ABSTRACT
Black American fashion makers have contributed to the American fashion system throughout the last two centuries, from enslaved seamstresses making clothing for other enslaved people, to Black dressmakers and tailors—both enslaved and free—serving elite white clients and fellow African Americans, to modern fashion designers in the New York industry. Although often invisible in fashion scholarship, Black fashion makers helped to shape the evolving fashion culture of the United States, all while subject to the institutional racial discrimination that pervades American society. This chapter offers an overview of the history of Black American fashion makers pointing to important existing scholarship and providing examples of twentieth-century designers such as Jon Weston and Tracy Reese who have not garnered previous academic attention.
