Outfit
Jumper (Click here to buy)
Trousers - Pretty Little Thing
Jacket - Zara
Ankle boots - Zara
Hi all,
This time tomorrow most of us will be sitting in packed cinemas across the UK with our sweet and salted popcorn, eagerly anticipating the opening of the screen curtains to debut what we've all been waiting to watch for the last year - BLACK PANTHER!
I'm so excited, not only because it's a black cast with a black director at the helm, but because it's going to showcase black folk in all their glory, from the costumes and traditional dress, to strong women at the forefront, showcasing black super heroes on screen, AND it has Angela Basset in it so you already know it's going to be good.
I've always been a huge advocate for accurate representation, and to get to see black super heroes on screen is just incredible. Young black children will have super heroes that look like them and that they can actually identify with to look up too. In a recent interview with 'Gal Dem' magazine Lupita N'yongo said
'The fact that this particular image the 'Black Panther' has natural hair and dark skin and women in positions of power, it's just demystifying a whole lot of things that is really going to change the way children see themselves, in the back of their heads...it's the reconditioning of the subconscious mind and that's where the real change comes'.
I completely agree, so of course I had to design my own jumper to go and see this, I wanted to design a product that all people of colour could wear that really celebrated and encouraged them. On the jumper you will see phrases like 'Black Beauty', 'Melanin', 'Black hair', 'Black Literature' etc. All of these things are important and help shape who we are, we are great and have purpose.
I'm excited to see all of the street styles tomorrow as well because I know people are turning out to watch this film in their traditional African attire, and I can't wait. I'm happy that as a designer I've created something that contributes to the betterment of people of colour.