- 1 week ago
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00:00I just started on Wednesday so I'm here. Today we're going to be talking about fashion and since we're at a festival I think fashion is so important in festival culture. But the twist on today we're going to be talking about fashion and sustainability. So I'm going to have my two panelists join me on stage. Brandis Daniel and Dominique Drakeford.
00:30Do you want to sit closer? Yeah you can sit closer. We're also waiting on one panelist who's on the way. So we're going to get the conversation started. And we have baby with us.
00:45She's giving me baby fever. How are you guys today? Good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to have this conversation. Fashion sustainability is really important in my writing.
00:58So I can't wait to talk about it more in depth with the three of you. So Brandis I know you've been able to bridge the gap like the fashion gap between you know black designers and just kind of sharing them with our community.
01:17Can we talk about Harlem Fashion Row a little bit? Like just tell everyone what it is and why you started it.
01:23Yeah so Harlem's Fashion Row is a premier agency based in New York City.
01:29And we act as a bridge between designers of color and brands.
01:33So we do that through events that we throw throughout the year.
01:36We also do that through brand collaborations through pipeline programs with HBCU fashion departments and with brand strategy.
01:44Amazing. And so we're actually in the middle of a pivot right now because so many consumers want to shop black brands.
01:53I think in 2020 we realized that if we want to elevate we are the ones who have to help each other elevate.
02:02And so a shift started to happen in how we as a people shop.
02:05And so with that we're thinking about more now about how do we create more opportunities and experiences for the consumer who actually wants to support black and brown designers.
02:16That's so important. I love that you're doing that.
02:19And then Dominique Drakeford. How are you?
02:22I'm doing well. And yourself?
02:23I'm doing well too.
02:25So can you share with the audience a little bit about what it is that you do?
02:29Sustainable BK?
02:30Yeah, absolutely. My name is Dominique Drakeford from Oakland, California, but I reside in the streets of Brooklyn at the moment.
02:39And I am a non-traditional educator.
02:43I'm an impact influencer.
02:46I'm a writer and I am the co-founder of an organization called Sustainable Brooklyn.
02:50And essentially I exist to disrupt the whitewashing of sustainability and sort of transform our thinking into what sustainable fashion looks like, what it feels like,
03:08and be a presence and voice for black folks in the sustainability space so that we can reclaim sustainability throughout fashion,
03:15but also in wellness and beauty and in all things that we embody.
03:20Amazing. And I feel like creating Harlem Fashion Row is a form of activism on its own.
03:28What are you doing to close the divide and how else are you closing the divide?
03:35Yeah, when I first started Harlem's Fashion Row, nobody wanted to talk about race and fashion.
03:40And I always say it wasn't just like the white fashion industry.
03:44No one wanted to have the conversation because no one wanted to be pigeonholed, right?
03:49So it was tough.
03:51There were many times that I was challenged to my face, like, why are you supporting black designers?
03:55Why does it have to be all about black?
03:58And why can't it be like more, they would say, why don't you just open it up to all emerging designers?
04:02I got that for the first 10 years of HFR.
04:06And so it was not easy to stick to that vision, but at the time when I started it,
04:12I realized that we, as a people, were spending $22 billion a year in apparel.
04:17By the way, that's increasing to $70 billion by the year 2030.
04:21But we represented less than 1% of the designers that were in major department stores.
04:27But that was where we were spending our money.
04:29And I couldn't let that go.
04:31And so it's been like this uphill battle for 10 years.
04:36And now I feel like the industry has caught up to what we're doing.
04:40And so that's nice.
04:42But it is so much more work that we have to do because designers still need access to capital.
04:49There's the HBCU fashion departments, who we all support, still need access to capital.
04:55They need really great professors who understand the industry.
04:58So one of the things that we've done, we created Icon 360, which is our nonprofit, to give money to black designers and also to give money to HBCU fashion departments.
05:07And so we've been able to give about $1.2 million to black designers and $1.1 million to HBCU fashion departments that have been ignored for years.
05:17Wow, that's amazing.
05:47I've been in the traditional sustainability space for like 15 years before it was cool, before it was trendy, before it was a thing.
05:54And it did not take me long to realize that sustainability is synonymous with blackness and brownness.
06:03Sustainability inherently is rooted in the DNA of how we connect with the earth, how we connect with each other.
06:11It's synonymous with blackness and blackness and blackness and blackness and blackness and whiteness and whiteness.
06:20It's synonymous with community building.
06:21It's synonymous with activism.
06:24It's synonymous with all things that we don't traditionally think because we've been programmed and there's been propaganda for us to not understand sustainability.
