If you think of American fashion designers in the past and present, you may notice an interesting phenomenon. Whether it’s Claire McCardell from earlier in the twentieth century, Bill Blass somewhat later, or more someone like Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger, almost all of those with a very public fashion career were/are white. Some Jewish designers sort of straddled the white-minority line, but since they were so closely associated with the industry and with New York, they weren’t put into the same obscurity as more obvious minorities. Those designers who did come from a minority group were very rarely heard about.
That has finally changed in recent years. On September 18, 2009, the Wall Street Journal wrote a feature article about Asian American fashion designers who have taken the world by storm. Vera Wang was the first to begin making a big splash, in the last couple of decades of the twentieth century, when she didn’t join her father’s petroleum or pharmaceutical businesses but opted instead for a career in fashion design. For awhile she was the only major Asian American designer making headlines, but now she is joined by such designers as Thakoon Panichgul and Phillip Lim, Thailand-born Americans whose work has become well known.
With fashion designers like Kevan Hall and Patrick Robinson, that pendulum is also finally swinging for black Americans in the industry. Hall has had his own fashion collection since 2002 and Robinson since about 1997, while Robinson is also the head designer for Gap, Inc. Each has had a very successful career in fashion, and these and others in their ethnic community have been getting well earned recognition in the past few years.
There are several reasons why it’s important that these fashion designers be given the public acknowledgement they deserve. For one thing, it’s simply a fact that they deserve it, and it’s long overdue. Designers from visible minorities have not often been recognized as they should be, possibly due to racist assumptions about their work. Many have had to push against family expectations by not choosing more stable professions like medicine or law. So in achieving success in their fashion careers they have often been heroic, and their accomplishments should be recognized by everyone.
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