A Galaxy Within a Galaxy is a short visual piece that asks not for a seat at the table but aims to remind Black girls and women of their innate divinity; which once realised, cannot be belittled. The piece mixes together both a celebration of Black beauty and a recognition of beauty that starts on the inside. It sends home the important message that beauty begins within and that our uniqueness is a blessing, crafted intentionally into an artform entirely of itself.

Black beauty is constantly policed, debated or othered. This message to the fashion industry seeks to take the power to define the standards of beauty from the hands of any one group and remind all that our beauty is not subject to negotiation. As humans, marvellously connected and wonderfully made, we are majestic by nature. And nothing can ever change that.

The project was put together by four Black women, passionate about inspiring the younger versions of ourselves to embrace their divinity- even when it is not celebrated. As young women growing up in modern society, we were all motivated to speak against a world that constantly demands you follow its lead in deciding what is beautiful. We have all gone through our own personal journey’s to finding our light, our voices and our confidence, which we have since re-directed into our creativity. Now, we aim to inspire the industry on behalf of generations to come so that their journey to self-actualisation can be smoother, sooner and in harmony with the images of themselves they find in the world around them. Whether it be through writing and directing; photography; art and fashion design; or modelling and acting, we hope to use our art to articulate the stories that make us, us- both as individuals, and as a collective. Because we are all, inescapably, ‘A Galaxy Within a Galaxy’.

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This is the quote I stumbled across that propelled my curiosity and exploration for my project’s afro-futuristic focus.

‘Urban Futurism’ is an illustrated streetwear collection heavily inspired by the collision of Afrocentricity and Sci– Fi Futurism. My work is embedded with a yearning to reimagine the black identity and as result  I have used my frustration at the lack of representation of blackness in the creative spaces like film, animation and fashion design to fuel my desire to express my interpretation of blackness in my illustrations . For so long black people have not been represented enough in the creative media and when represented, they are often portrayed in an unrealistic, sometimes brutal monolithic light that dulls the perceived black experience. I want my illustrations to ignite our society’s imagination with much more positive and diverse images of Afrocentricity in the fashion and creative industries. My projects journey is the recognition, the celebration and the affirmation of the hidden spectrum of the  black identity and experience.

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Contributors images 1-9
Hair Stylist, Editor, Creative Director: Leia Wasike-Ginn
Photographer, Creative director: Joy A Danso
Makeup: Landryna J Biyeleke
Models: Annalisa Francisco, Esther Ade, Devonté Sackitey, Kyron Freeman, Unique Moore, Shianne François

Contributors images 10-13

Hairstylist, creative director: Leia Wasike-Ginn
Photographer 1: Joy A Danso
Photographer 2: Machie Mudube
Makeup Artist: Unique Moore
Model, creative director: Yollanda Musa

THERE ARE A MILLION PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD, WHY SHOULD YOU THINK BLACK LIVES SHOULD BE ONE OF THEM?

For every 1 child dying on land, there is 2 dying at sea from Ignorance and Negligence

An estimated 362,000 refugees and migrants risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2016.

In the twelve months up to March 2017, the 51 children were locked up in immigration detention, despite a Government promise in 2010 to end the practice.

I have a strong passion for fashion, dance, music, art/design, teaching and performing. This was ignited by the struggles I had in my past as a child immigrant, being left in the country to survive. Finding ways to distract me was the key to the growth of my talent & my ongoing success in the arts. My passion for arts begins with a willingness to help others smile and feel good in their skin. At the age of 12, I was struggling with showing how I felt, I was never good with words, so I used my body, mind and hands and started to dance and creating art and garments as a form of language and outlet of my frustrations. I attended an Arts school, I learnt to dance, draw, sew, act and make music. With each step, the sound becoming a letter, and each choreography, composition becoming a story. I slowly found myself and learnt how to express my true feelings while enlightening or uplifting others. My body has been itching to move ever since.