06:37But sustainability is everything from, you know, the plastic bag that we keep and reuse to condition our hair.
06:46Sustainability is everything from you supporting your friend's business because she's reworking jewelry in her Brooklyn basement.
06:55Sustainability is the work that Abrima is doing in Ghana, connecting with artisans and having a circular supply chain,
07:04a very transparent supply chain from Brooklyn all the way out of the country.
07:10Sustainability is literally, we eat, sleep and breathe sustainability.
07:16And if y'all don't leave here knowing this, know that black folks are inherently sustainable.
07:22And we have to unlearn a lot of the bullshit that we've been taught about sustainability.
07:28The hair butters we make, right?
07:30I mean, the shea butters we make, the things that we're putting in our hair.
07:34How we adorn ourselves when we're walking down the street and just taking up space.
07:40Our ancestors, the farm work that we do.
07:43Like, it's embedded in so much of who we are.
07:49And I don't know, this isn't clearly a definition.
07:52But just knowing that sustainability encompasses this 360 super dynamic apparatus of who we are and how we take up space.
08:01Yeah, no, that was, that was an amazing answer.
08:03Well, it's not a dictionary definition.
08:04Well, I don't think that sustainability, no, I think that's important.
08:09That's important because sustainability is not one thing.
08:12And we overcomplicate it, right?
08:13Yeah.
08:13As you were talking, I was thinking, how many things do we throw away in our closet because the ham came out?
08:19Absolutely.
08:19Because the button came off.
08:20Yeah.
08:21Because the zipper don't work.
08:22Yep.
08:22Like, and doing, just going to get those things fixed.
08:26And we used to have our grandparents who were fixed for us.
08:29Yeah, absolutely.
08:30Or we would know how to do it.
08:31But that's being sustainable.
08:33Absolutely.
08:34Little things like that is being sustainable.
08:35We do it daily.
08:36And we don't even realize it.
08:38Exactly.
08:38We don't realize it.
08:39I feel like another, like, community is a part of sustainability.
08:43I have a community collective with a friend of mine and we really, we do stoop sales and we have our friends bring their clothes from their closet and get rid of them, like, selling them on the street.
08:55Or we work with local brands and, like, basically, you know, bringing in an audience that might not know, oh, my friend, this person's reworking clothes.
09:03Like, this is a form of sustainability as well.
09:07So, I loved your answer.
09:09Shop and swap.
09:11Secondhand, thrifting, vintage.
09:13All of that.
09:14Exactly.
09:18For you, did you have something else to say?
09:19No?
09:20Okay.
09:20Amazing.
09:21So, what do you, how do you want to, you know, educate our community more on what you just said?
09:32Sustainability is, like, what we do every day.
09:35Like, are there resources that people can look into?
09:38Like, how are you main, like, how are you sustaining?
09:42Like, this pure approach to what you're talking about in your messaging for Sustainable BK and also HFR?
09:50We're just starting a conversation.
09:53I will tell you, I am not an expert in sustainability, but I know that it is probably one of the most important conversations we can have right now in fashion.
10:02I have a seven-year-old, and I think about what kind of world she's going to inherit.
10:07You know, a lot of us in here got kids.
10:09And so, if we're not talking about sustainability, we're literally not thinking about how our kids are going to be able to live in this earth, our grandkids, our great-grandkids.
10:17So, for us, it's, like, how do we start the conversation?
10:21We actually had an intern two years ago.
10:25Actually, she was a junior person on our team who said, why are we not doing a sustainability summit?
10:29And so, we launched it from that because of her suggestion.
10:33And so, we're in this place of, like, how do we just make sure that it is on the minds of everyone?
10:38For me, personally, one of the things that I've been trying not to do is not buy any fabric that's not sustainable.
10:45So, how do I make sure that everything in my closet is a natural fiber that can actually be recycled and be reworked?
10:52That's a lot of research that goes into understanding what material we should be wearing, what material.
10:59Because, once again, I think it goes back to having the resources to, like, oh, there's more research that goes into, really, this product, this fabric.
11:09It's not exactly aligned with the messaging of sustainability.
11:13So, how do you, what's your go-to for, like, doing that research?
11:18Yeah, for me, I'm just looking at natural fiber.
11:20So, anything I get from a brema, I know it's, like, going to be 100% cotton.
11:25The outfit I have on right now is from K. Malaylay, 100% silk.
11:29So, I just, I'm like, if I can just stick with, like, pure fabrics, that's my thing.
