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immensely to the curation of the Black aesthetic with the founding of the Black Fashion Museum in 1979 — that has since been archived at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, memorably launched The Harlem…