Fashion and Race
Fashion and Race
Since 2016, I have developed creative, research-based projects and public programming that examines the intersection of fashion and race. Specifically, I explore how the long-standing construct of race has deeply influenced beauty standards, styles of representation in retail and photography, and general systems of power. This academic work has also led to consulting and partnerships with leaders in the business of fashion.
Learning Platform: The Fashion and Race Database
The Fashion and Race Database is an online platform filled with tools that expand the narrative of fashion history and challenge mis-representation within the fashion system. Est. 2017.
Illustration: “Fabric of Fashion” by Museo de Moda for The Fashion and Race Database
Exhibition: Fashion and Race: Deconstructing Ideas, Reconstructing Identities
“The exhibit is an outgrowth of my course of the same title. I felt that there was a dearth of teaching resources and an underexamined discourse in fashion studies when it comes to how ‘race’ has influenced fashion aesthetics, retail, and image making…” “…Aside from trying to advance the discourse and provide resources, it’s time to acknowledge the fact that we have an incredibly diverse student population that deserves a platform to showcase the critical work they’re doing and to feel safe and supported doing it.” – Kimberly Jenkins
Photo: Work from Parsons School of Design Students: Lashun Costor (center), Stevens Añazco (back left), and Rachel Cassandra Gibbons (back right).
Course: Fashion and Race
This course investigates the ways in which fashioned identities emerge within a racialized context in an effort to gain access, visibility and power. Students in this course will come away with a deeper understanding of the intersection of fashion, race and power, and will critically address historical and socially accepted standards of beauty and value within the fashion system.
Photo: Students in the Parsons course, Fashion and Race, analyzing images in archived fashion magazines as part of an “image analysis” assignment led by Kimberly Jenkins (2017).
Past clients, partnerships and projects
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Advised and co-authored the CNMI's Diversity and Inclusion Manifesto, which engaged engaged a group of brands including Armani, Bottega Veneta, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Versace, Gucci, Missoni, OTB, Prada and Valentino.
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Worked in Milan and Hong Kong, supporting the company's education goals towards cultural awareness and sensitivity.
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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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Supported the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's goals towards diversity, inclusion and best institutional practices through lectures and safe-space discussions.
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Supported the modeling agency's mission towards diversity, inclusion and best business practices, providing lectures and safe-space conversations to nurture their team through education and dialogue.
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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.
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Worked as a member of the Research Collective for Decoloniality in Fashion (Europe), participating in their Decolonizing Fashion in the Museum workshop, held at the Museum Volkenkunde in the Netherlands.
Artis Solomon Consultancy: Offering preventative research
Countless incidents where influential brands and individuals are publicly taken to task for harmful design decisions and marketing gaffes can be easily prevented through knowledge and awareness. My work provides a complement to organizations working with diversity and inclusion professionals, reinforcing their strategies with our unique specialization in “fashion and race” paired with fashion history and cultural insight.
Podcast: The Invisible Seam: Unsung Stories of Black Culture and Fashion
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.
Listen to The Invisible Seam wherever you get your podcasts.
Public engagement (a select list)
For a historical list of my speaking events, visit my calendar page.
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The Black Dress & Culture Series annual colloquiums explore the critical topic of Black dress. The influences of Black bodies, Black style, and Black makers are undeniable forces in shaping culture through fashion, costume design, and styling. Black bodies have consistently acted as sites of cutting-edge aesthetics and emulation. Yet, they have endured ridicule, discrimination, fear, and violence. This series engages scholars and practitioners in conversations that reinsert Black people into cultural narratives. Their discussions will address and expand on the multiple viewpoints within ongoing and sometimes contentious histories and contemporary practices. The inaugural event, “Debating the Black Body in Fashion and On-Screen,” will focus on the work of Black costume designers, in conversation with scholars, to address the topic of Black women and body size, as well as respectability politics in dress on screen.
Source: UCLA African American Studies, November 2021
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Fashion, Culture, Futures: African American Ingenuity, Activism, and Storytelling is a two-part symposium co-organized by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Presented virtually Thursday, June 17, and Thursday, Oct. 21, both programs will bring together academics, designers, critics, models, artists, activists and others to share new perspectives on the relationship between fashion and the African American experience.
Source: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, June 2021.
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“Art/Works: Teaching Labor and Capitalism in Art and Design,” an online symposium sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted by the Fashion Institute of Technology.
We will discuss such questions as art and design in an age of catastrophe, internships, nationalism and cultural appropriation, teaching about labor unions and collectives, and how to learn from an art/design racial crisis. Panelists include artists, designers, and faculty from FIT, Parsons, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Fordham, CUNY, Princeton, Harvard, Boston University, Penn State, and Ryerson University.
Source: Fashion Institute of Technology, April 2021.
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A magazine editor-in-chief and diversity consultant talk about workplace discrimination, and what fashion and media companies need to do to meaningfully promote racial and ethnic diversity.
A conversation with Kimberly Jenkins and Lindsay Peoples Wagner.
Source: The Financial Times Live, November 2020.
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Celebrating the forthcoming Aperture title The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, this conversation will address the radical transformation taking place in fashion and art today. The featuring of the black figure and black runway and cover models in the media and art has been a marker of increasingly inclusive fashion and art communities. In the book, curator and critic Antwaun Sargent opens up the conversation around the role of the black body in the marketplace; the cross-pollination between art, fashion, and culture in constructing an image; and the institutional barriers that have historically been an impediment to black photographers participating more fully in the fashion (and art) industries.
The panel will include Antwaun Sargent and photographers and New School alumni Quil Lemons and Micaiah Carter. The event will be moderated by educator Kimberly Jenkins.
This conversation is presented by Aperture Foundation and the Photography Program of Parsons School of Art and Design at The New School.
Source: The New School and Aperture Foundation, November 2019.
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Created and produced by Kimberly Jenkins and Becca McCharen-Tran.
This panel discussion will serve to identify, address and deepen our understanding of the social and systemic issues that challenge and pervade the fashion system. Topics that will be the focal point of this solutions-based conversation will include cultural appropriation, celebrating personhood through diversity and what fashion makes possible in a tense political climate.
Speakers: Elaine Welteroth, Editor in Chief, Teen Vogue
Aurora James, Creative Director, Brother Vellies
Amy Farid, Hair Stylist
Anastasia Garcia, Photographer
Moderated by: Kim Jenkins, Lecturer at Parsons School of Design, Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute
Source: The New School, September 2017.
Awards & Recognitions
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Delivered a talk in April 2021 on how to advance the field of fashion studies, using “fashion and race” as a case study.
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The Fashion and Race Database was spotlighted in the RUBIX 2020 showcase (Toronto Metropolitan University) that promoted “38 projects from FCAD’s scholarly, research and creative community through a series of monthly online exhibits and experiences.”
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Awarded in 2020.
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Awarded at The New School, May 2018. Also nominated for the “Distinguished Teaching Award,” 2018.
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Listed as event #29, Kimberly’s panel discussion (co-produced with Becca McCharen-Tran), “Fashion, Culture and Justice: A NYFW Dialogue.”
Source: ““It’s a beautiful thing to be on fire for justice.”—Dialogues that have shaped The New School for 100 years,” The New School at Medium.com (August 2019).