New York Fashion Week has come to a close with the highly anticipated return of the Met

Gala earlier this week.

The theme was, in America, the lexicon of fashion, but you had to look hard to find designs

by creators that truly reflect the diversity of American identity.

Men like music and art reflects who we are and where we are in a broader social and cultural

context.

Black designers especially have historically threaded these lines boldly, sometimes behind

the scenes, often right in America's face, in the mainstream and on the streets.

Their cultural influences have shaped broader American fashion culture, the same way that

jazz and hip-hop have shaped and recreated American music.

They've taken swatches of our experiences, the pretty pieces and the grimy ones, and

patched together a vibrant, complicated quilt that just keeps growing.

But it hasn't been easy.

These black fashion designers have had to wrestle with some pretty big ideas around race and

access and pedigree.

I'm Chermain Lee and this is Into America.

Today a conversation with two fashion icons about their journeys and struggles as black

designers who conquered and disrupted the world of fashion.

High end designer Tracy Reese and street wear designer Jay Alexander Martin, one of the

co-founders of Foubu.

It came up by saying we need something for us by us.

Tracy Reese is one of the biggest designers of her generation.

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