Natty Belle will kick off its New York Fashion Week (NYFW) Spring-Summer 2026 (SS 2026) debut on September 10, 2025, with three transformative fashion, cultural, and Afro-futurism inspired experiences.
Natty Belle debuts its NYFW SS26 "slow fashion" preview in Seneca Village, Central Park, and hosts a curated dinner reception and Q&A with Dr. Angela Davis.
Our purpose is to conjure, as a collective experience, the inherent sovereignty that exists within Black women and femmes. To us, there is no greater luxury than Freedom.”
— Natalie Bell, Founder & Designer, Natty Belle
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, August 20, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Natty Belle will kick off its New York Fashion Week (NYFW) Spring-Summer 2026 (SS 2026) debut on September 10, 2025, with three transformative fashion, cultural, and Afro-futurism inspired experiences. The inaugural Spring-Summer 2026 preview, “Black Femme Sovereignty Resurrected,” will take place at Seneca Village and Summit Rock in Central Park. A dinner reception and interactive conversation will take place at a separate
location with a special live broadcast, conversation, and Q&A on Black femininity and liberation with Dr. Angela Davis. On September 11, a pop-up experience and celebration is planned at a 250-year-old carriage house in Midtown for appointments, viewings, and pre-orders.“Black Femme Sovereignty Resurrected,” as Natty Belle’s inaugural preview theme, emphasizes founder and designer Natalie Bell’s handmade, ethically sourced, and thoughtfully curated wearable art as a portal to rich celestial knowledge and the source of African diasporic ancestry. The debut will introduce more than a fashion collection; it will deliver a reclamation. In stride with its decolonial approach to luxury through “slow fashion”—and the translation of its name “natty” and “belle” to reference a smartly dressed beauty—the preview catalyzes African mudcloth’s significance as a rite of passage for Afro-descendant women and femmes that need not earn inherent sovereignty that’s a birthright. The collection draws inspiration from the famed writer James Baldwin’s perspective that “Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it,” which was lauded by author Toni Morrison in the New York Times.
Bell says, “This event of sundry freedoms must be witnessed as we revel on ground that was once inhabited by the Lenape people and liberated Black landowners during a time of State-enforced bondage. Luxury is also being able to occupy spaces and places that our ancestors, elders, and comrades have forged.”
In stark contrast to inhumane historic assumptions about the strength, endurance, resilience, and bold presence of Afro-descendant women, Bell’s collection explores interconnection among and between Black women and femme culturally focused wisdom keepers. “Black Femme Sovereignty Resurrected” explores soft life states of being that are restful, creative, and playful through their lens as liberated, claircognizant heirs cloaked in sentient attire.
Following its NYFW SS26 preview, and on trend with an uptick of experiences that tie fashion with food, Bell will host a curated dinner reception on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to tie together food, fashion, and culture for influencers, style mavens, and leaders involved in fashion, art, journalism, and history who hold—and appreciate—diverse Black Femme perspectives. An interactive conversation and Q&A about Black femininity and liberation will be hosted by Feminist Political Activist, Philosopher, Academic, Author, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Dr. Angela Davis.
Alongside its commitment to avoiding high-consumption, low-quality practices, the curated dinner reception aims to reclaim culture then, now, and yet to come, in a space of collective care and food made popular during the uptick in liberation, as an alternative to the irreverence that’s become synonymous with fashion. The curated dinner will be catered by Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread Too, a Harlem-based soul food restaurant founded by Norma Jean Darden, an iconic former fashion model known for her role in The Battle of Versailles battle between French and American fashion designers—and her subsequent documentary and book about the historic landmark event for its then rare acknowledgement of Afro-descendant and Black American models.
To attend the official Natty Belle NYFW SS26 fashion preview and curated dinner reception on September 10, RSVP here: https://blackfemmesovereigntyresurrect.splashthat.com
To attend the Natty Belle SS26 Pop-up on September 11, RSVP here: https://mailchi.mp/154b16004c62/natty_belle_ss26_popup
To learn more about Natty Belle, visit www.nattybelle.com.
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