It’s hard, if not impossible, to imagine a world of fashion,—both streetwear and haute couture alike—to exist without the influence and innovation of Black people. Truthfully, if it weren’t for Black people’s sense of creativity and ability to make something out of nothing, a lot of major clothing labels like Fashion Nova for example, wouldn’t exist as we know them today. And over the decades as conditions of the world change, so do our sense of style in terms of how we may decide to fix our hair up or do our makeup or even accessorize. For example, with the rise of the Black Panther party and the Civil Rights Movement, Black men, women and children began to embrace their natural features and donning the culture with panache. Or how when the 80s and the boom of hip-hop rolled around, you would’ve found people rocking their biggest bamboo’s or doorknocker earrings, Kangol hats, athletic tracksuits and a plethora of fine gold jewelry such as here and here.
If you haven’t heard of TELFAR, where have you been? For those who may not know, TELFAR is a clothing and accessory line created by black fashion designer Telfar Clemens who had started out by reconstructing vintage clothing before launching his own brand in 2004. Although the brand has been around for years, it wasn’t until earlier of this year that I caught onto what’s been deemed the “Bushwick Birkin” or ‘hood Birkin’ by Black Twitter (meaning, the side of Twitter composed of people of the Black/African/Afro-Caribbean diaspora).The nickname for these popular purses came about as a joke but really, just means that it has a similar sense of profitability and opulence as more well-known high end designer labels.
The coolest part about TELFAR’s well deserved, albeit belated, success was the fact that back in August 2020 after the sudden boom in attention the brand received over social media, it was announced that the “Bag Security Program T&C” would be launched. You can read about it more in-depth here but to summarize, it was a sale that took place to ensure that everyone could purchase a bag without worrying about scammers buying them all up and/or re-selling fakes. In my opinion, it was also somewhat of a political statement that the brand would only make as many bags as were sold so that they weren’t overproducing and creating unnecessary waste. (We love an ecologically conscious and inclusive brand!)
Although all of the shopping bags have since sold out, TELFAR promises customers that they’ll have another drop so that people can buy again or buy if they missed the first round. So sign up to their mailing list and keep an eye out for the Next Big Thing coming soon to a shopping cart near you!