Mourning the Loss of Black Fashion Brands
From Cushnie to Pyer Moss, a lack of support from the industry has taken away some of fashion’s brightest talents.
The 2010s marked a pivotal moment in Black luxury. Around the world, young, Black designers were popping up with revolutionary collections and brand mottos. The ones that had founded their labels in the decade prior reached a new level of visibility, becoming celebrity favorites and it-girl staples. Between 2013 and 2017, brands like Pyer Moss, PHLEMUNS, Heron Preston, Christopher John Rogers and Off-White entered the industry, each one bringing its own unique style and story.
Despite their initial success, of the aforementioned brands, one is inactive, one has just returned at a smaller scale after a years-long legal battle, and another has announced a major restructuring and scaling back in production. Over the years, Black-owned brands have come and gone, gaining mainstream success before suddenly declining and – eventually – closing altogether. In an industry that is already void of Black faces in ateliers and boardrooms, the loss of these brands feels like grieving an old friend. A familiar face lost in an ever-changing landscape of hectic runway schedules and busy campaigns.
When talking about the sudden and devastating closures of Black luxury labels, Cushnie is one of the first major casualties that needs to be mentioned. Founded in 2008 under the name Cushnie et Ochs by Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs, the brand quickly rose to prominence for its refined, sleek and sexy collections. Worn by everyone from Michelle Obama to the Kardashians, a Cushnie dress used to be guaranteed on any red carpet.
A wildly popular collaboration with Target in May of 2020, as well as increased attention following the push to support Black-owned brands in light of that year’s Black Lives Matter protests, would lead many to believe that the brand was only going to get bigger from that point onwards. Instead, only a few months later, Cushnie announced the permanent closure of her eponymous label, citing financial struggles due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a key factor in the decision.
The Black-owned business boom, as well as the pandemic, played a major role in both the birth and death of many Black labels of the 2020s. In 2020, we were introduced to brands like Connor McKnight and Sunni Sunni. One year later, Rihanna’s luxury FENTY label closed. In the last five years, Telfar and Theophilio have become household names, and Heron Preston lost and regained ownership of his own name. The highs have been well-documented, but the lows that these designers face are often swept under the rug and unnoticed by the masses.
Pyer Moss was one of the biggest brands to launch in the last ten years. Bringing something bold and unapologetically Black to the New York fashion scene, Kerby Jean-Raymond built a community around his brand in a way that did not yet exist in mainstream luxury. Known for slogan tees and hoodies, including the memorable “Stop Calling 911 on the Culture” T-shirt, Pyer Moss existed at the intersection of activism and luxury. It was always about more than just the clothes, though the clothes were lovely, too.
In 2021, Jean-Raymond became the first Black designer invited to present a collection during Paris Couture Week. With the world watching, he used the opportunity to highlight Black history, with campy designs of things invented by Black people. Lampshades, traffic lights and a head full of hair rollers disrupted the usual Couture Week visuals in a way that only Pyer Moss could.
What should have been the rocket launcher for Jean-Raymond and Pyer Moss was the pinnacle, with the brand slowly fading into obscurity. Instead of showing at New York Fashion Week, there were Pyer Moss “loot-outs,” offloading unsold product in a new way, allowing people to leave with potentially thousands of dollars worth of clothing for the price of a few T-shirts. Since then, the brand has been inactive, with no new products and a blank slate for a social media presence. What was once one of the biggest Black-owned brands of the last few decades has become a mere memory.
In the same cohort as Jean-Raymond, James Flemons’ PHLEMUNS label was another 2013 launch that shook up the fashion world. A beloved brand of artists like Solange and Ravyn Lenae, PHLEMUNS has always been the type of brand that the coolest person you know is obsessed with. Designing backless tees, body-hugging tops and statement pieces that can be styled up or down, Flemons was one of the most talked about emerging talents in the world of fashion.
Custom pieces for Solange and constant editorials made PHLEMUNS one of the first brands on people’s lips in fashionable circles, but at the end of 2025, Flemons announced changes coming to the label, alongside an Instagram Story flea market of sorts. The designer explained that the brand would be undergoing a reconstruction with fewer frequent drops, and the Instagram sale would be one of the last opportunities to purchase a wide variety of the designs that made PHLEMUNS famous.
The rate at which Black luxury brands are closing, limiting production and entering large periods of inactivity highlights the disparity in funding and support these designers get in an industry that has historically excluded them. Brands that have been worn by some of the biggest names in high society — First Ladies, award-winning actresses and global superstars — are folding due to financial and infrastructural burdens.
When you look at other major brands that launched around the same time like MONSE and AREA, with similar amounts of industry buzz, these same problems rarely seem to affect them.
Though we’ve lost many Black-owned brands, both big and small, there are still plenty more that deserve our support. Hanifa, Theophilio, Christopher John Rogers and Tia Adeola are still standing. They’re outfitting Met Gala attendees and capturing hearts on red carpets. Where there is sadness, there is also so much joy in seeing Black designers thrive in predominantly white spaces. Making sure those beacons of hope don’t burn out is the next step.
