Black America ransacked the old wardrobe of America’s elite with strangely profound results
Virginia Woolf pinned it to “on or about” December 1910: the date at which human nature changed. “All human relations have shifted,” she wrote. “And when human relations change there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics, and literature.” With less hyperbole, we might suggest that it was in the late 1950s that Black America transformed – not just with the civil rights movement, but across the whole spectrum of creativity and conduct. Aspects of this revolution have been well documented: the Birth of the Cool in jazz; the writers Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Richard Wright. But some of the most quotidian parts have gone underexamined. Such as clothes.
Look at photos of Black American men in the 1950s and 1960s and what stands out is a coherence and growing confidence in their appearance. Here is the saxophonist John Coltrane in a soft-shouldered jacket and knitted tie, while over here is the writer Amiri Baraka in a button-down shirt and a shawl-collar cardigan. The look is smart, yet relaxed – no heavily padded suits or repp striped ties here. As the varsity jackets and penny loafers suggest, it is a style inspired by privileged white students at Ivy League colleges. You might even say it has been appropriated – and then bettered. The colour palette widens, the finishing touches are bolder: tie clips, collar pins, capped brogues. Later, this look will become known as Black Ivy.
