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6/10/2004

Black British Style

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

From Sunday dressing to street wear, celebrity to Rasta, Black British Style looks at fashion and styling across all aspects of black life and culture over the past 50 years. The exhibition explores clothes and the bodies that wear them, looking at not only what is worn but how.

Black people aren’t exclusively the ones to turn heads on the street but it is the attention to detail in the art of dressing that makes these styles so significant. Historical roots, cultural difference, a pleasure in femininity, masculinity or sexuality, and the unrestrained desire for the ingenuity of designer clothes have all influenced the way black people in Britain dress.

This exhibition is the first of its kind in the UK and highlights the variety of lifestyles that co-exist in black culture, focusing on dress but also incorporating music, photography and film.

The themes
Black style has dramatically reshaped the visual landscape of Britain over the past 50 years. Black people are not the only social group to turn heads on the streets of Britain, but their attention to detail in the art of dressing has highlighted a variety of style performances among men, women and children across the country.

The importance of dress has had a huge impact on both the development of black identities and British culture as a whole. Individuals’ clothes and accessories – along with iconic garments, outfits styled specifically for this exhibition, photography and music – provide an insight into black culture through dress, overturning stereotypes and celebrating the presence of black people in the UK.

What has come to define ‘black British style’ is the rich creative mix of reference they have to hand: styles from the African diaspora; English clothing labels; general cultural influences; historical roots; and the impact of cultural difference or empathy. In Britain there is the space for black people to wear these elements in a myriad of combinations. The black British body can devise its own distinct visual identity and continually say something new about the place of black people in Britain.

England, is the place for me

‘Black people had to be respectable . . . As I said, I was “bookish” but still a heavy dresser.’ Dr Beryl Gilroy, 1986

The migration of black people from Africa and the Caribbean to Britain after the Second World War changed the visual landscape of the ‘mother country’. The clothes newcomers brought with them, and the way they presented themselves in public, had a profound effect on relations between black people and their English neighbours.

The impact of well-dressed black men in elegantly tailored suits and ‘flashy’ ties, and women in delicately coloured dresses and co-ordinating accessories, has led cultural observers to call them the ‘quintessential subterranean’. Their choice of clothes and the desire to present themselves with pride looked markedly different to a more conservative, mainstream society.

Add to this the traditional clothing worn by African women, and the streets of England became a challenging style arena. Traditional dress served as a talisman of the life many recent arrivals had left behind and had a powerful presence. As black people entered Britain and, more pointedly, England and Englishness, the question of one’s place here became more contested than anyone had ever imagined.

Respect yourself: The politics of black pride
‘I suppose culture and style . . . [are] a symbolic aspect of our resistance, our determination to be identified different from others, to have something we can say is our own, that sets us apart from others.’ Linton Kwesi Johnson, 1991

During the 1960s and 70s many young black people in Britain used clothes to express the inequalities of racism and a sense of alienation. It was a defining period in black British history, what Stuart Hall calls a ‘certain moment’ when an individual or group defines itself as ‘black’, African or Caribbean following migration to a country that is predominantly white.

Black people in Britain looked to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the United States for guidance. They rejected Euro- American notions of beauty and dress to express their black identity and cultural heritage. Instead, they sought alternative dress styles which included African textiles and embraced the ‘true’ beauty of natural hairstyles such as the afro. The dashiki, the afro comb and the leather ‘Shaft’ coat became key components of what Van Dyk Lewis calls ‘the archive of black styles’, one which reaffirms black resistance and black identity.

Simultaneously the music of Jamaican ska, jazz, soul and the counter-cultural ructions of the ‘swinging sixties’ were other sources of cultural inspiration. Black people mixed these references into their dress styles to validate their cultural values and sense of personal pride.

Calling Rastafari, Hallelu-Jah
Rastafari has an important place in the development of black British style. The religion emerged in Jamaica in the early 1930s and urged its followers to turn their allegiance to the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassi 1, formerly Ras Tafarai. At the heart of the movement was having ‘Africa for the Africans’, an anti-colonial stance expressed in the 1920s by another important political figure, Marcus Garvey.

Through its distinctive aesthetic and religious beliefs, Rastafari augmented the aims of the Black Power movement. Nevertheless, Rastafarians see their role as being not so much about Black Power as about spiritual awakening and the promotion of racial pride.

