Connecting Threads: Africa Fashion in Chicago connects global traditions with local creativity through stunning garments, jewelry, and textiles from talented Chicago-based designers like Olivia Ogbara, Stephane St. Jaymes, Hayet Rida, Patricia Ghonda Zola, Joy Boykin, Robert Paige, and Jennifer Akese-Burney. Meet the woman who contributed her vast knowledge of the Chicago fashion world to the exhibition: Melody Boykin.
Melody Boykin is a co-curator of Connecting Threads: Africa Fashion in Chicago and the founder of Black Fashion Week | USA (BFW). She brings years of fashion and style experience, uplifting designers of color in Chicago with pieces on display in Connecting Threads.
BFW was born in 2014, when Melody worked as a top stylist for a high-end retailer in Chicago with her own clientele.
As I was selling, I got curious about the different names behind the clothing,” said Melody. “When I checked the label on one of the high-end garments, I looked up the designer, and she was a designer of color, and I never would have known it.
Black Fashion Week keeps legacy alive
Photographer(s):Courtesy of Melody Boykin
(c) courtesy of Melody Boykin
BFW began as one fashion show featuring 15 designers. But, over the past decade and a half, it’s expanded from a fashion runway event to an inclusive social and economic movement that reaches audiences through Black History Month programming, pop-up shops and events, artist-focused educational workshops and panel discussions, film viewings, trunk shows, industry trade shows, kids’ fashion shows, and much more. BFW features inclusive fashion runway shows where models of all skin tones, shapes, and sizes are seen strutting down the runway in evening wear and culturally inspired attire.
BFW has propelled many careers: Jennifer Akese-Burney is co-curator of the Field Museum’s exhibition Connecting Threads, where her work is on display. Since working with BFW, her designs have been featured in local media and are on display in Connecting Threads.
The platform has also helped reignite careers: as a teenager in the 1970s, Stevie Edwards was the youngest African American designer featured in the Ebony Fashion Showcases. BFW brought him to a full-circle moment in 2017 when the media platform put him back in the market and boosted his career. His work was also featured in Vogue.
The platform has also helped models grow their careers and become top New York fashion models.
“It’s amazing to see how their careers have grown and the opportunities they’ve had,” says Melody. “We have always been a training platform.”
Boykin also aims to give back to her community by uplifting Black-owned spaces and neighborhoods throughout the city. She partners with local communities to hold events in iconic venues located in key metropolitan neighborhoods in Chicago, like South Shore’s South Shore Cultural Center, Hyde Park’s DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Loop’s Harold Washington Library.
(c) Courtesy of Melody Boykin
“From a cultural stance, [it’s important to have] our events in our communities where culturally people can be exposed to a type of showcase that they may not be able to experience,” she said. “Some people will never be able to go to New York Fashion Week. Some people would never get the opportunity to build a platform that would feel like a red carpet event. The impact has been great, exposing local talent and designers from our communities all over the Chicagoland area.”
Melody’s 2025 was centered around the development of Connecting Threads and a Juneteenth fashion show at the Field.
“I see this exhibit as an everyday fashion show,” said Boykin. “Over the years, people say they can’t go to the show because they have plans that day. Now they can come to the Field Museum; everything you would see on the runway is in the exhibition.“
As for the future of BFW, Melody hopes to expand into different markets, bringing her production into other cities so she can bring fashion to underrepresented communities. She hopes to showcase, educate, and empower people in the key black metro cities around the United States.
“Our platform has always been heavy on education,” says Boykin. “It’s not just about showcasing fashion, but empowering our participants to improve their self-image through fashion and become more educated about the clothing that they're wearing and the designers who came before them…. It’s deeper than wearing clothing. It’s about our history.”
Over the past three years, BFW has entered the online market with an opportunity to showcase more designers through social media. You can check out the latest with BFW here.
Black Fashion Week | USA presents The Little Black Boutique Guide
(c) courtesy of Melody Boykin
As Connecting Threads closes its run in March 2026, you can continue celebrating black designers and businesses through the Little Black Boutique Guide, authored and published by Black Fashion Week | USA. The guide was inspired by Victor Hugo Green’s Green Book, a guide that helped Blacks navigate Jim Crow in the segregated South during the early to mid twentieth century, highlighting black-owned shops across different industries, like hotels or insurance companies.
Today, since people can choose to diversify their shopping choices, embracing diversity, The Little Black Boutique Guide is a way to spotlight black-owned businesses across the Chicagoland area. The guide was designed as a way to help stay engaged and culturally support black boutiques, businesses, and art organizations in those neighborhoods. The guide is organized by neighborhood, showcasing shops, art galleries, theater companies, restaurants, and more.
“The term Black represents so many different cultures and cuisines that cannot be summed up in the African diaspora,” says Melody. “From Senegalese to soul food, The Little Black Boutique Guide covers a wide array of cuisines represented by Black communities in the Chicagoland area.”
“You could search for these stores on Google, but you need to know that they exist. We have everything from thrift stores to consignment stores to one of the very few black-owned furriers in the country.”
The book is sold in the Field store; you can also purchase it here.