[1][2] In 1963, Lois K. Alexander Lane was working on her master's thesis focused on the role of African Americans in the retail industry.
[3] The museum was established in Harlem in 1966 by Alexander Lane as a means of telling African American history through fashion.
Alexander Lane eventually received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop the Black Fashion Museum's collection.
On October 21st, 1979, the museum moved to a Harlem brownstone on 155 West 126th street (between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue).
[4][1][5] Upon its move to Washington DC, the museum was located in a two-story row house on Vermont Avenue and faced increasing pressure due to the economy and potential damage to the collection from the lack of a museum quality HVAC system.