No products in the cart.
Featured Image: Lawrence Agyei
Fashion preservation isn’t limited to museums or physical archives. Advances in technology have expanded the ways information can be collected, stored, and shared. Through digital platforms like databases, Instagram, Substack newsletters, and YouTube, Dr. Rikki Byrd, Elexius Jionde, and Armani Mines are preserving, documenting, and amplifying the impact and history of Black fashion.
Whether highlighting Black designers, contextualizing trends created and popularized within the Black community, or discussing the intersections of race and fashion, these women are part of a growing community committed to preservation and storytelling.
Dr. Rikki Byrd is a writer, researcher, educator, and curator whose work explores Black aesthetic practices through the lens of fashion, art, and cultural history. She was the Block Museum’s Interdisciplinary Curatorial Fellow for the exhibition Behold, Be Held and is the founder and editor of the Black Fashion Archive, an Instagram project “documenting Black fashion & style from way back when to the 99 & 2000s.”
Dr. Byrd also served as a research consultant for Questlove’s custom suit, designed by Gabriela Hearst for the 2025 Met Gala. Currently, she is co-leading Mahogany at 50 alongside Jessica Clark and Ci Phillips. This citywide Chicago celebration commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the film Mahogany, a classic with strong ties to the city’s South Side.
Armani Mines is the founder of Black Girls in Archive, a Substack newsletter “for the archive girlies looking to learn, find resources & community.” The newsletter has over 500 subscribers and provides educational resources, insights, and opportunities for connection among fashion enthusiasts.
In an interview with Are You A Librarian, Mines shared that she always knew she wanted to work in fashion, beginning her career as an intern before finding her passion as a fashion archivist focused on Black fashion. Her Instagram account, @bgiafashion, features archival images, informational reels, and community opportunities like archive tours, watch parties, and discussions. Mines was also a contributing writer for Fashion in Color, Volume I, as highlighted in Ripple of Change.
Elexus Jionde is the creator behind Intelexual Media, a platform that blends historical analysis with pop culture commentary. After earning her history degree from Ohio State University in 2016, Jionde built a wide-reaching audience through her YouTube channel, which has over 380,000 subscribers.
Her video essays explore topics spanning history, style, sex, and decade retrospectives, with particular focus on Black women whose stories are often overlooked. Two standout videos include A Black History of Style and A 1990s History of Style. Her blog expands on these essays, offering posts like How Style Changed in the ’90s. For audiences short on time, Jionde also creates bite-sized videos called Intelexual Quickies.
The work of Dr. Rikki Byrd, Armani Mines, and Elexius Jionde underscores that Black fashion history has never existed on the margins of “mainstream” culture. Black fashion has always shaped the mainstream and is becoming more visible thanks to the dedication of archivists, scholars, and digital storytellers.
These women are reshaping how history is collected and who gets to do the collecting by building platforms that invite fashion enthusiasts, curious learners, and industry scholars to engage with Black fashion. Their paths also show how personal interests can evolve into professional callings.
Preservation in this context is about appreciation, contextualization, visibility, and agency. Byrd, Mines, and Jionde are setting a precedent for how Black fashion history will continue to be preserved, cared for, and made visible for generations to come.
[simple-author-box]
Business Brandon Blackwood NYC is celebrating ten years of success, from the viral End Systemic Racism tote to a history-making American Airlines partnership. His journey Read More
Style The 90s and 2000s bandage dress is back—but this time, Black designers are reinventing it with bold cuts, cultural storytelling, and a modern edge Read More
Luxury As luxury fashion embraces Black men in campaigns, a deeper question emerges—are they being fully seen or simply styled into the same streetwear mold? Read More
I’m sharing exactly what’s going on with the basement design project
right now and what’s happening next.
