Lil' Kim's turquoise Chanel logo wig sits behind glass at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle Center. So does a gold motorcycle jacket Mary J. Blige wore in 2016 and a purple fringe bodysuit from Cardi B's Femme It Forward tour.

They are part of "Styled by the Streets: Black Women in Hip Hop Fashion," a long-term exhibition that opened Sept. 19 at MoPOP, 325 5th Ave. N. The show, which includes original work by Seattle nail artist Ukeme Ekpoh, runs through Sept. 19, 2027.

More than 30 artifacts fill the gallery: wigs, nails, clothing, grillz and accessories spanning the 1990s through the 2020s. The exhibition is organized into five sections: The Foundations, The Icons, The Style, The Expressions and The Legacy. Community organization Justice for Black Girls also contributed artwork in partnership with MoPOP.

"We want to make sure people understand that these items are museum-worthy, and challenge what has been traditionally considered to be put in museums," MoPOP CEO Michele Y. Smith told The Stranger. "These pieces are part of the story of hip-hop."

Co-curators Dr. Sharon Kong-Perring and Dr. Adeerya Johnson designed the gallery to look like a young Black girl's bedroom from the '90s and Y2K era. The space features denim, sparkles, pink and chrome in tones that complement the skin tones of the women represented, Kong-Perring said in a MoPOP blog post.

Ekpoh, who runs So Pressious in Seattle, contributed a set of pink and blue coffin-shaped press-on nails titled "Threads of Her Becoming," inspired by Y2K nail trends. She launched So Pressious in 2020 during COVID when nail salons shut down. A MoPOP curator attended her first Press & Sip event in April 2025, then reached out via Instagram DM in October 2025 to commission the piece. MoPOP picked up the finished nails on April 20, 2026, exactly one year after that first meeting.

On her blog, Ekpoh described the set as fusing elements of beauty, hair and fashion onto a tiny canvas. Her motto: "art, but the medium is nails."

Grillz crafted by Ariel Nazira Jones for Melz Grilz Inc. are also on display. One pair is outlined in gold and platinum and set with diamonds. Another alternates between painted stripes and colored stones. No two teeth look the same.

The exhibition also features two wigs hairdresser Dionne Alexander created for Lil' Kim, including a blonde Greek key-patterned piece. Celebrity manicurist Temeka Jackson has two nail sets on lifelike hand mannequins, and archival spreads from Honey magazine round out the collection.

Kong-Perring called the show "a flagship, long-term gallery" that "offers a multiyear space for a narrative that has not yet seen significant coverage within museum institutions," according to Seattle Magazine.

MoPOP is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum's Icons of Pop Culture Gala, featuring a Salt-N-Pepa performance at Sky Church, is scheduled for Oct. 22.