When Kerby Jean-Raymond was granted an opportunity to showcase a couture collection as a guest of the Chambre Syndicale, he understood the assignment.
As the first black designer to showcase on the couture calendar in the Chambre Syndicale and being forced to postpone the show due to the weather, he did a sterling job by pulling off the fashion extravaganza.
Making his Pyer Moss debut, the designer’s Autumn/Winter 2021 collection titled "Wat U Iz" paid tribute to the overlooked history of black innovation.
"We are an invention inside of an invention. Inside of the creation of race, we made blackness. Uprooted from home and put in a foreign land, we made culture. And when they tried to strip our humanity, we made freedom so tethered to each other that it still shapes the world today," read a note presented at Jean-Raymond’s show.
He showcased a three-dimensional wearable collection that was well received by the audience.
He also re-lived his childhood through the collection. For example, he had a cellphone dress that reminded him how his father used to carry a cellphone in the early ’90s.
Part of his collection included a peanut butter jar dress, reminiscing about the old days of how most black households had peanut butter spread instead of Nutella.
Let’s not forget about the ice-cream cone pants and a vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles top, which takes him back to his childhood treats in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he grew up.
We also like the fridge dress with colourful magnets writing: “But who invented black trauma?"
Here are more of our favourite looks from the collection.
