Fashion’s response to the Summer of Glum was rapid and reactive. At the spring summer men’s shows in London in June, Brexit featured on the sartorial agenda, oscillating from broken visions of Arcadia to subtle statements of EU unity.
Two weeks ago at the New York men’s shows, there was a parallel response to the continued incidences of police brutality against black people. As the Freddie Gray trial and the appearance of the Mothers of the Movement at the Democratic National Convention (including the mothers of Sandra Bland and Trayvon Martin) continues to swirl in the ether, fashion label Assembly New York focused on the dreadlock as a sartorial symbol of black pride, with all its models sporting the hairstyle.
The dreadlock has come under fire in the past year, with E! News presenter Giuliana Rancic suggesting that the dreads of actor and singer Zendaya smelt of marijuana, and Justin Bieber’s ill-advised ones. In a more general sense, fashion’s relationship with blackness is as lazy as it is strange, whether it’s blackface on the catwalk, racially questionable pieces of clothing or a mis-pitched use of the African aesthetic.
But the Assembly New York presentation was a much-needed celebration (not an appropriation) of black beauty and style where the dreadlock became a sartorial symbol of hope and perseverance.
Their spring summer 17 presentation featured only black dreadlocked models and navigated a path away from cultural appropriation to celebration. As founder Greg Armas said to Mashable: “Unity is extremely important, and we need to rethink how we integrate our culture together and unify.” That the dreadlocks were styled in an unstyled way (hairstylist Lisa-Raquel told Refinery29: “They really wanted the natural look of each guy to come through,”) was significant too. It put the spotlight on an aesthetic sensibility that is usually culturally muted. The sight of the dreadlocked male model was evident in Paris, too, at the Lanvin and Margiela shows and Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 show in February. The visibility of more diverse models on the catwalk is an ongoing conversation, and so the larger context of moments like the Assembly New York presentation cannot be underestimated.
