When recently embarking on a market report with a friend from my years at Parsons, I noticed that the Prada store down in Soho surprisingly had a nod to a notable Harlem Renaissance icon. The design detail that stood out the most in the Spring 2011 collection on the floor this season are the baroque prints which were a turnaround from the Italian luxury brand's usual stark, modernist approach to fashion. Upon closer examination, one noticed a certain tropical motif to the pattern assortment which at one point had a female black dancer in motion at the center of the print (lower photo from the SS 2011 runway presentation).
After looking up the full runway collection, things started to make more senses as the signature hair style for the season started to appear on the black models in that particular show (last photo). It was obvious now that the entire collection was based off the look of none other than Josephine Baker but made in a modern way. New York's everyday street fashion has influenced Europe at times in the past decades but now it looks like one of Harlem's legends has also achieved some recognition.
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