ESSENCE’s Fashion House is an annual signifier in the nexus of styling, heritage, and forecasting, bringing together the leading Black voices in tune with the industry’s pulse. It is often said that Black people are ahead of the curve when it comes to the industry’s mainstream, and this might be no better known than by the stylists responsible for translating their curatorial eye to the highly visible ailes of celebrity, runway, and wider media. At the forefront of this creative migration is the famed fashion architect Misa Hylton, whose thirty-three years in the industry have given way to an undisputed chronology of wardrobe moments setting the tone for some of the most sustaining features of contemporary American style—many of which originated in the urban communities once excluded from the fashion industry.
As an early pioneer of streetwear and urban apparel trends, Misa Hylton saw in real time how styles that originated in Black communities moved from derided fashion subculture to sustaining market features of today’s luxury apparel industry. Hylton’s styling work, most notably seen in the visual branding of music acts like Jodeci, Lil’ Kim, and Mary J. Blige, brought the aesthetics of uptown New York—a predominantly Black, and often overlooked space—into mainstream visibility. In doing so, she translated the fashion codes of Black communities, which mixed luxury with streetwear, into bold expressions of artistry.
This approach went beyond clothing; it was about identity, power, and rejecting societal constraints. ESSENCE Venture’s Senior Content Director and Vice President of Content Nandi Howard approached this trajectory in one of her first editorial features with the magazine, writing about Hylton’s career in 2019.
At this year’s Fashion House, Howard revisited the industry pioneer’s life and work in an intimate conversation about the architecture of hype, fashion prestige, and reclaiming power in the creative field. Today, Misa Hylton is over three decades into an uncharted career in the fashion space. With that, she’s learned invaluable lessons about maintaining her artistic voice while monetizing within an extractive business.
The beloved titan prides herself on sharing her hard-earned knowledge with future generations of stylists through her Misa Hylton Fashion Academy in New York. She explained during the discussion that she teaches industry skills while remaining mindful of the unique need for mentorship that underrepresented fashion professionals may encounter. A culturally mindful approach to instruction—already in short supply in the fashion industry—allows new generations of talent to shape their professional landscape while maintaining their authenticity in a competitive market.