11:34But, the other piece of it I was going to say is, I don't think you could talk about sustainability without talking about tech.
11:40And, they were talking about AI.
11:42I think technology is going to allow us to be so much more sustainable.
11:45Because, right now, when designers go to make a collection, they have to get all those items sampled.
11:50Technology keeps all of that from happening.
11:53And, so, I think that it's, for me, when I think about it, I think that it is, like, synonymous, right?
12:00That they go together.
12:01Yes, yes.
12:02And, then, we have Nico joining us on stage.
12:05Welcome, Nico.
12:09Yes, the baby.
12:11The baby.
12:12Congratulations on all the things.
12:14Also, hello.
12:20I love this look.
12:22It's amazing.
12:24God is amazing.
12:27Check.
12:28There it is.
12:30What's up, Afropunk?
12:32No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
12:34Y'all ain't nowhere near from the continent.
12:36Y'all better act like y'all know.
12:38What's up, Afropunk?
12:40All right.
12:41All right.
12:42We got this little glossy runway.
12:43Well, let me not, I'm here.
12:45You might have to do a runway walk for us a little bit later.
12:48Good morning.
12:48Good morning.
12:49So, we've been talking about fashion and sustainability and how sustainability can look so different to everyone.
12:58And, I just kind of want to, like, pick your brain on fashion and sustainability.
13:04Specifically, to Uncle Clifford.
13:07Oopsie.
13:08To Uncle Clifford's role and character.
13:12I feel like with sustainability comes freedom, like freedom of expression, freedom of knowledge, freedom of knowing, like you were talking about what material to use.
13:22I think knowledge is a part of sustainability.
13:25So, could we, like, could you, like, just share with us what it feels like to embody a character who has that creative freedom and is able to sustain that, like, throughout his character development or their character development?
13:41Sure.
13:41Sure.
13:42As an actor portraying Uncle Clifford, the creator, first of all, Katori Hall, was very intentional about creating a space where she could, as a writer, explore masculinity and femininity without any boundaries.
14:01And, so, from that space, she really wanted to amplify members of the LGBTQ community and thereby landed Uncle Clifford in the non-binary space.
14:13And it was one of those things that I used to have issues, like, you know, I used to, real talk, I'm from Detroit.
14:22So, if you're from, anybody from the D?
14:23Me.
14:24Okay, come on, Westside.
14:25Six Mile Southfield.
14:26So, like, I come from a world that is, that embraces its retro.
14:32Yes.
14:33And yesteryear as today.
14:35So, I never, I thought my platforms was just like my granddad's.
14:39Like, you know what I mean?
14:39It wasn't nothing funky about it.
14:41So, like, when I rock these, it's just, like, you're just rocking what your granddad used to wear.
14:45Like, you know, going in his closet, getting his little tie clips and, you know, like, little things like that that I used to hold on to.
14:50But I remember there was, there would be times when we would shoot scenes and, like, our shoes and our feet are not in the shots.
14:57And I would be like, ooh, Beck, can I take off these stilettos?
15:00Let me, you know, get a flip-flop or something.
15:03Yeah.
15:03And Katori would say no.
15:06And she said because it would always change the frame that the characters that you would see on screen.
15:11And one of the intentions was definitely to have masculine men have to look up to femininity.
15:17Which is something that they don't do necessarily in life.
15:21Oftentimes, masculinity looks down upon femininity.
15:25So, she was exploring a lot of social constructs through the wardrobe, through the fashion.
15:31There were things like, she was like, don't shave your chest because I want to see the hair.
15:35And then, you know, I'm a full-figure brother.
15:37But, you know, some folks would be like, well, what's going on with your body?
15:39I'm like, it's all love.
15:41This is all good for the pushing, baby.
15:43Yes.
15:43You understand what I mean?
15:44So, like, to be in a space where just even in your body, when you can embrace all of that.
15:51And playing Uncle Clifford, whether that's in wardrobe, whether that's in body types.
15:56It was something that allowed me to embrace all of my sun rays.
16:01Love.
16:01And all of the things that folks love in the dark.
16:04I ain't never had nobody complain about my sun rays or tiger stripes.
16:07You understand what I'm saying?
16:08Yes.
16:09And if you really know, you know, you understand, you understand.
16:12And if you lack a little bone every now and again, it's okay.
16:15You can get your marrow in another place.
16:17But I feel like through exploring the creativity and the fashion and looks and stuff like that, it was just boundless.
16:26So, for me, in my real life now, I mean, I always kind of had that.
16:30But I was never, my mom is a full-figure woman, and she taught me to embrace my chocolate and my sickness and all that kind of stuff.
