Hylan Booker in his London atelier. Sepia, November 1973.

In 2021 I was doing research. Listening to podcasts. Trying to go deeper into the history of fashion and the role Black Americans played in building the industry we see today. The EUMELANIN colorways are inspired by and drawn from the richness of skin tones. But I wanted to go deeper than that. I wanted to anchor each color to something meaningful. I just did not know where to look yet.

Then I stumbled onto a podcast talking about the House of Charles Frederick Worth, the English couturier who in 1858 established the first haute couture house in the world. And then it mentioned that the person who took over that house, making him the first Black person to head a couture house in the world, was a man named Hylan Booker.

And then it said he was from Detroit.

And then it said he went to Cass Technical High School.

I was born and raised in Detroit. I attended Cass Technical High School. Listening to that podcast I felt chills. It was my own aha moment. And I knew immediately. That was it.

I would name the EUMELANIN color palette after Black American fashion pioneers. The ones who gave everything to an industry that rarely gave them credit. The ones whose stories are told in podcasts, in archives, in footnotes, but never in the places where their names belong. EUMELANIN was going to be that place. An archive that lives on the arm of every woman and man who carries one of these bags. Our colorways bear their names because their names deserve to be carried forward.

His name is Hylan Booker.

He was 19 years old. A Black G.I. from Detroit stationed at the smallest active combat base in London. He knew a soldier's life was not for him. He knew fashion had his number.

So he did what determined people do. He found the personal space inside an exacting system to become who he already was. He attended Swindon Tech for fashion design while still in the Air Force. He sat for exams at the Royal College of Art. The military gave him time away to take them. He said, "the service could be a pretty exacting thing, but I found the personal space to do the things I wanted to do."

He started his own brand in an attic behind Liberty in London. One sewer. Himself. And an extraordinary amount of conviction.

In 1967 he won the Yardley Award as the leading British designer. That award led to his appointment as head designer at the House of Charles Frederick on Grosvenor Street. The house founded by the man credited as the father of haute couture. With that appointment Hylan Booker became the first Black couturier in the world to lead a couture house.

Not just any couture house. The one that started couture itself.

The Hylan colorway is black. To carry it is to carry his name forward. The first Black couturier in the world. A Detroit original. A master who never stopped finding his personal space.

Because your skin is always in.

To be continued. There are many more pioneers whose names you deserve to know.

With gratitude,
Deirdre Roberson
Founder, EUMELANIN