Carrying fashion’s torch: Black women style stars from slavery to the present lighting the way to the future

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In 2007, Reese extended her business, inking deals with beauty and hosiery titans Sally Hansen and HUE, respectively, to release branded nail polish and tights. In 2011, she launched her second boutique in Tokyo (her first being in Manhattan’s hip Meatpacking District), truly taking her brand international.

Her success is all the more miraculous as fashion is a tough business for any designer without backing or deep pockets — let alone for a black female designer in a cliquish industry wed to a narrow narrative of the luxury customer. In this climate, it is no surprise that Reese is virtually the only African-American woman at her level. As they try to rise, emerging black designers complain openly and privately about the delicate dance they must perform when it comes to model casting and even music selection at fashion shows, lest they be pigeonholed as a “black designer” versus being purely a designer.

Given this context, it is fascinating that Anna Wintour, one of the most powerful gatekeepers of the American fashion guard, threw the weight of Vogue behind the Obamas.

For the 2008 campaign that ended in the historic election of President Obama as America’s first black president, the American Vogue editor-in-chief (now newly-minted as Condé Nast’s artistic director as well) reportedly helped raise almost $200,000 for then-Senator Obama. After his win, Wintour hosted and co-hosted intimate fundraisers with her sartorially-savvy set charging $30,000-plus for tickets to mix and mingle with the president.

Many designers also united in support of Obama, donating proceeds from the sale of election-themed pet clothes and other items to the 2012 campaign.

This story of style mixing with power becomes one that includes black women in history when we consider first lady Michelle Obama’s two historic Vogue covers.

Were these planned due to the closeness between Wintour and the Obama administration? While it’s impossible to say, we can almost be certain that first lady Michelle Obama’s extreme popularity for wearing great clothes factored into the decision.

Her fashion pedestal allows the first black first lady to leverage style to do the weighty work of expanding the definition of American fashion — and who is an “American.” By choosing little-known Chinese-American, Indian-American, and African-American designers and donning attainable brands like J. Crew and Target, Mrs. Obama’s style underscores her husband’s message: The American ideal must include groups previously excluded from what it means to be truly American.

Mrs. Obama exemplifies this message as she covers the April 2013 issue of Vogue, in a look showing her style evolution from her first March 2009 Vogue cover. From her new bangs to her modern Reed Krakoff dress, the first lady’s use of fashion to empower people with her example and model of inclusiveness has been further immortalized by the current magazine cover.

A rare first lady to have two American Vogue covers as well, Michelle Obama is a fashion history-maker in so many ways. Let us not forget her reportedly generating $3 billion for the American fashion industry through her satorial choices alone, surely a first.

The industry’s fascination with Mrs. Obama notwithstanding, black women are still woefully underrepresented across all spheres of fashion, with few clear heirs to those currently at the top of their game. Where are the African-American women that will succeed Tracy Reese? Or Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion journalist Robin Givhan? What about model-tycoons Iman, Tyra Banks, and Naomi Campbell?

Will anyone take up the mantle of modeling industry activist Bethann Hardison? Star stylists Patti Wilson and June Ambrose — who will fill their shoes when they move one? Who, in the next generation, will wield the influence of our first lady?

During this International Women’s Month, as we reflect on those that came before us in the world of style — and those that are coming up — it is important to stay inspired in our expressiveness to further create opportunities for black women. Our self-esteem as women may depend on becoming leaders in fashion in addition to going with the flow of mainstream.

It is desire, talent and drive that propelled our forebears of fashion into the positions of prominence that have inspired us all. Women of color that have that ability and desire today must keep striving, paving a path for the generation that will follow to create bolder looks and images that are our own.

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of the novel Powder Necklace and founder of the blog People Who Write. Follow her on Twitter @nanaekua.