EMPOWER PLAYER

Actively Black isn't just an athleisure line—it's a movement.

- By JAMIL SMITH

QUALITY CONTROL Lanny Smith wanted to make sure customers "never felt like they had to sacrifice quality to buy Black-owned."

When she was only 6 years old, Ruby Bridges walked to school in November 1960 and made history. Dressed for her first day at what was, until that moment, an all-White elementary school in New Orleans, federal marshals flanked her as she made her way through a phalanx of people spitting racism at her. It was such an all-American image that Norman Rockwell painted it.

Bridges was 71 in September of this year when she walked through a considerably friendlier crowd. Emerging on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week between two large images of her younger self—including the Rockwell painting—Bridges smiled widely as she walked in her black hoodie dress.

Civil rights legends don't often model in high-profile fashion shows. However, the theme for Actively Black's event was “This Is Not a Fashion Show.” And it is clear that the five-year-old Los Angeles-based athleisure label aims to transform the word brand in ways that have meaning beyond a bottom line.