In honor of Black History Month every Wednesday during the month of February I will be honoring someone extraordinarily stylish who has played a major roll impacting not only black history but American history, and to get the ball rolling lets go back in time and start with Zelda Wynn Valdes, a fashion and costume designer whom outfitted such beauties as Dorothy Dandridge, Marian Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Gladys Knight. Valdes was also the owner of the first Black business on Broadway in NYC back in the 1940′s. She got her start by making patterns out of newsprint, studying her grandmother’s seamstress, and working in her uncle’s tailoring shop. Pretty soon, Zelda’s work was catching all the right eyes including Hollywood and even Hugh Hefner. Did you know Zelda designed the first Playboy Bunny uniforms? She also designed the uniforms for the Dance Theater of Harlem. And she created the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers. We honor Zelda Wynn Valdes for her great work in the fashion industry. **Info on Zelda Wynn Valdes courtesy of Sparkleshock.com**
4 comments:
Wow! Thanks for featuring a woman who was obviously breaking some real ground back then.
@Fabienne Jach Zelda was definetly a trailblazer. Awesome woman with stylish talent.
She was a very talented lady. That's a cool picture of her with Dorothy Dandridge.
JTwisdom
http://bubblingwitheleganceandgrace.com
@JTwisdom I thought the same thing such an powerful,interesting shot it says alot by just looking at it.
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