Fashion History
Fashion History
As a fashion educator, my classes, creative projects and consulting has worked to emphasize one key thing: we must know our history to understand the present and determine the future. My work in teaching (and sharing) fashion history helps us become more knowledgable about what we wear, and uncovers the often under-appreciated stories behind why we wear what we wear.
Podcast: The Invisible Seam
Often unappreciated, but never unnoticed—welcome to the show that celebrates Black contributions to fashion. Hosted by fashion educator Kimberly Jenkins, this five-part series explores moments in history when Black Americans demanded respect, challenged norms, built community and imagined the future - all through what they wore.
From The Fashion and Race Database, Tommy Hilfiger’s People’s Place Program and Pineapple Street Studios.
Documentary: Riveted: The History of Jeans
Featured as a fashion historian for this American Experience documentary on PBS, exploring the history of denim and its cultural significance.
About Riveted:
Riveted: The History of Jeans reveals the fascinating and surprising story of this iconic American garment. At any given moment, half the people on the planet are wearing them. They have become a staple of clothing the world over, worn by everyone from presidents and supermodels to farmers and artists. More than just an item of apparel, America’s tangled past is woven into the indigo blue fabric. From its roots in slavery to its connection to the Wild West, youth culture, the civil rights movement, rock and roll, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the canvas on which the history of American ideology and politics is writ large.
Course: Refashioning History
Supported the launch and teaching of the course, Refashioning History at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Prior to this course, I taught various university-level fashion history courses for over six years at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute.
About Refashioning History:
This course re-examines histories and theories of fashion in order to both explore and challenge traditional Eurocentric narratives around the evolution of dress. Through the lens of fashion and dress, it will explore the relationships between art, design, culture and history. A range of topics, including aesthetics, social change, trade and contact, colonialism and cross-cultural exchange and production and consumption will allow students to situate and understand fashion in relation to selected historical themes and concepts and among diverse communities.
Iconic storytelling.
I contributed to episodes of VOGUE’s podcast, In Vogue: The 1990s.
In the landscape of fashion, the 1990s exist as a glittering oasis of glamour and grunge. Every Thursday, from September 17, you are invited to travel there with us by tuning in to In Vogue: The 1990s, a podcast about the decade that changed us—the era in which, notes host Hamish Bowles, “the world took ownership of fashion.”
– Laird Borrelli-Persson, “Introducing In Vogue: The 1990s, a Podcast About the Decade That Changed Us,” Vogue.com (September 10, 2020).
Instagram x Kimberly M. Jenkins: Untold: Black Design History
I partnered with Instagram’s @Design team and Refinery29 to create mini fashion history lessons about under-appreciated designers, presented by influencers.
Past clients, partnerships and projects
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Partnered with Instagram's @Design team for their series, "Untold: Black Design History." I provided mini fashion history lessons, presented by influencers, and included Willi Smith and Elizabeth Keckly.
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Sat on the advisory board committee for The Museum at FIT's exhibition, 'Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style' (February 8, 2023-April 23, 2023).
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Partnered with Tommy Hilfiger to support their goals towards diversity, inclusion and culturally-supportive storytelling. This partnership culminated in hosting and co-producing the brand's first-ever podcast, "The Invisible Seam," and the commission of numerous original research essays that spotlight the under-appreciated contributions of Black culture to fashion.
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Advised the Fashion, Textile and Jewelry Department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, supporting their endeavors to diversify their acquisitions and related public programming.
Artis Solomon Consultancy: Offering history research
Gaining a greater understanding of the past not only shows that you have done your homework, it supports the integrity of your project. Our fashion history consulting helps uncover hidden or underrepresented stories, provides deeper cultural context, and offers perspectives that you may not have considered.
Public engagement (a select list)
For a historical list of my speaking events, visit my calendar page.
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The 1920s brought us a pandemic, social unrest and race riots, developments in technology, a fashion revolution and a resurgence of feminism. Now, a century later, can we anticipate another roaring ‘20s? Join us virtually as The Curiosity Desk’s Edgar B Herwick III interviews two experts who will help answer this question.
First up, professor Nicholas Christakis will discuss social behavior then and how he anticipates people will behave now post-pandemic. Next, hear from professor Kim Jenkins about fashion, race and culture in the 1920s and where we’re heading in the 2020s.
Source: WGBH Boston, February 2021.
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Join us for an evening of entertaining and informative lectures in honor of our special exhibition Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion. Drawing on Cardin’s legacy as an innovator, scholars and experts reflect on the history of fashion and imagine its future. In these short talks, Kimberly Jenkins examines fashion, race, innovation, and Pierre Cardin; Alexis Romano explores postwar French ready-to-wear style; and Uzo Ejikeme and Stoney Michelli of Stuzo Clothing discuss their work designing gender-free fashion for the future.
Source: Brooklyn Museum, September 2019.
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As part of the programming for the exhibition, Fashion and Race: Deconstructing Ideas, Reconstructing Identities, curator and lecturer Kimberly M. Jenkins will screen the film The Gospel According to André and host André Leon Talley and director Kate Novack for a Q&A discussion. This event is made possible by the School of Fashion and is free and open to The New School community.
Source: The New School, November 2018.