From my personal experience in relation to immigration, race, depression, family (the lack of) and depression and why it is a negative thing in the ethnic community… I once had a close death experience when I was an immigrant struggling in the U.K. while paying for my college fees, being homeless, and looking over my shoulder worrying if am going to see a van with the blue righting of border force. At Kingston bridge one night in November at the age of 17 I decided I would just walk into the Thames and it would just make everything ok. Standing there was the longest 1 min before stepping down the ledge when the cold water started to soak through my socks up to my legs and pass up my belly to my chest I panic and pull myself out. I say thing not to say that I chickened out. I say this to say that I was willing to kill myself because the county that I am still struggling into this day. Never knew about a young black boy with short black hair was ready to be another body in the river Thames history. Why do some kids have to struggle more than any adult have to face in their lifetime? Why should a future life have to be a risk because a country chooses to say they don’t belong? Why is it that when someone tries to help, they are attack and targeted. So, others learn to protect themselves and their family, so they don’t risk the same attack.

To this day I thank God for companies such as the once well-known Kids Company and F.A.D.

Silent waves

What do you know about?

Being neglected
Being abandoned
When I was seen as a burden rather than a blessing.

If I drowned in the Kings Thames like me
Words that everyone doubted pithing me
And the learned to just neglect rather try to understand.

It is just like a silent wave,
With the silence breath that wasn’t taken before the water was swallow, hungry needing to touch the bottom, only to float back up without a beat. but still to put to Everything that can be said or say
am black I know, but I have learnt to be proud and unapologetic. So, When you look at me please; don’t see a drug dealer,
See me, thank you.
When you look at me, please don’t see a thief,
See me, respect to you.
When you see me, don’t just see through me,
I can see you, so see me
Just that’s one love.

David Ashani Bennie

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I want to showcase our culture from the perspective of those who were constantly surrounded by, have raised by it and learnt from it; but for others to learn from this rather than seeing cultural appropriation of the ‘pretty’ aspects of our culture, committed by many well known influencers you see all over the media. Influencers who aren’t of south Asian hertiage but get praised for the culture they appropriate, where as those of that culture get judged or made to feel uncomfortable  for their traditional wear.

However it’s also about representation and lack of representation of south Asians within various media platforms, especially those of darker skin. This idea of fairer or lighter skin being considered ‘superior’ especially in terms of beauty, compared to those of darker tones is still actively present through some south Asian minds and media. It’s leaves and creates this constant need to fit the terms of Eurocentric beauty standards to feel a sense of self and societal acceptance.

Representation is very important especially in the westernised society, which is full of diverse skin tones and people, hence why finding stories and seeing coloured people reflected in films and shows matter. To be widely acknowledge in a society like the westernised community, where the white race is majority, is essential to belonging.

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Photographer: Mathushaa Sagthidas // @mathuxphotos

Jewellery: Sapna Patel // @artisticplug

Stylists:

Sapna Patel //  @artisticplug

Shivani Patel // @_.shivxni

Mathushaa Sagthidas // @mathuxphotos

Models:

@yasitskrishy // Karishma Leckraz

@jenn.vaghela // Jennika Vaghela

@pink._.sockedhoe // Asa Zaman

@_.preeee // Preetthiya Yogendran

This is a project which has been inspired by my observation of the past and the present; what has happened so far inspired by the movement: ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The history of slavery and colonisation entangled both good and bad. Suddenly, people are awake; they are saying things cannot carry on the same way anymore. But at the same time history can not be forgotten because the past constantly catches up with the future. Now, the world is trying to amend the wrongs of the past. Actions included are the removal of statues of the profiteers of slavery. It is proposed that they be moved to a museum and accompanied by a script that describes their past actions accurately. .

Many people in power would like to sweep past wrongdoings under the carpet. When people raise their voices in protest they shoot and slaughter them like animals. The oppressed never receive justice.

I think 2020 has been year of revelation trauma and conflict; many of us have been involved with attempting to disentangle our emotional histories.

Those who in power do not use their hearts, but they rather use their voices to attempt to bandage past wrongs. They want to maintain their privileged positions.

How can we have a new away forward, when the pasts are always catching up with the future?

We hope for peace for the future, but how is it to be achieved?

Do Black Lives really matter?  I want peace for my vision.  How can it be?

Do you want to forget the past and have a new vision, a way forward?

We all want to see light at the end of the tunnel, but how many years did black people stay in the dark? While white people always saw light at the end of every tunnel they entered.

The world is trying to be united, but we do not have an agreed plan for peace.

If we can achieve equality and hope for every race, then Black Lives will matter. Then there will be a new way.

