Muse Post: Futurology

This blog isn't called 'Fashion in Time and Space' for nothing. So it's not very surprising I'm inspired by:

 Space Travel 

Pioneer 10 - NASA

The Top 10 Most Stylish Black Videos

1. Are You That Somebody? - (1998)

 


This video embodies all that was great about late '90s fashion--baggy outerwear paired with tight tops and as many ponytails as you could fit on the top of your head without looking ridiculous.

cc pacifier necklaces:

Blaque

2. Rude Boy - (2010) 

  

 It's Martin meets Love is a Drug meets Boyz-- a bright, crayola box of a video styled with clothes your mother would never let you out of the house wearing. And it's flawless.

3. Runaway - (2010) 

 

We've arrived in Kanye-heaven folks which, for some reason, is full of ballerinas and enough white linen to set a Thanksgiving table. Mr. West looks divine here, in a tan suit jacket and black bow-tie dressed down with denim jeans. There isn't a bad looking person in sight.

4. I've Seen that Face Before - (1981)

 

It's Grace Jones. Enough said.

5. How Many Ways? - (1992)

 

  Here is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnet set to an R&B groove. Toni Braxton looks adorable with her pixie cut tucked under an assortment of baseball caps. Also, check out Shemar Moore. He's ripped. How many ways can this video look great?

6. On to the Next One - (2009)

 

 Nobody wears a jacket quite like Jay-Z.  The quilted one here, paired with leather gloves and his signature sunglasses, nearly drips swagoo. Yeah, I said it.

7. Tightrope - (2010)

 

 In 'Tightrope,' Janelle Monae's suit is tailored within an inch of its life and her hair, deliciously pompadoured.  Watching this video always makes me want to shout out a whole bunch of adjectives. Her style is just so wonderfully James Brown/Marlene Dietrich-esque.

via

8. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - (2008)

 
        Beyonce is the siren of the digital age; somehow, she manages to make black leotards and android parts look luxe in 'Single Ladies'. Also, the styling is minimal, which is refreshing to see on her.
 

  Android Fashion via Obsession Magazine

9. Make it Happen - (1991)

 
Mariah Carey shows us how jeans should be worn -- tight and belted (and preferably on-stage).

10. Real Love - (1992)

     
 Fact: If you did not dress like Mary J. Blige in the '90s, you were not cool. And if you can't appreciate the baseball cap/nose ring combo here, you may not be cool today either, tbh. ;-)

  Tell me your top video in the comments.

Blackness

What a great thing it is to be young, gifted, and black!

Over the past few years, natural hair and prints inspired by the vast continent have been widely embraced in America. Afros, bantu knots, and curls are literally blossoming from the heads around us. Instead of mere attitude, we now carry something like...negritude.

Concurrently, the borders of race are continuing to blur and along with them, formerly distinct aspects of American culture. More aware of race as a social construction, some young Americans are rejecting prescribed roles (that to be black is to behave like x, and to be white is to behave like y) and instead, are asserting who they are and what they like by embracing eclectic interests (untethering these interests from the categories of race and class).

Now, fashionistas like Solange and Janelle Monae create pop art within a boundless context enriched by blackness---and it's anything but monolithic. As they've shown us, blackness is performative and almost always, beautiful.

Janelle Monae serves us androgyny:


Marie Claire 2011

Rihanna, the gamine:


Italian Vogue 2009

The earthy Esperanza Spalding:



These ladies demonstrate how limitless cultural identity can be.

Of course, such an increase in popularity is not without its drawbacks. I hope that one day, we will be as mainstream in the fashion world as we are in music, not treated as topical themes but as eternal muses.