fashion editorial with photographer
NANA KWADWO AGYEI ADDO
Great style is a form of protest, a revolt against the systems that oppress and torture us all every day—white supremacy, misognyny, transmisogyny, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, gender policing, racism.
– Madison Moore, Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric
I confided in my mum about my writer’s block, and she said: Write with no rules. Write the same thing over and over again until it becomes something else—or doesn’t. We are always trying so hard to be coherent in a world that makes nonsense out of us. Give yourself permission to be incoherent.
And something cracked open. I started thinking about what it has meant for me to be made nonsense of—to be judged through condemnatory eyes, to have that Black experience of being simultaneously seen and unseen, the prickling sense of being constantly observed and yet unrecognised. How to challenge the judge?
From left to right: Welbert wears Busumuru asymmetric jacket and trousers in black; Charles wears Oseadeeyo cropped sleeve jacket, oversized shirt by Kreszend, and spongy pants by 08 Duds; Herbert wears Busumuru Jacket and trousers in blue. Shoes stylist’s own. Accessories model’s own.
Charles wears Oseadeeyo cropped sleeve jacket, oversized shirt by Kreszend, and spongy pants by 08 Duds; Delali wears Opemsuo corset & high waisted midi palazzo by Boyedoe. Shoes stylist’s own.
Marquis Bey, in Them Goon Rules, writes about Blackness’ innate capacity to challenge power’s normativity:
In between criminality and propriety lies Blackness, that quotidian practice of refusal, the middle finger to reconciliation, decorousness, and the demand to structure its raspy vocal timbre into something, anything, that sounds like verified music.
What is your response to the judge who demands that your music be verified?
What are the things that are judged when you walk into the room? Is it connected to the skin you cannot shed or hide, the unrelenting sin, the smell that wafts from behind your ears, or belly button, or underarms, or thigh-between? What gives you away? What charges do you face? What sentences are handed down? Or perhaps someone(s) else has served your time for you?
Delali wears Mojito Dress by Bello Edu, shoes and accessories stylist’s own.
Consider how the judge’s (ridiculous) wig changes heads, and how we become the judge who hears the charges we make against ourselves and each other every day—too fat, too black, too poor, too loud, too fake—and must return a verdict. For this JUDGE issue, our un/cohered, unverified verdict comes via Madison Moore, with whose work we opened. You are hereby found to be fabulous, as in, part of the
dangerous, political, confrontational, risky, and largely (but certainly not only) practiced by queer, trans and transfeminine people of colour and other marginalised groups.
The sentence?
A commitment to practices of undoing and non-doing, to challenging power’s normativity, and turning the judging gaze back on itself.
From left to right: Delali wears kantinka cropped jacket with highwaisted Okatakyie pant by Boyedoe, bag stylist’s own; Herbert wears Great Escape jacket and trousers by Boyedoe; Charles wears kantinka trousers with Okatakyie jacket by Boyedoe; Welbert wears Oseadeeyo motorcycle jacket & trousers by Boyedoe. Accessories models’ own.
Models: Herbert Adjei, Welbert Adjei, Delali Anku, Charles “Doppy” Taylor
Hair Stylist: Kreszend Eva Sackey
Assistant Hair Stylists: Patric Anochie, Estelle Boachie, Cassia Blankson
Makeup Artist: Asare Prince
Styling Assistant: Angela Jedua Afriyie
Photography Assistant: Elikem MacForrest
BTS Photographer: Fiona Giali Chuka
Production Assistants: Ginelle Appau, Bianca Stella Wuta-Ofei
RASHIDA TAYLOR fashion editor
Rashida Taylor is Fashion Editor of Stillpoint Magazine, a writer, and stylist based in London, encouraged by artistic expressions of the Black experience in all its various forms.
NANA KWADWO AGYEI ADDO photographer
Nana Kwadwo Agyei Addo is a Ghanaian photographer and artist. Born and raised in Ghana, he focuses his work on matters relating to social change and the appreciation of the Ghanaian reality and hopes to change the view and narrative of Ghana and its people through his photos. His work is often described as poetic and leaves the viewer with lots of questions and thoughts.
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