The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-27)

A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021

students participate on teams in

accordance with the gender listed

on their birth certificates. The

UIL, however, accepts legally

modified birth certificates that

individuals have changed to

accur ately refle ct their gender

identit y. The new state la w, which

Abbott signed Monday, is

expected to override this and be

adopted by the UIL.

— Mariana Alfaro

GEORGIA

Mistrial granted in

stun-gun death

Faced with deadlocked jurors, a

judge on Tuesday declared a

mistrial in the case of three former

Georgia sheriff’s deputies accused

of murdering a Black man whom

they had repeatedly shocked with

stun guns during a 2017 arrest.

Senior Judge H. Gibbs Flanders

Jr. granted the defense motions

for mistrials on the charges

against Henry Lee Copeland,

Michael Howell and Rhe tt Scott

in the death of Eurie Martin, 58.

The jury foreman told the judge

that no juror in the Sandersville

courtroom had changed their

mind since Friday, the first day of

delibe rations, and that more time

was unlikely to lead to the

unanimity needed for convictions

or acquittals.

Martin, who had a h istory of

schizophrenia, was walking

through the central Georgia town

of Deep step on a scorching day in

July 20 17, taking a 3 0-mile

journey to see his relatives when a

resident called 911 to report

Martin as suspicious.

It wasn’t immediately clear if

Washington County prosecutors

intend to retry the case against

the fired deputies. The three men

remain under indictment and are

free on bail.

Prosecutors argued Copeland,

Howell and Scott, all White men,

had no reason to detain Martin.

Defense attorneys, though, said

Martin had illegally walked in the

road, littered when he dropped a

soft drink can, and took an

aggressive stance and obstructed

an of ficer when he didn’t obey the

commands of the deputies. They

also argued that th e stun gun

didn’t cause Martin ’s death,

which means officers were not

assaulting him with a deadly

weapon, a key underlying

element of one of the murder

charges.

— Associated Press

go into effect Jan. 18, student-

athletes will be allowed to

participate in interscholastic

athletic competitions only as part

of teams that correspond to the sex

listed on their birth certificates at

or near the time of their birth.

Modified birth certificates may be

referred to only if they were edited

to correct clerical errors, not if an

individual legally changed sex on

the document.

Competitive school-level sports

in Texas are overseen by the

University Interscholastic

League, which stipulates that

TEXAS

Law bans transgender

girls from girl sports

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has

signed into law a bill that bans

transgender girls from

participating in female sports in

public schools, a measure that

goes further than current rules in

the state that already limited some

transgender students from

participating in classes of sports

aligned with their gender identity.

Under House Bill 25, which will

HAPPENING TODAY

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September, which are expected to fall 0.9 percent. Visit
washingtonpost.com/business for details.

10 a.m. | Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies during a Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing regarding oversight of the Justice
Department. For developments, visit washingtonpost.com/politics.

Noon | The House meets for legislative business. Visit
washingtonpost.com/politics for developments.

7 p.m. | The Washington Capitals host the Detroit Red Wings at Capital
One Arena. Follow the game at postsports.com.

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l An Oct. 24 Travel article about

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Colo., misidentified a high-

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DIGEST

In Detroit, Black designers defined themselves

There were a lot of

black squares

posted on social

media last year in

support of Black

people. And it

seems like

virtually every

industry began

considering —

either earnestly or

perfunctorily — its record on

diversi ty and inclusivity. Race

gained increased prominence in

the fashion industry as it became

a litmus test and a s park, a

rallying cry and an open wound.

The idea for the e-commerce site

Maison Black wasn’t born out of

the maelstrom of 2020, but it

benefits from the heightened

sensitivities the year churned up.

Maison Black is an

entrepreneur’s attention-

grabbing dream of celebr ating

Black designers. It’s also a

reminder that race is both

everything... and nothing at all.

The idea was seeded about five

years ago when founder Tori

Nichel Gibbs was preparing for

an event and realized that she no

longer fit into the options that

were already in her closet. She

wanted to wear the work of a

Black designer but realized there

wasn’t an easy way to shop their

collections if you didn’t already

know p recisely who they were.

And if it was that time-consuming

for someone like her, someone

who’d worked in fashion for years

at brands lik e Kenneth Cole and

Tibi, how challenging must it be

for the average consumer who

wanted to back up their activism

with their purchasing power?

