Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 09:56 am
If Black people aren’t some of the most fashionable people on the planet, I don’t know who are!
Growing up, my mother was always adamant that my brothers and I dressed our best to head out the door. As I liked to say, she’d dress up to get the paper from the front step. It took a while for that lesson to take hold in my mind, but as a man and now as a parent myself, it’s important to me to represent, making sure people know I came from a solid upbringing.
No matter what kind of Black person you are, I’d argue you see clothes as a direct reflection of yourself. Businesspeople. Gang members. Ballplayers and fashionistas. It’s the colours, the cut, the brand names and more—it’s completely woven into our culture with mentions in our music, movies, magazines and more… we are what we wear, and Black people rarely shy away from that!
It’s especially important for me as a Black Dad—we gain this reputation as slobs once we enter this phase of our lives, so focused on raising our kids that we don’t spend any time on ourselves. I’m looking to fight against that amidst a wardrobe of tailored suits, polished shoes and three-quarter length coats in the winter.
As Mark Twain once said—”Clothes make the man.”
