The Intellectual Hustle: STILETTO QUEEN ! Brown Sugar Has Got...DREAMS.

For I'm my mother's daughter,

And the D.R.E.A.M.S of Africa

Still beat in my heart.

(Mary McLeod Bethune)

With hair, H.E.E.L.S

And attitude, honey;

I am through the Roof.

(Rupaul)

THE SUN RISES in the East and sets in the West. But the sun in the blackman's breast never sets.

It's ALWAYS LOOKING to express itself by varying shades of LIGHT and BEAUTY:

Science. Art. Music. Fashion.

Fashion or clothing artistry or sense of couture is a powerful tool which the African-American discovered quite early.

The black fashion designer or costume stylist or the fashionista is out there to make a powerful statement:

Of Self-identity. Of Self-respect. Of Self-actualization.

The African-American fashion mistress is trying to tell us a story.

The story of the Sun from Africa that never stops SHINNING :

Through the faces and the bodies of BLACK PEOPLE.

The Africans in AMERICA. And the Africans in the Diaspora.

As God manifests his Artistry through the various shades of sunlight, so does the African-American express her Creativity through a rich mix of fabric and colours to furnish us with a fashion that dazzles:

The BODY. And the MIND.

In other words, fashion is another channel through which blackfolk have nurtured A WORLD...that SHINES!

With a keen sensitivity to COLOURS: Black...Brown...Red...Pink...Purple...Mauvre...Peach...Indigo...White...Whatever:

The blackman's - and blackwoman's- sensibility is anything, but dull!

Fashion is about tremendous potential, indicates the black fashion designer. It expresses endless possibilities:

From Suits. To Skirts. To Casuals. To Hats. To Pyjamas or Lingerie.

Name your choice!

With a very fertile imagination, the blackwoman has made a significant statement of Fashion:

Everything is possible. Everything, from A - Z!

She's talked the TALK, and she's walked the WALK.

And it shows!

In the Office. On the Sports field. In the Playground. On Broadway.

In the S.T.R.E.E.TS and on the R.U.N.W.A.YS.

With simple textile fabrics, the blackwoman has used her hands -and intelligence- to weave out a range of patterns or designs that speaks for itself.

Now, what we've got is called the "Fashion Highway" !

Nevertheless, blacks are NQT slaves to fashion. There exists a long history of African-Americans who have carried the Art of Fashion Designing to a whole new level of NOT ONLY expressing outward beauty;

But deconstructing the agelong myth that the black race cannot measure fairly against their caucasian counterpart, except in matters of brawn.

Black-mediated couture or dress sense, particularly as it is communicated to us in modern terms, goes way beyond the superficial.

It entails a combinatorial skill-set that transmits deep Aesthetic Intelligence to the hands and sometimes, even the legs.

Styling has therefore helped to re-fashion Black Identity in a curious world, especially a racist one like the United States where whitefolk tend to look down on blackfolk.

Black Fashion is nothing, but black style:

Black ESSENCE. Black PRIDE.

We saw it in the Slave who wore his Sunday Best, and the Black Dandy of the English Enlightenment.

It was there in the Luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the great performers of the Jazz Age.

TODAY we see it in Contemporary Artists like Kanye West or P. Diddy or Beyonce Knowles or even Lady Gaga.

It's visible in the Ivy League: Harvard, and Yale, and Princeton, and Stanford, and Howard, and Wellesley, and Radcliff.

You see it on Wall Street, in the Capitol Hill, and the White House.

Everywhere, black fashion is conspicuously displayed in tabloids: in EBONY Magazine, in ESSENSE, and in "O".

It's in VOGUE!

The African-American has come of age:

"From ASH-Y to CLASS-Y", using the words of Christopher Wallace ( a.k.a Notorious B.I.G ).

The Dream we were conceived in