Black culture on the runway, but is this appropriate? The talk considered how Black inventors have been celebrated through Black couture fashion items that imitate velcro hair rollers, typewriting, and the gas mask – all invented by Black individuals.
The talk was extremely eye opening and inspiring to everybody who attended, who agreed that they now see Black fashion in a different light.
Miss Woodmansey, Wellbeing Coordinator & Head of EDI
