Artists often create little word or visual prompts to help them warm up before beginning their daily creative work. What starts out as a simple exercise can have a ripple effect.
Kehinde Wiley used to (and perhaps still does) get his juices flowing each morning by creating several quick color sketches on sheets of paper of African women and men’s heads, which he then saved. When his renown grew, those casual drawings were turned into merch. Two of them are now dish towels that I have framed in my home.
In the ‘90s, as part of a symposium series I produced for the employees of Sony Pictures, the great Octavia Butler came to speak about her writing process. She related that she often asked herself provocative questions and then wrote out her answers. That morning’s question was “What if humans had fur instead of skin?” Here is where her answers took her.
If we had fur, we would not have used plants and leaves to make basic coverings. Without expanding that into weaving cloth, we would not have had a pattern for circuitry, which would not have evolved into smaller and smaller circuits — microchips — that power our contemporary technological devices. (Okay, Octavia — dayum!)
Recently, this memory served as a mental runway to an article in the recent online edition of GQ. It was a profile of clothing designer Willy Chavarria’s spring 2026 runway show at Paris Fashion Week. The Southern California-raised Mexican-American designer, who has won two CFDA awards for his Chicano-influenced menswear, presented muscular models of color “who are tattooed, sultry, sinewy, cool.” Not the usual runway look but just the look guaranteed these days to draw the attention of ICE.
The show opened with a visceral tribute to the hundreds of immigrants and citizens detained by ICE, including the 200 Venezuelans deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. A heated debate about the appropriateness of political statements at a luxury fashion show ensued. It also prompted a caustic response on X from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
For Chavarria, it’s about telling a sartorial story that redefines beauty, range, and authenticity. Whether shy or strong, swaggy or stiff, his models exemplify substance and bold self-identity, especially important to the designer in these times of cultural erasure and physical atrocities.
In his last quote for the article, Chavarria said, “I know that fashion can’t change politics….” Well, allow me to illustrate fashion’s impact on culture, economics, and politics at a few different points in history.
Enslaved women’s head wraps were sometimes punitively imposed by enslavers to mark them as inferior, as in the Tignon Law in 18th-century Louisiana. But our ancestors also used them to protect their hair, communicate coded messages, retain identity, and express some measure of resistance. From church hats to African fabric geles, we’re still covering heads today.
Sarah “Saartje” Baartman, of the Khoekhoe people of South Africa, was taken to England in 1810 and then later sold in France, where she was paraded as a freak-show attraction called the Hottentot Venus. It is said her traditional rear anatomy eventually inspired the rise of the bustle in popular women’s clothing of the times. (BBL, anyone?)
The Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in June 1943, primarily between white American servicemen and young Mexican-Americans, were fueled by racial tensions and the flamboyance of the zoot suit. The style, popular with young Chicanos and viewed as unpatriotic due to its excessive use of fabric during wartime rationing, was an excuse to target them for police harassment and arrest.
Finally, the values and aesthetics of 1980s Hip Hop birthed independent clothing lines like Cross Colours and FUBU. Then it transformed and catapulted high fashion and economics when Harlem designer and haberdasher Dapper Dan merged street wear with luxury-label logos.
In the ‘90s, April Walker, founder of Walker Wear, extended that Hip Hop clothing ethos into music videos for Biggie and Tupac, influencing trends that are still followed globally today.
So what are your politics about clothes? In my 20s, I made several decisions to embody my worldview: to wear as many natural fibers as possible; to wear clothing and accessories that reflect traditional cultural textiles and designs (I went through a mad mud-cloth phase a couple of decades ago); and to wear pieces that are made by designers, leather workers, and jewelers I actually know who are artisans and boutique owners and are also women and people of color.
And because Gucci, Fendi et al don’t pay me to advertise for them, their labels never grace my frame.
After all these years, on any given day, the only articles I am wearing that don’t fit that description are underwear and shoes. Just doing my small part to live the culture.
March On!
Isisara Bey, Artistic Director
Upcoming Events
Join me on Tuesday for a must-see conversation celebrating the legacy of A’Lelia Walker, the daughter of Madam C.J. Walker and a defining figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
This live webinar features award-winning journalist and author A’Lelia Bundles, whose new book, Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, brings to life her great-grandmother’s dazzling world of art, activism, and unapologetic glamour. From legendary parties to intimate salons, A’Lelia Walker created space for Black cultural leaders to thrive, and her influence still resonates today.
I hope to see you there.
