Right now, this man is considered one of the top black designers in the world. Just like the underground rappers who always ask -- "Where are all the real MCs at?"-- this fact leads me to ask: Where are all the real black fashion designers?

Naomi Campbell has been putting the fashion world on blast recently for the fact that stunning black models and models of color are not getting their due. But Bryan Boy, one of the most popular bloggers on the Web, asked even more interesting questions:

"Now. Is it just me or is there a distinct lack of black designers in the NYC/London/Milan/Paris fashion arena? I'm sure there are black designers out there, other than Xuly Bet, no? If that's the case, where?"

While not trying to take away from Diddy and all he has achieved in the world fashion and fragrance, or the plight of models, we over here at Fashion Victim have to agree.


The question of black models is important, but the lack of real, non-celebrity designers is just as telling of the need in the high fashion world for a change.

Patrick Kelly was an amazing African-American designer from down-home Mississippi who entered and dominated the high fashion world during the '80s. He was the first American member of any color invited to join the governing institution of the French ready-to-wear industry. Long after his death from AIDS in 1990, Kelly is still remembered as a fashion genius by today's style professionals.



Since the death of Patrick Kelly, we have had very few black design stars representing in respected arenas, like Tracy Reese, who took it to the hoop loud and proud at the most recent New York City Fashion Week.

Black style has always been admired, copied, watered down and then mass-marketed, going from the streets to the runways and then back again, as high-brow people rock "urban" looks, and "urban" folks over-do it on lux logos to get that ghettofabulous feel that makes middle-class people blush. The recent Black Style Now exhibit documented this dynamic relationship between the high fashion world and the "street chic" spaces. Both have simultaneously been occupied by black tastemakers ever since the first slaves began copying and then embellishing the looks and the styles of their masters in the Cake Walk.



So with Baby Phat, Sean Jean, Rocawear, and House of Dereon, we see the high and "street" fashion worlds again colliding and mixing because of the world of celebrity. But this collision has seemed to leave little room for the real black fashion designer, who is the elevating source of titillating inspiration, rapture, beauty and self-expression on the luxury runways.

Are celebs to be our only high fashion representatives? It's great that people like Russell Simmons, Kimora, and 50 Cent have brought "fubu" fashions to the forefront, but at what cost to more serious design talent?

If Naomi, Andre Leon Tally, and Iman are going to address discrimination against black models, let's not forget the challenges faced by real black designers, not celebrities-turned-designers, who make the visions on the runways that models model. Ain't nothing wrong with "fubu," but what about a greater range of fashion possibilities for all of fashion's creators?