As the female face of the early 00s garage collective So Solid Crew, Lisa Maffia felt a need to transition her style from tomboyish tracksuits to a more feminine look. She recruited the help of 90s designer Walé Adeyemi to produce the black leather dress she wore in the 2001 music video for the group’s most enduring hit, 21 Seconds. It was a recreation of a Christian Dior dress designed by John Galliano that she had spotted but couldn’t afford. Maffia, whose story is just one of the pop culture moments retold in Garms, a new documentary about Black British fashion, quickly became an icon and inspiration for a generation of Black British women and girls.
In the film, host Ayishat Akanbi gives viewers an education in legacy Black fashion designers and stylists who have dressed Black Britons for generations, in tandem with the histories of migration, resistance and raving. From the pioneering Trinidadian textile designer Althea McNish to Nigerian Amechi Ihenacho, owner of The Original Pattern, a vintage fashion emporium in London, the documentary brings the names and voices of those who have been innovators in fashion to the fore.