Maison Black finally launched

last week with collections from a

half-dozen men and women, each

of them with substantial

experience on Seventh Avenue.

Before the site went live, those

designers presented a small

sampling of their aesthetic in a

runway show in Detroit. It was a

homecoming for them, as well as

for Gibbs, who grew up just

outside the city in West

Bloomfield. And despite having

built a fashion career in New York

— under the name Tori Nichel —

she retains an affection for

Detroit, its manufacturing roots

and its renewed possibilities

since emerging from bankruptcy

in 20 14.

The event attracted no small

amount of attention within the

fashion world, so much so that

Gibbs, who is Black, still sounded

overwhelmed several days later.

“I know I’m working with

phenomenal designers, but for

someone who’s been behind the

scenes for two decades... it’s

amazing,” she says. The spotlight

was particularly bright, in part,

because the Italian fashion

compa ny Bottega Veneta had also

parachuted into the

predominantly Black city for its

own show. The brand’s creative

director, Daniel Lee, was drawn to

Detroit by his love of techno

music and cars. Bottega Veneta’s

substantial footprint in the

industry attracted a large

contingent of editors, who were

intrigued by Detroit’s history and

the way in which the city is being

touted as an artistic cauldron.

Timing is everything, and

Maison Black’s is impeccable even

if it ’s somewhat accidental.

In the arc between concept and

execution, the culture had

shifted. Inclusivity was front of

mind. Networking initiatives

were born, scholarships for

aspiring designers had been set

up, job banks were in the offing,

mass retailers were promising to

stock more Black-owned brands,

and the industry as a whole was

promising to do better.

“Everybody was saying they

were going to do things for the

Black or BIPOC community,”

Gibbs says, referring to efforts to

also tackle inequality among

those who identify as Indigenous

or people of color. But she

thought: “We dese rve to have

something more.”

The variety of sensibilities on

the runway — vividly patterned

silks, brightly tailored suiting,

indigo sportswear, unisex ready-

to-wea r, glittering jumpsuits —

was a r eminder that the only

thing ostensibly linking these

designers, aside from having at

some point called Detroit home,

was race. That was cent ral to the

event. Yet its very centrality was

proof of how little it ultimately

mattered.

Here were these creative souls

drawn tog ether because so many

Black designers have for so long

gone unknown,

underappreciated or

underestimated. These were not

recent design school graduates

lacking in real-world experience.

In all lik elihood, the average

person has worn clothes that

their discerning eyes have

realized. In the rush to open the

doors of opportunity to

newcomers, there are veterans

who deserve a bit of sunlight.

Shawna McGee has designed for

Donna Karan, Anne Klein and

Ralph Lauren. Aaron Potts has

had a h and in collections at

Victoria’s Secret and Ellen Tracy.

Nicole King worked for the Gap.

Sharryl Cross worked for J. Crew

and Juicy Couture. Isaiah

Hemmingway’s expertise is

evident at Tory Burch.

And while the average person

may not have worn one of Kevan

Hall’s extravagant gowns, they

have surely admired them when

they’ve floated down the red

carpet. Perhaps you’ve heard his

name when Debra Messing or

Sandra Oh or Felicity Huffman

answered the question: Who are

you wearing?

It can be a complicated thing to

ask someone to delineate their

work by linking themselves to a

particular community. Wh at does

it mean to declare oneself a B lack

designer when there are a

thousand other adjectives that

better describe one’s work? It can

feel forced or constraining. All the

designers featured on the website

are Black, but that has nothing to

do with their clothes. That

distinction is a simple one, but it’s

also been a concept that has

historically been challenging for

the fashion industry to grasp. Too

often, Blackness is incorrectly

treated as aesthetic destin y.

The fashion business likes to

lump Black designers together or

simply dismiss them. But in

Detroit, in front of an audience

gathered inside a historic auto

factory that has been transformed

into a museum, Black designers

defined themselves. They leaned

into race on their own terms. And

on a night when they chose to

shine as one, their individuality

was blinding.

[email protected]

Robin

Givhan

THE CRITIQUE

OLUWASEYE OLUSA FOR MAISON BLACK

Maison Black founder Tori Nichel Gibbs, center, with designers, from left, Aaron Potts, Shawna

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