Lil Kim and Foxy Brown Style

It started with one hell of an iconic promo shot: Lil' Kim with legs akimbo, serving a come-hither face; squatting unapologetically in heels, a leopard Patricia Field thong bikini, and a sheer, marabou-feathered duster. Just the description of it gives one reason to pause, but actually seeing it was an event. It was a visual

It started with one hell of an iconic promo shot: Lil' Kim with legs akimbo, serving a come-hither face; squatting unapologetically in heels, a leopard Patricia Field thong bikini, and a sheer, marabou-feathered duster. Just the description of it gives one reason to pause, but actually seeing it was an event. It was a visual prelude to everything her debut album, Hard Core, would be lyrically: sensational, raunchy, and powerful all at the same time.

One week later—arguably the most pivotal seven-day stretch in women's hip-hop history—Foxy Brown released Ill Na Na, her debut album. The cover evinced her signature confidence. It gave us full-on sultry, revealing the crescendo of her perfect breasts in a black, low-cut, spaghetti-strapped négligée. It had been years since women had charted so significantly in rap music. Then, just like that, in November 1996, there were two forces at once.

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Foxy Brown's

Lil' Kim and Foxy changed the way women consumed and contributed to the music. Together, their debut albums have sold more than 3 million units in the U.S. alone—unprecedented numbers for ladies in hip-hop. Together, they revolutionized the subculture of hip-hop fashion: one exclusive Gucci dress, one classic Christian Dior belt, one head-to-toe Fendi ensemble at a time.

City sidewalks have long been runways for Black women's exquisite sense of style and carriage. Dressing is part of our cultural identity. Historically denied the opportunity to strut catwalks in the fashion capitals of the world, we turned the streets into a running display of our dopeness. "It's a signifier for self-worth and pride, and that transcends time, no matter when you look at it. We put a lot of intentionality into the way we dress," says Joanne Hyppolite, PhD, curator at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

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Lil

As mastermind of the Cultural Expressions exhibit, which highlights our interpretation of fashion, Hyppolite points to generational examples of Black women using our clothing, our hairstyles, and our accessories to create an outward expression of self-love that has belied the oppression we've endured. "If you're dressing, no matter what condition you're under, no matter the circumstance, you're showing how you value yourself. It says, 'I'm somebody. I'm something,'" she adds.

Their fashion choices pushed beyond standard, attention-getting sexiness to command power in a male-dominated genre, in a male-dominated industry.

It's a cultural tradition inherited by Kim and Foxy, two girls from Brooklyn who both found their voices in fashion as much as they did in their music. Their styles, different even from each other, were a departure from those of their legendary predecessors—like Queen Latifah, who rocked African-print garb; MC Lyte, who represented around-the-way-girl sneakers and jeans; and Salt-N-Pepa, who made shiny spandex and leather a definitive trend of their time.

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(L–R): MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, and Queen Latifah

They were even more of a contrast to the baggy-jeaned outfitting of label mates and group members who juxtaposed their alpha-male masculinity against Kim and Foxy's tough-but-girly personas. As the only females in their crews, their fashion choices pushed beyond standard, attention-getting sexiness to command power in a male-dominated genre, in a male-dominated industry. Just as importantly, they made Black women visible to high-end fashion houses who weren't observant of our style hegemony until Kim and Foxy forced them to pay attention.

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Foxy Brown in furs, 2003 and 1998

"People are attracted to energy. Some could have judged Kim and Foxy harshly, but the fact of the matter is they created an energy that was taking over. Everybody wanted a piece of it," Misa Hylton, the legendary stylist who created the look for Lil' Kim's jaw-dropping bikini pose and began styling Foxy Brown when she was still a teenager, says. "It was a magic that happens every so often. They came up in a time when the sound of music was changing and evolving into something new. Hip-hop culture was spreading, and fashion houses and high-end designers became interested in them. They saw them as trendsetters and they saw value in them from a marketing [perspective]."

Foxy celebrated the beauty of her mahogany skin as the self-professed "dark-skinned Christian Dior poster girl," boasted about being "dripped in Gabbana," and did a campaign for Calvin Klein, starring in billboards as big as the pride of the Black girls who saw themselves in her likeness. Kim, too, had her model moment, posing for Louis Vuitton in an ad that was canceled but memorialized instead by photographer David LaChapelle, with an image of Kim wearing nothing but a skin-tone cap and the Louis Vuitton monogram imprinted all over her body, an image that's far more famous than the original shot likely ever would have been.

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Foxy Brown in a 1999 Calvin Klein campaign

In aligning themselves with names that are synonymous with wealth, opulence, and impeccable design—Versace, Gucci, Fendi, Armani, Moschino—each woman became a superstar of '90s style. "These women had a lifestyle that was introduced to the world and people bought into it. Music and fashion became something that you had to be a part of and know about," Hylton says. So as technology changed and fans and fashionistas were able to more quickly access images and videos, they were also better able to interpret what Kim and Foxy wore for themselves, editing as necessary.

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It's important to honor Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown the women, even as we celebrate Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown the hip-hop artists, inadvertent feminists, and archetypal style-makers. Both are blessed with radiant self-confidence that permeates their public images, and both ooze a natural charisma that commands all-eyes-on-me attention. A woman pretty much has to possess copious quantities of both in order to strut across the stages of packed-out arenas in string bikinis and floor-length minks, neon wigs, and fishnet bodysuits. Their use of fashion was part of packaging an image, but it was also a celebration of their liberated womanhood: the ability to wear whatever, be whoever, and own it for themselves.

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