Rikki Byrd

Bio

Rikki Byrd is a freelance writer, fashion scholar and educator. She writes about race, culture, and fashion. Her research considers the construction and mobilization of blackness in American fashion.

FIT's Black Fashion Designers exhibit is a celebration of fashion's unsung heroes

When asked to call the names of black designers, most can only name a few. For years, they have gone underrepresented, underreported, and rarely are they credited with the impact they have made on culture, from music to street culture, politics to…

Here's What Women Really Think of Fashion's Sudden Embrace of Natural Hair

We are just two months into 2016, and the fashion industry has already put forth some much-needed effort toward racial inclusivity by featuring a dynamic group of black women rocking natural hairstyles on magazine covers. Teen Vogue featured Amandla…

How One Designer Is Getting Us to Talk About Mental Illness at New York Fashion Week

Pyer Moss' A/W 2016 runway show was an intentional mix of the awe-inspiring beauty and imagination that is New York Fashion Week punctuated by the realism designer Kerby Jean-Raymond has become known for. The main attraction was the fashion, but so…

There Is a Fashion Week Happening in the Midwest Right Now — Here's Why It Matters

On Wednesday, elites from the New York fashion industry traveled to a small Midwestern city for a "fashion week" not often mentioned among the roundup of runway shows that take place in New York, London, Milan and Paris, not to mention the edgier…

This Designer Stopped Everyone In Their Tracks With a Fashion Show About Police Brutality

Fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder of Pyer Moss, considered not presenting clothing at his runway show during New York Fashion Week. But when he did, his show became much more than a display of fashion. On Thursday, when he showcased his…