History matters

Black Lives Matter in order to achieve equal opportunity for all.

Many of us have marched and chanted while we weave our emotions in and out endless for answer.

The energy of history is still alive, with the memory crying for peaceful change and a new way forward

Happiness and prosperity should be attainable for every race, as every flower flourishes in the land.

The tears of memory reflect past history; the good and the bad always catching up with the future.

The river is crying because of the slave trade; so many people died on the way to slavery. They should never have been there.

People are Dance of the River we want change now and it must happen now for the present generation and better future for next generation to come.

It is important to me as a black woman that people, both in the industry and wider society, understand how far we have come in the UK and how much further we still have to go. In 2020, black creatives are still a minority in the fashion industry and are still marginalised and abused in our fields. We yearn to be acknowledged and celebrated for our contributions, not just in stereotypical areas like sport and music. We have a rich and a unique perspective and through my work, I aspire to show that.

This project, entitled “Keep Britain White”, explores my heritage as a 2nd generation Black British woman and the struggles and triumphs of my grandparents when they first came to the UK in the 1950s. From being ostracized and openly racially abused to developing a unique identity and community that has continued to impact and inspire mainstream popular culture to this day.

I hope that anyone viewing this project can appreciate the tenacity of Generation Windrush and the beauty of the life they have made here in the UK. To learn more about the lives of my grandparents and others, be sure to read “Homecoming” by Colin Grant and “Black and British” by David Olusoga.

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For my final year project, I decided to create a publication which is entitled IAMNOIR(E).  It’s an authentic and transparent book of 130 pages giving the opportunity to the black community to put some words on existing realities.  We define IAMNOIR(E).  as a celebration of black ethnicities in all shapes.

With my collaborators (including two photographers Isaac Mettle, Chidozie Obasi, one illustrator Anais Attobra and one video editor Robert John Auger), we have conveyed through photography, the beauty of black individuals and their culture. I have curated transparent testimonials and given another definition of tolerance.  Through the emotion and authenticity of the book’s imagery and storytelling, readers approach themes such as fashion & beauty, culture, art, heritage, identity and any ethnical issues related.

We believe the world should aspire to a better acceptance, awareness and acknowledgement in regards to differences, but most importantly we hope to encourage people to embrace their true selves no matter what.

This is a message to all industries, all nations, all human beings.  Thanks.

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My parents are both Jamaican and emigrated to the UK, where I was born, and since moving to England have both faced a series of hardships over the years and found many difficulties in settling here and working – due to racial conflicts and the Government’s handling of immigration with Caribbean migrants.  With the current pressing issues of racial injustice / systemic oppression around the world and the BLM movement building powerful awareness to these issues, I decided to research into the Windrush Generation.

I became fascinated, researching more into my heritage and finding out about the experiences of Caribbean migrants during the post wat period as well as the treatment of the Windrush Generation decades later, where I then discovered Theresa May’s involvement.  Then after watching the new BBC documentary ‘Sitting In Limbo’ and combined with my own background, I was drawn to highlight this theme into my Textiles Medium and entry for this ‘Message to the Fashion Industry’ project.

I wanted to celebrate my Afro-Caribbean heritage in my outcome whilst implementing coastal / elemental imagery to document the story of Windrush and the migrants’ personal struggles utilising costal settings.  Interweaving my research on slavery, I created a fashion piece with a traditional African Gele (headscarf) as well as a Bandeau and Wrap which are all highly textured with a series of mixed media techniques.

In short, my message to the fashion industry is to encourage the celebration of Black Culture and acknowledge its influence, whilst making sure our narratives and stories are told in order to educate and reform the system and remove unconscious bias.

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Diary Entry Transcript: “Slowly it began to engulf me.The relentless waves of anticipation crept stealthily up my quaking body as my limbs caved in to defeat.I was drowning in a sea of conflicting emotions with only the unblinking stares of a gull as my witness.The closer we drew to the grey murky strip of land they announced to be England,the closer I drew away from my beloved Jamaica.Home.Now this foreign obscurity was to become my new home.Did I make the right choice leaving everything behind? My friends,family & life? My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as my fellow natives rushed to the deck and rich patois began to fill the air from all corners.Tilbury,1948” – by Antonia Paris Thompson