New Prints by Shadé Akanbi are Here!
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You may remember Shadé's most recent Zuri print that we made in collaboration with S'well bottles, Be S'well (picured above:), and she's also the creative force behind our Citron and Horizon dresses, for those of you have been following along with her work these last couple years! While she definitely has a geometric inclination (pun intended:), we're thrilled to introduce her latest organic prints, and wanted to share a little bit about her and her design process with you!
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PATTERN PROCESS!
Shadé starts with paints before converting the design to a digital format, and we love that her work is so tangible and alive on the page and fabric. We encourage you to follow her on Instagram, where she has a series called #PatternoftheDae where she creates a new design daily and shares the process from start to finish!
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After the pattern is put to paper and made into a digital file, we'll create what's called a table sample in a few different colorways. Here were the two finalists of this week's dress design, which we then shared on our Instagram page to get your input! While there was truly no wrong answer here, blue ended up being the one you all loved the most:)
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OH, DID WE MENTION HER BAGS?
In addition to being a talented and prolific surface pattern designer, Shadé also has her own line of accessories called Printed Pattern People, which includes this fabulous cross-body bag! We are working with her now to be able to offer a small capsule collection of her bags later this year, and we just wanted to get you all excited for what's to come:)
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Born in London and raised in Barbados, jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings brings a mix of Carribean folk and Egyptian influences to his quartet, Sons of Kemet. Self-described as "jazz meets Afrofuturism", We absolutely love their music, particularly their most recent album, Black to the Future. Enjoy!
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Through her experimental story quilts, paintings and sculptures, American multi-disciplinary artist Faith Ringgold dives into a complex exploration of gender and racial identities in her current retrospective, on exhibition now at the New Museum. A staunch advocate of the feminist movement, the very use of the quilt as a medium allowed her to maintain her independence, as she could simply roll up her quilts to take to the gallery herself. The show runs through June 5th at 235 Bowery, NYC.
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This essay by poet Ilya Kaminsky, excerpted from a collection from 2017, asks, “How can one speak about, write about, war?” In reflecting on a poet who refuses to lecture in Russian as an act of protest, another poet who refuses to speak in unfragmented Ukrainian as her country fragments, and his own experiences confronting the language of war this, Kaminsky confronts the physicality of language between people and its power to embody change.
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