YouTube Release Black Leaders in Fashion Video Curation

The Black Lives Matter movement must continue to gain global awareness and maintain elevating its presence on a mass scale. They write “By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.” Here, the response of Youtube.

On 13th October the Fashion & Beauty channel of YouTube uploaded a programming playlist entitled Black Leaders in Fashion. The purpose of this is to act as a social platform to amplify black voices, opinions, stories and talent. Through utilising YouTube’s mass following and international presence it is a great podium for the Black Lives Matter audience to grow. Some of the content involved comes from big names in the fashion industry such as Virgil Abloh, Grace Wales Bonner, Naomi Campbell, Stella Jean, and Samuel Ross to name a few. The playlist (available in YouTube) contains various fashion films, runway shows, relevant interviews and behind-the-scenes celebrating the work of these black leaders. One of our favourites was Grace Wales Bonner’s fashion film, Thinkin Home. It is beautifully filmed using iconic Jamaican filmmaking and takes the viewer on a tour of Jamaica’s natural luscious environment through the eyes of 8 young men, introducing her latest collection.

A host of talks can be found on the playlist too, including Felisha Noel’s inspiring discussion about how she started her brand as a black woman in the industry and never studied fashion. A Live video by BoF between Stella Jean and Imran Amed is particularly insightful, talking about Do Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion?

The platform promotes Black fashion designers such as Virgil Abloh, Laduma Ngxokolo from MAXOHOSA Africa, Andrea Dumebi Iyamah and Samual Ross. With their latest fashion week shows uploaded and overviews of their collections.