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Too Much Fashion: An ode to Black creative resilience

Start Date
01 August 2025
End Date
30 August 2025
Venue
United Contemporary
Location
Toronto, Canada
Curator
Ilene Sova and Byron Armstrong
  • Activism
  • Collaboration
  • Design
  • Fashion History
  • Identity
  • Menswear

Taking its title from the iconic phrase coined by the late fashion editor and cultural titan André Leon Talley, Too Much Fashion is an homage to the vibrancy and legacy of Black style as both an aesthetic and an act of resistance.

Opening reception: Friday, August 1, 6-9pm

Curated by Ilene Sova and Byron Armstrong, Too Much Fashion – An Ode to Black Creative Resilience is a group exhibition featuring the dynamic work of Ojo Agi, Benny Bing, Veronica Dorsett, Kachelle Knowles, Kriss Munsya, Ehiko Odeh, Adetona Omokanye, Janice Reid and Gordon Shadrach.

Celebrating Black cultural influence and the enduring intersections between fashion and art across the Black diaspora, this exhibition brings together artists whose practices each embrace the visual language of fashion as a site of cultural memory, visibility, and reclamation. Together, their work creates a textured narrative that recognizes fashion not only as clothing or ornamentation, but as a profound mode of storytelling, cultural assertion, and survival.

 

Taking its title from the iconic phrase coined by the late fashion editor and cultural titan André Leon Talley, Too Much Fashion is an homage to the vibrancy and legacy of Black style as both an aesthetic and an act of resistance. From the elegance of the Black Dandy and the flamboyance of African Sapeurs, to the rebellious swagger of hip-hop streetwear and Jamaican Rude Boy flair, Black communities around the world have continually shaped and redefined global fashion. From historical trailblazers like Bijette Spencer and Denise McLeod, to contemporary icons like Stacey McKenzie and Winnie Harlow, Too Much Fashion honours the generations of Black creatives who have claimed space in both the art and fashion worlds, often against immense odds.

At a moment when Black bodies and identities remain sites of political tension and cultural appropriation, Too Much Fashion insists on celebration, visibility, and self-definition. The exhibition resists erasure, offering a vibrant visual chorus of defiance, beauty, and possibility.

United Contemporary acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present, and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of the lands upon which we operate, which is the traditional territory of multiple indigenous nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat peoples, as well as many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples from across Turtle Island. We recognise their enduring presence and deep connection to this land, and we are grateful for their ongoing custodianship and care of this territory.

Always was, always will be, Indigenous land. 

Images courtesy of © United Contemporary

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The Centre for Fashion Curation is a UAL Research Centre based at London College of Fashion. The Centre provides a unique catalyst and platform for research, exhibitions, symposiums, workshops and publications, and collections-based enquiries.

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