Back in the '90s, the lean, melanated baldie from the Bronx gave fashion houses access to minority cultures around the globe, often the only Black model in casting rooms full of blond, blue-eyed boys. "They would look at me like I was crazy," remembers Beckford of his fair-skinned peers. "Like, 'Didn't you get the memo? Did your agent mess up and send you to the wrong casting?'"
In the clothing realm, the '90s influence is felt in the return of denim, slip dresses, and,most recently, spicy workwear or "corp sleaze" in TikTok-speak. Silky button-downs, cigarette pants, and even neckties are among the aesthetic's go-tos.In bag form, however, the decade's officewear ethos is encapsulated in boxy, utilitarian totes. And no understated bag was as revered then as Kate Spade's Sam, the first-ever carryall that the label introduced.
