Vintage Inspiration Pull by Rikki Byrd
Photo by Patrice Helmar, provided by Rikki Byrd
You may recall Rikki Byrd from an event we did a few years back where we invited her to pull a capsule collection that reflected her style to share with our community. We tapped Rikki again to see if she would pull together a different kind of collection for us this time. With so much time being spent on our phones in the days of COVID-19, I wanted to offer up a fresh look at vintage fashion. With Rikki’s background, I knew she’d be the perfect person for the job.
Rikki Byrd is a writer, scholar and educator whose work focuses on fashion and style across the Black diaspora. She has written for several media outlets such as Teen Vogue and Artsy, and lectured, sat on and moderated panels for Google and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Saint Louis Art Museum, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Her work has appeared in academic books, journals and exhibitions catalogs. She is currently a PhD student in African American Studies at Northwestern University.
Over the years, she has maintained a growing list of websites and social media pages focused on Black fashion and style that she often looks to for inspiration. Below, she’s put together a host of them and pulled her favorite posts or items from the websites.
Vintage Black Glamour
This Instagram page was created by scholar Nichelle Gainer, who curates an extensive archive of photographs of glamorous Black women and men from the 20th century. The project began as a Tumblr page then evolved into a highly followed Instagram page and two coffee table books – Vintage Black Glamour and Vintage Black Glamour: Gentleman’s.
Rikki’s pull:
Black Market Vintage
Founded by couple Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart, this Instagram page features the many vintage finds of Black memorabilia, photographs, and more. In addition to this page, Handy and Stewart keep their website stocked with goods available for purchase and recently opened their first brick-and-mortar store in Brooklyn, NY.
Rikki’s pull:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The NMAAHC opened in 2016 as the only national museum dedicated to African American history. The museum has an impressive digital collection, including a section dedicated solely to Black clothing and textiles.
Rikki’s pull: Costume worn by Diana Ross as Billie Holliday in Lady Sings the Blues.
Museum at FIT
The Museum at FIT is a public museum free and open to the public. I saw Dapper Dan’s clothing for the first time at the museum’s Black Fashion Designers exhibition in 2017. The museum holds one of his pieces in their collection, which is available for view in their digital collection.
Rikki’s pull: Jacket by Dapper Dan of Harlem
Shelby Ivey Christie on Twitter
Shelby Ivey Christie creates incredible and engaging threads on Twitter of Black fashion history. Here’s Christie’s most recent thread on Josephine Baker in custom luxury designs.
Josephine Baker in custom Balmain 10/19/1951. NYC💅🏽
— Shelby Ivey Christie (@bronze_bombSHEL) February 20, 2020
Pierre Balmain made this custom tulle + gold lamé gown in celebration of her song “Black Magic” - Imagine it’s 1951 in segregated America + a Black millionaire goddess popped out in custom Balmain? I know they were SEETHING😂 pic.twitter.com/Bs879bBWjG
Black Vrchives
Created by Renata Cherise, Blvck Vrchives is an expansive Instagram page of photographs archiving Black life. Sometimes, Cherise will curate themed projects and host open calls for submissions. I had the opportunity to view Cherise’s work in person at Pitchfork in 2018, when she curated a live projection of images for Ms. Lauryn Hill’s set at the festival.
Rikki’s pull:
My Grandaddy’s Closet
Curated by Danny Dunson, this Instagram page features images specifically of Black men’s style. Similar to Cherise, Dunson takes submissions from his many followers.
Rikki’s pull:
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