Honor The Gift’s Spring Summer 23 Collection redefines workwear inspired by the imprint of overlooked Black Labor of the 1800s. 

Enslaved people weren’t emancipated until the late 18th century, by law. However, in practice, sharecropping became the new method of exploitation and abuse. Black laborers were offered unpaid or barely livable wages in this new reclassification of work. Still, the consistency of these agonizing labor conditions never seemed to waver. As sharecropping was deemed illegal in the 1920s, Black women went on to work as domestic servants, caretakers, and laundresses throughout America in the age of deathly racism and segregation. During the industrial boom, Black men found jobs as blacksmiths, carpenters, miners, and railway workers. 

The hands of our Black ancestors were forced to grow accustomed to the limited resources and these debilitating sources of income, but they began to find creativity and self-expression through the uniforms that covered their backs. Soon, these tailored clothes became the only outlet to unweave the trauma associated with the workplace. As a release from the difficulty of their day-to-day, Black people birthed their own unique style. Garments with new silhouettes of patterns and fabrics unveiled their freedom to choose both what they wore and how. Tailored and made to fit their individual physique, the walkways of Black labor environments turned into a runway. From emancipation to now, Black culture has left its print on every fabric through space and time. The workwear of African American culture has led to the threads that lace our very community. 

The contributions of Black Americans still go unseen but they do not go unfelt. 

We wear our contributions on our sleeves.