Hemline Newsletter #4
Trevor Stuurman, Wales Bonner, and Storytelling at the Intersection of Home, Heritage & Globality in the African Diaspora
Hi all!
Ranji, here. Welcome to the Hemline Newsletter!
We've pretty much settled into the month of June, and there have been so many exciting developments since we last wrote. From Nigerian label Lagos Space Programme being awarded the prestigious Woolmark Prize, to Beyoncé being back on stage for the most groundbreaking global tour of our time...
… Much to be thankful for.
This week’s newsletter explores the power of image-making in fashion – how the romance of its storytelling offers people whose stories fashion has either overlooked or exploited, a lens that is much more encompassing and welcoming of nuance.
Interviewing British-Jamaican designer, Grace Wales Bonner, for I-D Magazine, author Mahfuz Sultan refers to the visual language of Wales Bonner as an “abstract geography… a form of storytelling that gathers material from everywhere the trade winds blow”.
In the same interview, Wales Bonner herself credits clothing and the imagery that we build around it, for its ability to honestly communicate complex themes – make them “immediate” and tangible.
I happened upon this interview – which speaks about Wales Bonner’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection, Volta Jazz – last year while doing research for my dissertation. At the time, I was running around in circles between the writings of Stuart Hall, Kamau Brathwaite, and Christine Checinska, trying to make sense of the connection and exchange of culture and information within the African diaspora; find words to validate my understanding that people and the cultures that we live and create can be both foreign export and authentic, local shorthand, all at once.
In framing what contemporaneity looks and feels like, the world tends to talk about tradition and heritage through a dichotomy of past vs. present; static vs. progressive. Being a mirror to the world, fashion often follows suit.
Failing to recognize the arena of tradition as dynamic and introspective, the very language of fashion often distinguishes between “fashion” and traditional “dress” in a way that perceives African fashion as synonymous with “dress”, and keeps this binary in place — as played-out as it is. Established firmly as “artefact” as opposed to “art”, rarely is dress allowed to cross into the territory of fashion. Of course, we know that this all changes when the creative wells run dry in Western Europe, and the CD of a major luxury label decides that it’s time to appropriate something cute from the global South.
Not only does an understanding of African heritage and tribe as fixed, past entities fall tragically short – it's a dishonesty driven by colonialist thinking. Fashion curator Erica De Greef writes about this in Refashioning Clothing Collections in South African Museums, tying it to the racialization of the word “tribe”. For many African people, tribe is at the core of negotiating identity in the present day. As such, a wealth of connective stories lives at the intersection between tribal heritage and globality.
Which brings me to the subject of tonight’s newsletter – the connective threads of heritage, globalization and diaspora, as told by London-based label Wales Bonner and South African visual artist Trevor Stuurman in two remarkable visual campaigns in the last two months.
With fashion industry players across the African continent and diaspora re-writing their playbooks to ensure longevity for their brands, the conversation in recent years has been around building a more inclusive industry, in which brands on the continent are better connected to one another, and to world at large. A crucial element in this shift is establishing how we lead the re-telling of Africa and the Diaspora into the global fashion canon and benefit from storytelling that is on our own terms.
On the 9th of June 2023, Wales Bonner launched its Spring/Summer 2023 collection, The Land of Wood and Water. Emphasising classic elements of athletic-wear, the collection pays homage to Jamaican style, its lasting embrace of sportswear into everyday style, and Adidas as a cultural fixture in that regard.
This comes a month after Trevor Stuurman collaborated with Gucci to celebrate the opening of the Gucci store in Oceans Mall – the first one to open in Durban, KwaZulu Natal. Producing a dialogue between IsiZulu traditional garments and Gucci pieces, Stuurman welcomed the global luxury powerhouse to the Zulu Kingdom in a series of black and white photographs celebrating luxury, heritage and globality. Layering these two unlikely worlds, Stuurman marks this cultural exchange by illustrating how this connection has always been closer than we’ve imagined.
