Image by Beau McCall: HIF models (left to right) Tuesday P. Brooks, Etta, an unidentified model, and Morgan at a fashion show at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building, wearing an unidentified designer, 1991.

Why “Showing Out: Fashion in Harlem” Is More Than a Glorious Exhibition

About fifty-five years ago, Lois K. Alexander-Lane, a Black fashion designer and one of the early pioneers, who contributed immensely to the curation of the Black aesthetic with the founding of the Black Fashion Museum in 1979 — that has since been archived at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, memorably launched The Harlem Institute of Fashion (HIF) in 1966.

Lois K. Alexander-Lane — Image by Cedric Jose Washington from his private collection

The historic founding of a thriving and vibrant institution that was built to fulfill what was sorely missing in an industry that was just as stubbornly against equality across the board as it still is today, was its founder’s solution to the unfair erasure of Black originators and Black model muses.

The establishment of HIF took place during a notable period of the Civil Rights era as the movement adopted a more diplomatic approach to freedom fighting with calls for less violence during protesting and the never-ending quest for equality that was and still is out of reach.

As with Black artists of each generation, the instinctual selflessness of activism permeating through works of art is a central theme that…