Fashion is center-stage in exhibition at the gallery

Fashion has always been an important part of African American culture. Since June 13, Diggs Gallery has taken a look at fashion and the role it has played throughout history with an exhibition created by the Black Fashion Museum, also known as BFM.Master-minded in Washington D.C., the BFM created “A Stitch In Time, to take a look at the role fashion throughout history. From a cape designed by a former slave, Louvenia Price in the late 1800’s, to the dress that Rosa Parks carried with her on her bus ride in 1955, the exhibition covers a wide time span not limited to clothing, but also including black designers and inventors like Anne Lowe, Jeff Banks, and Naomi Sims.The exhibit features garments and memorabilia that illustrates an important part of history. It includes 30 photos along with 50 authentic artifacts from 1800 to 2000. “A Stitch In Time” begins with the days of slavery with servants’ clothing and products that were made on the plantations. Female slaves worked diligently sewing and doing other needlework. The exhibit showcases Elizabeth Keckley, the first black dressmaker to sew for a president’s wife.”I enjoyed it overall,”said George Moore, a junior applied science major. “The one thing that stood out to me was the older part of the history which included information on Anne Lowe and Elizabeth Keckley and her mark in the fashion industry.””To know that it was a black woman, Elizabeth Keckley, that was the first woman to really make dresses, shocked me, “said junior mass communications major, Lawan Smith.The exhibit not only offers information, it also contains pictures taken from various historical times and fashion displays throughout the gallery.”I was surprised to see the actual dresses in the exhibit. They had the ones that the movie stars would actually wear available,” said Ashley Parham, a junior mass communications major.The exhibit will continue in the Diggs Gallery until September 19. The event is free to the public. For more information call 336-750-2458.