Even before Tremaine Emory had his own label, Denim Tears, his impact on the fashion world loomed large. As a creative consultant, he worked with a variety of popular brands—Stüssy, Marc Jacobs, Yeezy—helping to shape their look. And since launching Denim Tears, he has collaborated with brands like Dior, Levi’s, and Ugg, as well as with the artist David Hammons and the late Virgil Abloh. For a short time, he was also the creative director at streetwear brand Supreme.
All the while, Emory has engaged with race and politics in his work. Denim Tears was launched in 2019, 400 years after the first known slaves arrived in America; and its name is rife with meaning: it refers to cotton—the textile around which slavery was built—and the pain and suffering Black people endured to harvest it.
This week, the SCAD Museum of Art opened “Denim From the Pool of Black Genius,” the first solo exhibition and retrospective dedicated to Emory and his rich creative practice. The show places Emory’s pieces alongside works by some of the artists who inspired him: among them Arthur Jafa, Hank Willis Thomas, and Hammons. The curation underscores the breadth of Emory’s references, as well as the fact that his fashion output was always designed to be in conversation with the culture at large.
Through graphic T-shirts, through embellished jeans, through workwear-style jackets and other garments and accessories, Emory nods to history and cultural memory. Or, as a release from the museum notes, “his work transforms important historical references into contemporary objects and experiences,” and “creates educational pathways between Black history and the history of clothing. In challenging established hierarchies and encouraging dialogue, Emory positions fashion as both a form of conceptual art and a tool for reflection and education.”
Here, Emory and SCAD Museum of Art share exclusive images from the exhibition, which remains on view through January 11, 2027.