The garments featured here represent the ‘classic’ style of Rastafari at the time of its widest influence in Britain some 30 years ago and its legacy. By the 1970s Rastafarianism became a fundamental force in the lives of mainly young black men and women in Britain. It encouraged them to reclaim their African heritage in the face of the hostile opposition they experienced in Britain. This was often communicated through the evocative sound and lyrics of Roots reggae.

Win the lost at any cost
Religion is a central feature of black culture worldwide. Within Britain, following the post-war migration of Caribbean and African people, the ‘black church’ became what has been termed a ‘system of meaning’ to explain ‘who believers are and the world they live in’. This is particularly poignant when one considers that many Christians who migrated in the 1950s were turned away from the ‘white’ churches they hoped to attend.

Historically, how the body is dressed must reflect the wearers’ morality and spiritual devotion to mark them out as different from the non-believer. Today the more relaxed attitude to codes of dress within some denominations, such as churches of the Pentecostal and Evangelical traditions, means that it is no longer compulsory to wear a hat to service. Make-up can now be worn, as can jewellery and trousers.

The response of non-black observers to the way black people dress when attending church services in Britain provides a positive cultural commentary showing that dress does mark the believers’ ‘difference’. The reverence black churchgoers pay to their respective beliefs is never at the expense of their sense of style.

Fix up, Look sharp: Music and dress
The development of new sounds and new dress styles have gone hand in hand. Black dress and black music have connected so powerfully that the resulting styles have come to define eras, signal seasons of moral panic and fuel developments in mainstream fashion. The body- conscious ‘barely there’ style of dance hall is matched to the salacious sounds of Ragga music. In the same way, the smooth rhythms of Lover’s Rock are echoed in the svelte line of a man’s camel coat. African-American hip-hop music and its associated style of dress has had a massive impact on black British style. Here hip-hop has developed its own black British identity which is reflected in the associated clothing.

A major component of this so-called ‘street style’ is sportswear, and a dedication to certain styles or brands is evident in collections such as Goldie’s trainers. Group identity and a sense of belonging can be seen in many of these music-associated styles. The nightlife in black clubs and blues has given rise to certain black aesthetics. In such spaces clubbers have the opportunity to indulge their dress fantasies.

It’s good to have the feeling you’re the best
Presenting oneself publicly in the best possible way is a tenet passed from generation to generation. This is at its most obvious when individuals dress up for occasions as wide- ranging as going to a wine bar or attending an awards ceremony. The continuing tradition of ‘dressing up’ is illustrated here, for example, by a man’s dress suit designed by the English couturier Hardy Amies in the 1960s and a contemporary male outfit from Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana.

Designer labels aside, the services of a local tailor or dressmaker have been a traditional way of creating individualised styles. Conversely, the use of African garments remains a staple among Africans in Britain for formal events such as weddings where peer groups or family members may wear the same fabric as a sign of kinship. Such is the pleasure taken in creating a ‘look’ for a special occasion that the results often inspire a visit to the local high-street photographer to record its success.

New order
‘What you wear can speak for you’ Martina Topley Bird, 2004 A major feature of black style, particularly since the late 1970s, is that individuals have had the space to channel their own identity into how they style their bodies, drawing on diverse references to mark their difference. Today one might see a young black woman dressed in a blend of Goth and Punk clothing, or mixing the design ethos of different fashion designers with her own take on what it means to be black and British.

Within this framework, the issue of compatibility between blackness and ‘Englishness’ remains. Some, like the boxer Chris Eubank, have tried to ease the tension by appropriating Englishness and thereby assimilating mainstream power onto the black body.

The examples presented here aim to prevent the reduction of black style in Britain to essential stereotypes and to advance a more plural perspective of black British style. What is exciting is that there is always a new order of black style: there will always be new ways of ‘being black’.

Open
10.00-17.45 daily.
10.00-22.00 Wednesdays and the last Friday of the month, excluding December.
Selected galleries remain open after 17.45.
Exhibition space is vacated five minutes before Museum closing.
Last entry to the exhibition is at 17.20 (last ticket sold 17.15).
Late opening last entry to the exhibition is at 21.20 (last ticket sold 21.15)

Access
The Museum has a wide range of services for disabled visitors.
Call +44 (0)20 7942 2766 or textphone +44 (0)20 7942 2002 for details.
There is full access to the galleries.

How to reach the V&A
Tube: South Kensington
Buses: C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance

Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7
+44 (0)20 7942 2000

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