How one New York Fashion Week event celebrated Black influence on fashion.
Clothes from Nareasha Willis’s newest collection carefully line the racks, each piece placed perfectly and with intention. The walls display images of young Black models embracing the message of AVNU, Willis’s streetwear brand. Display cases showcase that message, “ghetto until proven fashionable” and “our skin is a target but we made it fashionable.” But how did a room with four empty white walls turn into this?
Willis created the brand AVNU to combat the fashion industry’s anti-Black past. For years, the fashion industry has robbed Black culture and fashion. Recently, the early 2000s style has been popularized again.
“We had our hair braided and we had these butterfly clips that we used to put in our hair,” says Adia Dightman, the executive producer of the Back on the Block pop-up shop in Tribeca showcasing Willis’s newest collection. This is one example of a style taken from the Black community which diminished its significance to merely trendy.
Dightman works for Afro Media Group and served as executive producer of Back on the Block. Here, Willis displayed and sold her new line. When orchestrating this NYFW event, Dightman prioritized AVNU’s message by including the words in the display cases. “You have to make sure that you get the vision of the brand,” she explains. To her, event planning is not just about putting together a space but is also about creating a platform for advocacy.
“We worked for two months on this,” says Dightman, “so a lot of work, a lot of calls, a lot of no’s, a lot of maybe’s, but the yes’s got us here.” The Afro Media Group team had to organize every facet of the event in their home in Atlanta, from the displays for the collection to what to fill the complimentary gift bags with. These included a branded mask and small cosmetics from other smaller brands.
With only three days to set up the pop-up shop, preplanning was essential for its success. They settled at Lume Studios which had digital walls, clothing racks, and a bar available for use.
Gaby Lopez, another Afro Media Group team member, says they “work[ed] on stuff for months so to actually see it in action is so incredible.”
Lopez was excited to help support a brand that speaks so loudly about Black influence in fashion and to do so during NYFW. “We’re actually bringing that out in the forefront versus subtle nuances here and there.”
Dightman and her team all have the same objective as Willis. “We wanted to come to New York and do it with an impact,” says Dightman.