British designer Grace Wales Bonner set the tone merging her Art exhibition entitled “Time for New Dreams” with her Fall 2019 runway show. The first model appears sporting an American football-inspired jersey embroidered with the name of African-American writer and cultural theorist Ishmael Reed. Reed is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor and publisher, who is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture who works include the seminal 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo that explores black male identity and black intellectualism and gave the collection its name. Ms. Wales Bonner’s collections often engage with the global black experience. Through her research, she found inspiration from literary influencers and flipping through the first Historically Black University Howard’s yearbooks. “I wanted to imbue these very classic American staples with a sense of magic, and spirituality and ritual that comes from another place,” she said. “I was very much thinking about how art can be a very direct form of spirituality, how you can channel spirituality through the process of creation.”
Learn more here.
