DENOUNCING PANOPTICISM:
The Vibrancy of the
Sun God
A sculptural cloak built from raffia-inspired forms, reimagined in reclaimed muslin strips, hand-shredded and layered into a dense fringe surface and dyed in an ombré of orange, gold, and yellow. Paired with exaggerated stuffed trousers, the silhouette evokes a sun-god figure—channeling light, excess, and display, evoking the radiance, vibrancy, and outer presence of Black life.
Raffia fibers, historically used across West African weaving, ceremonial dress, and everyday objects, carry histories of craft knowledge, communal labor, and deep ties to land and survival. Here, that lineage is echoed through fabrication, not imitation—transforming discarded muslin into a material language that honors those traditions while resisting disposability. By abstracting raffia into sculptural form, the work returns to a source of life within the diaspora: a joyous assertion of Black presence, Black making, and Black light—radiating across time, space, and culture.
PROCESS
GARMENT DETAILS
DENOUNCING PANOPTICISM:
The Vibrancy of the Sun God: Iteration
A central element within this thesis collection and design process is adaptability and modularity throughout my artistic practice. My practice operates through repetition, modular systems, and time-intensive hand processes that emphasize labor as both method and meaning.
Throughout the creation of this look, the garment was built layer by layer through an additive process, allowing it to be styled and reconfigured according to the choice of the wearer. This modular construction not only allows for nuance and variation, but also gives the garment a life of its own—activated and redefined through each wearer’s agency. In this way, the piece resists fixed authorship, becoming a shifting, evolving work that exists between designer and wearer, where each iteration becomes its own embodied artistic statement, unfolding independently through use and movement