I recently attended an exhibition called Black Dress: Ten Contemporary Fashion Designers, a showcase displaying the work of ten current black fashion designers from New York. During the following discussion panel which focused on the underrepresentation of blacks in the fashion industry, one of the many attendees brought up a good point that expressed the concerns of many in the room: the reason for the lack of diversity in the fashion industry is due to the lack of promotion around black designers' work.
Having thought about what she said, I started to think of the underrepresentation of other minorities in the fashion industry and the limited diversity in many other art culture subsets. As a result, I decided to look around and to give more recognition to these six creators who are following their passions and doing beautiful work.
Devaun Robinson
Devaun Robinson is the creator of the brand Mid-Point. His clothing line originally started off as street wear, sporting bright colors and daring people to be bold with what they wore. Gradually, the brand grew to be Mid-PointEclectic, a US men's brand that caters to its customers through color, fabric and cuts. To read more about Devaun Robinson, visit
here, and see his clothing line at the Mid-Point website.
Kahlil Joseph
Kahlil Joseph is an actor in film, television and on stage. His career has led him throughout India and America and he currently resides in Los Angeles, where he works for the What Matters Most film company. There, he uses his creativity to make videos that combine powerful imagery with the music of his choice. His latest piece is called Wildcat, featuring an all-black rodeo in Oklahoma. You can view his work on the What Matters Most website.
Gary Clark Jr.
Gary Clark Jr. is a Texan guitarist, singer, actor and songwriter. As a musician known for the Blues, he composes beautiful pieces with backgrounds in rock, R&B and jazz. To read more about him, visit his site and view his music video for his song, "Numb."
Sonoya Mizuno
Sonoya Mizuno is a ballet dancer from Tokyo. She studied at the Royal Ballet School and was photographed for Lacoste and Harper's Bazaar. Currently in London, she was in Venus in Eros (2012) and is starring in the upcoming film, Ex-Machina. In the fashion clip Autoerotic, Mizuno uses her skills and interpretive moves to dance with an albino python. See her thoughts on the film here.
AlunaGeorge
AlunaGeorge is a duo from London who sings electronic-R&B-pop-like music. Aluna Francis and George Reid have thus far released two singles, "Your Drums, Your Love," and "You Know You Like It," and have won an NME award for their debut album, White Noise. You can read more about them and buy their album on their website.
Oliver Chapusette
Oliver Chapusette, currently living in Brussels, is a street dancer and part-time model from Haiti. This clip of him is only one of many vignettes filmed by Linda Brownlee that feature a variety of performers. The collection, titled, Limber Notes, focuses on people who are passionate about what they do and who are willing to share their talent with others. To see what Oliver has to say about his participation in Limber Notes, you can read it here.
Are there other artists you'd like to give a shout out to?