Kristin Haskins says she didn’t know jack about fashion when she started working on her Strangefruit T-shirt line last year.
For a while, the English teacher spent her off-hours stenciling postcards with images of iconic figures in African-American history, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Then she decided to try something bigger.
“T-shirts were really just the next logical step,” said Haskins, 34, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design’s graphic arts program. “Why shouldn’t my canvas be a T-shirt?”
Haskins and other up-and-coming African-American designers are revamping the ’60s “black is beautiful” mantra through stylish T-shirts. The second fashion black-power movement, of the 1990s, saw oversize red, black and green T’s with iron-on decals of Africa on them.
This time around the fashions are centered on images created by computer-generated silk-screening techniques that can reproduce a shadowy image of W.E.B. Du Bois just as clearly as a silhouette of an Afro-ed woman or her pick.
Since the 1960s, there never has been a time when popular culture was devoid of icons from the black power movement and the civil rights struggle, said Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut. and author of “Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity” (Johns Hopkins Press, $46).
Ideas from yesteryear
Now, however, young people are focusing on images and slogans of yesteryear for at least two reasons, Ogbar said: They are disappointed with today’s conservative political climate, and they are turning away from current hip-hop culture.
In addition, viral marketing infiltrates underground fashion and entertainment trends, bringing them into the mainstream, and is now making black memorabilia hip and appealing.
“It’s interesting,” Ogbar said. “As marketers try to get a feel of what’s edgy and cool, all of a sudden black icons are it. They see they can make large sums of money.”
But for Haskins and others, the T’s are a way to showcase their artistic ability and promote their political and cultural beliefs.
“It tells the world this is what I stand for. This is my identity,” said Mary Gelhar, fashion director of New York-based Gen Art, a non-profit organization that encourages designers new to the game.
Today’s black-power T’s are clingy and cute and come in a variety of styles, including tanks, cap sleeves and long-sleeve. Generally they cost $15 to $50.
Most of the sales are made online, where a lot of young people shop.
In addition to the historical images of people, catchphrases are popular. A New York designer has achieved significant fashion street cred with his T’s that simply state: “I (Heart) Black People” (www.iluvblackpeople.com). A Maryland-based artist offers a grouping of pink, blue and cream sweats and tops emblazoned with “Sexy Chocolate.”
Three Washington-area women have created HueLove (www.huelove.com) after watching a “20/20” episode in which a random young black man maligned the beauty of dark-skinned black women. Their line boasts sayings that celebrate the varying complexions of women of color, including “I Love Being a Chocolate Girl.” Their best seller: “HueLove: I Love the Skin I’m In.”
“We want to give people an alternative, something not so sexually charged, but positive,” said Sabrina Jones, one of the three, whose day job is media specialist for the American Public Health Association.
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“For far too long, some hip-hop has promoted very negative and self-hating images,” said Kali Gross, assistant professor of history and the director of Africana Studies at Drexel University.
“This is definitely a positive sign that there will be some turnaround, but it shouldn’t end here. Just wearing your Afro T-shirt and your pick isn’t enough. Folks need to crack open a book or look at documentaries to learn why these symbols are significant.”
Haskins is just one of Philadelphia’s fledgling T-shirt designers.
One of the most successful so far is Meezan, formally known as Miskeen, whose wildly colored silk-screened and hand-painted shirts show up regularly in music videos and magazine photo shoots.
Inspired by poem
Haskins took the name Strangefruit (www.bestrangefruit.com) after author Lewis Allan’s stirring poem about lynching.
The tops, a variety of tanks and T’s for men and women, are available in colors ranging from bright red to mustard yellow. In addition to King, Haskins’ shirts feature images of Malcolm X, Angela Davis and Jamaican athletes. Haskins hopes to add more women, including salsa singer Celia Cruz.
“Yes, it’s a steppingstone. Yes, it’s fashionable,” Haskins said. “But it creates an awareness in ways other mediums can’t.”