At first glance, these two stories could not be more distant from one another. However, both are grounded in crucial cultural exchanges, and image-making that is unfailingly introspective, even as it shares the secrets of its culture with the world. Here, the reverie of fashion presents itself as a vehicle for the telling of African and diasporic fashion into the canon, exercising care for the stories and the people at their centers. Both defy convention by embracing the continuous relevance of heritage as a discourse, rather than writing it out, or capitalising on that perceived binary of past vs. future. Both, in their own ways, represent the notion of tribe as alive and kicking, utilising the stature of global brands to illustrate the simultaneous depth and dynamism of their heritages.
Shot and directed by Jalan and Jibril Durimel, the visual campaign for “The Land of Wood and Water” holds a quintessentially “Wales Bonner” kind of beauty – laced with romance and nostalgia around youth, freedom, and home. Framed by vast landscapes and bodies of water, the fraternity at the centre of this campaign hurtles after soccer balls on the beach and dives head-first into rivers. They are out in the world, and in the embrace of home, all at once.
By re-imagining classic silhouettes through the quality and craftsmanship of luxury, “The Land of Wood and Water” sees Wales Bonner elevate an already-hybrid aesthetic, aligning the everyday forms of a knitted roll-neck and sweater-vest with tracksuit and anorak ensembles. In keeping with the London-based label’s ongoing collaboration with Adidas Originals, the collection marks the return of the Adidas x Wales Bonner Samba in silver and revives the classic SL72. The collection nods to an “Uncle”-esque incorporation of sportswear into everyday life, illustrating the interwovenness of the Adidas trefoil in Jamaican expressions of culture and style. It’s a love letter to the elders and originators of this aesthetic.
Moreover, both bodies of work are underpinned by a resounding gesture of space-making. Drawing on a sense of belonging cultivated in visual cues, I like to think that Stuurman was aware of the gathering that his collaborative campaign with Gucci would produce – of people who felt seen and recognized by it.
Observing this culture as its neighbour, I’ve come to recognise IsiZulu nationhood as a force steeped in a history of warriorship and royalty. At the core of it is a formidable sense of pride, and an enviable emphasis on ceremony and belonging. Adornment has always been a vivid communicator in this regard, which Stuurman captures beautifully in this series of portraits.
Styled by Sheli Masondo, who worked alongside Stuurman on Beyoncé’s Black is King, Stuurman’s is a very current gesture. It challenges a fashion discourse that has long thrived on the peripherality of African fashion, but never stops referencing it.
Gucci was one of the first luxury houses to embrace and become synonymous with globalization in fashion. Here, Gucci’s 102-year heritage becomes a vehicle for an alignment of legacies, and the re-telling of IsiZulu tradition and African ingenuity as synonymous with power, prestige, and luxury.
Traditional IsiZulu accessories — from Iintsimbi (beaded neckpieces) to beaded headdresses usually worn by traditional healers — are placed alongside Gucci necklaces and earrings. In one particularly striking image, a man wearing Umqhele (a traditional IsiZulu headpiece worn by men) gazes into the lens. In this interplay of languages, a garment synonymous with IsiZulu warriorhood enriches a classic Gucci suit. Sharing the photographs on Instagram, Stuurman writes:
“I have always identified as a global African, someone who is deeply rooted in the ideology of home. Being approached by Gucci to contribute to its arrival to the city of eThekwini (Durban)… was more than just a celebration, but a reminder of the importance of cultural collaboration. It was a great honour to welcome Gucci, a global heritage brand, to the Zulu Kingdom… ”
Heritage is boundless. Its pasts and futures; localities and globalities, all rolled into one, are continuously being re-thought in the present. At the intersection of heritage and globality, fashion emerges as a poetic and empathetic vehicle for both belonging and telling oneself to the world.
Title Image Credits:
Photographer & Creative Director: Trevor Stuurman (IG: @trevor_stuurman)
Styling: Sheli Masondo (IG: @shelimasondo)