My aim with Black History Month posts is to boost creators and influencers in whatever way I can in my corner of the internet, and also to keep reiterating this website as a place of learning and support especially for minorities because there is so little courage out there in the face of oppression and guns.
- 2021 Black History month small business support
- 2021 Black fashion influences
- 2022 Black History month outfit
This year, I want to get back to these posts, I don’t seem to have posted about Black history since 2022 although I have a few related posts in my drafts in the past 3 years. Here is my latest update to try to make this a tradition for all years moving forward. Most critically, I’m obviously Asian-American, not black or African, and while I’ve done my research, I can always make mistakes, so feel free to correct me. I want to keep this as a brief summary (or set of reviews on my end) and instead point you to further posts from actual black creators and influencers. Who are amazing and deserve accolades!!!
First, we have creators of Japanese fashion, which is the basis of most of my blog.
Black Fashion: J-Fashion’s Blueprint (by Kohleaa on Instagram). Note that Black fashion is one of the most important inspirations for much of the fashion world for decades and even centuries, but especially the unique street fashion prevalent in the US and Japan in the 1990s and 2000s. Hopefully street fashion will make a comeback in the 2020s although with this economy, who knows. For accuracy’s sake, I don’t want to attribute things to solely black culture if there is an equally important often overlooked influence, but you can easily trace all Japanese street fashion to black history so I just want to emphasize that during black history month. Like lolita fashion, for example!
Lolita fashion –> referred to as Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) –> coined by Mana guitarist of Malice Mizer –> a prominent visual kei music band –> a subgenre of rock music –> rock music originated from African-American music and culture
Please check out all of Kohleaa’s latest posts during February, Black History month, for summaries about Black-American culture and Japanese culture, the good, the bad, the not-pretty.
In case I didn’t link to them recently, here is Sew Black (on Instagram), with the cutest sweet lolita outfits and also in-depth sewing videos on their youtube.
As for Black-owned fashion brands I’ve bought from recently, do not miss out on Empire Noir (instagram and shop), who creates gothic and elegant clothing and accessories for romantic drama and horror fans. I bought from their booth when they were at San Japan 2 years ago, so just wanted to attest to their quality.
Also check out Stephano’s list for kawaii black-owned fashion brands from 2020. Some shops may no longer be active 6 years later, but I have bought from a lot of these brands in previous posts, and just wanted to have the link handy for anyone else who might be in the shopping mood.
Next, for fashion in general, here are some creators I have not posted about before (probably?).
Vintage fashion by Sewrena on Youtube. I’ve been loving this creator for sharing their vintage outfit sewing journey, making sewing accessible to beginners with advice and tutorials, and inspiring me to improve my craft to one day attempt tailoring (the ultimate final level of sewing). They also post Black history month focused videos that dive into the 1950s and 1960s African-American culture (playlist here).
I also love these crochet and knitting videos by Ikoxun on Youtube, but they haven’t posted as much recently. Please check out their channel for whimsical and nerdy crochet makes.
If you don’t know wisdom, well, here’s the link again to his Instagram for styling inspiration and all around creativity with video, music and pop culture.
That’s all I have for now for links. I hope you’ve enjoyed this update to my previous Black history month posts. I have a few more creators to post about but I forgot their handle already (dementia), so I will just hold onto that information for next time lol. Trying to work smarter here.