African American Fashion Essay

Analysis of African American Fashion

History repeats itself in many different forms — African American culture has been reinforced after being suppressed by America for so long, although various forms have been altered and transformed — change is inevitable. African American fashion was heavily influenced by political movements such as the harlem renaissance and the civil rights era, music including funk and hip-hop throughout the 70s, as well as blaxploitation films that represented the black experience.

The Harlem Renaissance was an extremely significant moment when African Americans decidedly promoted themselves as equals and relevant to the American culture. This era marked the historical movement when white America started recognising

In the mid 70s, Earth Wind and Fire contributed to the success by putting on a show; adding costumes, props, dancing and magic tricks to their music. P-Funk became an international sensation, influencing the emergence of ‘Disco’. Disco is a prime example of one of the many transformations of African American culture, stealing the true genre of funk and the style that came with it. African Americans sense of fashion was intertwined with, yet lost in the new world of commercialized and transformed funk — disco. Ultimately, mediocrity, popularity and money were the primary factors behind the decline of funk in the 70s. Funk had to adapt to survive as bands faced the harsh reality of “get down to the disco beat or stay true to funk and lose your record.” Funk has become an international language and still thrives today, with its DNA in almost every piece of music we listen to. Although funk has been transformed and borrowed from many different cultures, as long as oppression, discrimination and racial tension exists it will never die. Funk continued to expand in fashion, political voice and music internationally, representing the black experience and paving the way for a revolution. Blaxploitation films growing from the 1970s culture not only gave African American leaders the opportunity to star in films but also portrayed an “unapologetic black