Shelby Ivey Christie is an American fashion and costume historian. She specializes in the contributions of Black designers. Christie is best known for writing Twitter threads about specific moments or people in fashion history.

Early life and education

Christie was born in New York and lived in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado from age 3. She and her mother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina when she was 10. Christie enjoyed history from a young age and easily memorized dates and facts. Black Southern trends sparked her interest in fashion, such as the tall tees and jersey dresses associated with

crunk Crunk is a subgenre of Southern hip-hop that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the early to mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more nightclub-oriented subgenres. Distinguishing itself w ...

culture. She also cited the television show ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rated ...

'' and the magazines ''Jet'' and ''Ebony'' as early influences. She names Mildred Blount as her favorite designer. Christie received her bachelor's degree in race, history, and culture from

North Carolina A&T State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public university, public, Historically black colleges and universities, historicall ...

. As of September 2020, she is completing her master's degree in costume studies at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Career

Christie previously interned at ''W'' and ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith, and started originally as a brand extension of ''People (magazine), People'' before carving out its own ide ...

''. After college, she worked as a digital marketing and sales planner at ''Vogue''. She credits that position with her learning how to use

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

to write long threads in short pieces, detailing specific parts of fashion history. She intentionally uses

AAVE African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, vocabu ...

, memes, and colloquial speech in her threads to challenge rhetorical norms related to academia. Subjects of her viral threads include Arthur McGee, the first Black designer who worked on 7th Avenue, and a thread about

Josephine Baker Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...

's film career. Christie specializes in information about fashion history at the intersections of race and culture. Her stated goal is to share the contributions of Black designers in fashion history. Christie also seeks to credit Black designers' historic contributions to fashion that are not widely known, such as the work of designer Felicia Farrar. She also advocates for structural changes to address the low numbers of Black leadership in the industry. She partnered with

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

to do a fashion thread for

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...

's ''Homecoming''. She also hosted an

Instagram Live Instagram is an American photo and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters, be organized by hashtags, and be associated with a location via ...

where she interviewed

Zerina Akers Zerina Akers is an American fashion stylist and costume designer. She is best known for her positions as Beyoncé's personal stylist, costume designer for the Emmy-winning 2020 musical film ''Black Is King'', and founder of the e-commerce site "B ...

, the costume designer for ''

Black Is King ''Black Is King'' is a 2020 American musical film co-written, executive produced, and directed by Beyoncé. It is a visual companion to the 2019 album '' The Lion King: The Gift'', curated by Beyoncé for the film ''The Lion King'' (2019). Th ...

'', which had approximately 16,000 viewers.

Accolades

* 2020 - ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a quarterly British lifestyle magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. ''Dazed'' is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for produ ...

'', Dazed 100 *2020 - ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', 30 under 30

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Shelby Ivey Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics African-American historians People from Charlotte, North Carolina North Carolina A&T State University alumni