16:39So, like, color was never something that I shied away from.
16:42Yeah.
16:42But being in the role, it makes me, it makes me more conscious and intentional, like, with how I dress that day, because it's about what I want to experience.
16:53It's what I want to experience.
16:55It's also what I want people to experience.
16:58I know I'm coming to Essence Fest.
17:00Nico don't dress like this every day.
17:02You know what I'm saying?
17:03I'm usually in some jeans and a hoodie.
17:05Just because everything else is always so much.
17:08Yeah.
17:08I appreciate a good slide and a fitted cap.
17:12You understand what I mean?
17:12Of course.
17:13We love a basic.
17:13Yeah, yeah.
17:14Just like, you know, you're looking gorgeous, got these cocoa legs and stuff.
17:17But I'm sure.
17:18I love a uniform.
17:19I'm just saying.
17:20But it's not, it's always that test of, if you can't look cute in your jogging pants, your sweats, and a t-shirt, then you ain't cute.
17:28You understand what I'm saying?
17:29It always comes inside out.
17:31So, yeah.
17:34I know.
17:35I know.
17:35Dominique, I know I didn't get your answer on the, how do you stay true in, like, your purest self in your practice of sustainability?
17:50How do I stay true?
17:51I mean, look at me.
17:51I'm on stage with my newborn.
17:53I know.
17:54I know.
17:55I don't know if it gets more authentic and real than this, and I feel like that's the heartbeat of sustainability, too.
18:00Especially when it comes to our culture.
18:01I mean, sustainability is, there's so much rooted in self and community, and the reality, the realism of authenticity.
18:11And so, it's easy.
18:13And I'm a Leo.
18:14I'm from Oakland.
18:15Okay.
18:16Okay, Leo.
18:19But, yeah.
18:20I have, I'll let you go.
18:23I can go on and on and on.
18:24But, the, to, it's pretty simple to, to be true to myself and to connect with community members who are doing the same.
18:35And the sustainability, the sustainable fashion space is so dope and so vast.
18:40Yes.
18:41You have everything from natural dyed garments to upcycled and thrifted threads.
18:48You have, you know, you have vintage.
18:50You have folks who are spiritually connected to the soil.
18:53You have folks who are deep in hip-hop culture.
18:56All of that.
18:57There's so many people in the tribe of sustainability and sustainable fashion that it becomes very easy to feel authentic, feel represented, feel loved, and to continue that on this journey.
19:10So, I know, I think it's, sustainability is something that, as a community, we are, like, welcome in that space.
19:17And, like, the more people that we see in the space and inviting our community in, I feel like, once you, like, you said it, sustainability, we are sustainability as a community.
19:27And let me just, not to cut you off, it's not a space that we need to be welcomed to.
19:33Yeah.
19:33Let's be clear.
19:33It's not like we're having a seat at the table.
19:35We created the fucking table.
19:36Exactly.
19:37Let's be very, very clear.
19:38Yeah.
19:38And so, with a lot of the work that I'm doing, it's, again, affirming the fact that we created this shit, and that's why it's so important for us to come together, to connect, to create this intercommunal network of dopeness across sustainability.
19:55And know that it's not monolithic, know that it has so much shape and sparkle and colors and texture, right?
20:05And so, yeah, the sustainability space and the sustainable fashion space in general is, it's looking a lot different these days than when I started 15 years ago, which is really dope.
20:17And I just love the fact that we are taking up space and creating collective community around it.
20:24And just like, you know, Brandice and Harlem Fashion Row, folks are learning about it as we go and creating space and continuing to build and connect with one another.
20:34And that's what it's all about.
20:37We're about to wrap up.
20:38I just want to ask you guys, is there anything that you have coming up that you want to share with the audience?
20:44What do I have coming up?
20:47Well, so y'all don't be asking all doggone day.
20:51There is a season three coming.
20:52You know?
20:54Okay?
20:54There absolutely is a season three of P-Valley that is coming.
20:57And there is another project that I'm in the midst of right now that I was literally just coming from, and that is called Down in the Valley.
21:05Okay.
21:05And Down in the Valley is a real-life docuseries that goes into the real pockets because everybody thinks it's like, oh, there's no such place like P-Valley.
21:14Not realizing that it stands for P-Valley, which is a housing development in Memphis, as is Hurt Village.
21:21Everything that you see in that show is rooted in truth and documentary.
21:25But I said, let me go into the real places and see the real faces and real people that reflect this culture.
