Still, Prempeh is quick to clarify that the book wasn’t intended as an exhaustive survey of the history of Black designers throughout the 20th century, despite what the title might suggest. (If she’d set out to embark on such a task, she notes, she likely would have ended up with an entire book on each creative featured.) Instead, what makes the book such a page-turner is how Prempeh guides you through her constellation of references according to specific themes or throughlines: a chapter titled “Three Black Kings” charts the subversive takes on mainstream American fashion explored by Willi Smith, Patrick Kelly, and Dapper Dan across multiple decades; while a chapter on the overlooked female architect Norma Sklarek delves deeper into the double-edged sword of celebrating “the first” from a minority group to achieve something, and whether it distracts from the systemic issues that stymied progress in the first place. As Prempeh says, “By seeing all of these designers together, it really highlights the problems.”
Here, Prempeh talks to Vogue about her meandering research process (many spreadsheets were involved), the moments of humor she uncovered, and why she sees the book as an open-ended project.
Vogue: Ann Lowe appears right at the beginning of the book, and serves as a kind of entry point for the reader. Was it your discovery of her that sparked the idea of putting the book together, or had the idea for the book been gestating for a long time?
Prempeh: I wasn’t thinking about writing this specific book for a long time, but I was very aware of there being a gap and a lack of knowledge in terms of what has happened in Black design over the past century. I was very aware of my ignorance, but I hadn’t yet worked out that I wanted to be the person to help correct that. I think my feeling was, I can probably find this elsewhere. But it was crazy finding out about Ann Lowe, and it really shifted something within me. Because even if I knew I was ignorant about these stories, I didn’t necessarily realize they were so closely connected to stories that are so deeply ingrained in the public narrative, or to these key moments in Western history. There was something about Ann’s story, and its connection to possibly the most photographed woman of all time, that made me realize the extremity of the losses we’ve suffered, I suppose, in terms of understanding Black designers and the work that they’ve done.