21:32Because it was something for me as a creative that was, it was shocking to me that people online and in comments were like, oh, well, that's cute, but I don't know.
21:42And I couldn't.
21:43And I'm like, you couldn't what?
21:45But they're not realizing literally some of Uncle Clifford's clothes, fashions, I saw at Essence Fest two years ago, and I would stop and say, where'd you get that hat?
21:55The hat from the funeral in season one came from here.
22:00The purse, Uncle Clifford's purse, that little basketball round thing got from the flea market.
22:05Because I asked the sister, I said, where'd you get that?
22:07Boom.
22:08So for me, and I think the creatives on this show, it's about reflecting our real culture.
22:13And like you were saying, eradicating this shame around or thinking that you have to be something other than you are.
22:21You understand what I mean?
22:22If, you know, everybody know you put a little water on the brush and it goes through a little bit better.
22:28You understand what I mean?
22:31Sustainable.
22:32Exactly.
22:32And like, for me, the world that we're living in, there's too much, there's so many people that's trying to tell you you cannot and that you are not enough.
22:42How dare you join that choir?
22:45How dare you join that choir when you come from a people that sing a song without words and you understand it?
22:53You understand it and you don't even speak that language.
22:56So, like, our fashion and our looks and our creativity, our church, it's everything.
23:03We're giving three, four different styles up here.
23:05You know what I mean?
23:06And I just feel like it's time to really be bold and to stop that shame.
23:12So, yeah.
23:13That's what I got going on.
23:14Down in the valley, coming out on stars.
23:15Come on.
23:18What am I working on?
23:28I'm working on several different projects and activations, but what I will say is right now I'm really focused on, well, the collaboration of motherhood.
23:37But I'm working on a book that's focused on blackness and sustainability, not people of color.
23:44It's very directly rooted in the African diaspora.
23:49It's rooted in Afro-Indigeneity.
23:51It's rooted in hip-hop culture so that we can understand sustainability that we weren't taught in the mainstream space and in, you know, traditional institutions.
24:03And so I'm working on that book while simultaneously working on somewhat of a podcast so that I can interview black designers, black farmers, black, all black folks across the different sustainability industries so that that narrative can be completely changed.
24:22I want to decolonize sustainability, and I want us to, again, reaffirm and rebuild sustainability in our DNA so that we can be liberated in a very different way, with sustainability being the pulse and the heartbeat of how we walk and talk and dance.
24:41That's amazing.
24:41I love that, Dominique.
24:44We actually launched a book in February that we're still promoting.
24:49When I look back at the history, part of my hobby is researching black designers throughout time.
24:57There is only one book that captures us and our contribution to fashion.
25:03It's called Blacks in the History of Fashion, written by Lois K. Alexander Lane, who is the founder of the Harlem Institute of Fashion and the Black Fashion Museum.
25:13And because of her, some of our history has been preserved.
25:17That book was written in 1982.
25:20There's not been a book out like that since then.
25:23And so it's great to put things on the internet, but we needed something physical that will be registered with the Library of Congress that preserves who we were in this industry.
25:33And so we launched volume one of that book.
25:35It's called Fashion and Color.
25:37You can get it at fashionandcolorbook.com.
25:39But it's called Fashion and Color, and we, from A to Z, we basically lay out, there's a designer for every single letter.
25:47Olivier Rusting, who is the creative director at Balmain, wrote the foreword for that book.
25:51We dedicated the book to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
25:54If you know anything about Source Magazine, we gave five mics to Misa Hilton and Dapper Dan at the very beginning of the book.
26:00And then it tells a little bit about our journey in the back.
26:03But we have to, I love that you're writing this book because we have to be the ones that tell our own stories and make sure that our history is preserved.
26:11And just to add to that, I know we have to go, but to know that sustainability, like sustainable fashion is not siloed.
26:16It's very much connected with so many other things.
26:20Again, it's connected to food.
26:21It's connected to beauty.
26:22It's connected to wellness.
26:23It's connected to dance.
26:24It's all connected.
26:26So having that ecosystem, understand that it's an ecosystem.
26:30It's not just sustainable fashion.
26:31It's all connected.
26:33Exactly.
26:33That's a great closing point.
26:35So I want to thank all of you for coming up and talking about fashion sustainability.
26:39All of you are working on amazing things, and I can't wait to follow your journey.
26:43And we're wrapping, so.
26:46Thank you all.
28:18Don't worry about me and who I fire.
28:20I get what I desire.
28:21It's my empire.
28:22And yes, I call the shots.
28:23I am the umpire.
28:24I sink a holy water upon a vampire.
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