Fashion Designer Briana Danyele Uses Her Platform to Talk About Systematic Racism
Whereas some designers discover and fall in love with fashion, 23-year-old designer Briana Danyele says that for her it wasn’t really a choice. “It was just going to be something that I was a part of because it was a part of me,” the recent Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) grad tells me over the phone. Danyele not only knew at an early age that she wanted to be a designer, but she also wanted to make clothes that made people feel something beyond the tangible, whether that’s confidence or the need to take action.
With her most recent collection, “The Illusion of Progress,” that feeling is action, or rather a look at what can happen as a result of inaction. The 18-piece collection, which she showed in May as apart of SCAD’s spring fashion graduate show, highlights what she describes as “the cyclical struggle we have created with systemic racism.” “I question how far have we actually progressed in the fight for social justice from the 1950s to today,” Danyele tells Teen Vogue. “In my collection I take you through a time line of where we were as a nation, where we are as a nation, and my hope for where we are headed.”
She does this without sacrificing her design prowess. There’s a heavy focus on embroidery: sleeves embossed with Maya Angelou’s words, “Still I Rise,” a pair of pants that say “No Justice,” and another that includes words from the Declaration of Independence. Then there’s a silk-tulle dress with “I Am Human” embroidered in the center, worn on top of a tailored shirtdress. Another standout look: a two-tone embroidered jacket with custom-printed denim pants made up of faces of those who have been lost due to racially controversial conflicts, including police brutality. “I wanted to create beautiful clothing visually and intelligent clothing conceptually,” Danyele says.
She joins a wave of designers including Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean Raymond, Prabal Gurung, Mara Hoffman, and Gypsy Sport’s Rio Uribe who have used fashion—whether via design, casting, or with public statements—to speak out on issues including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, body shaming, and more. Fashion is, after all, a form of expression, so it’s only natural to see designers using their platforms to speak out about things that are important to them. “The dialogue that my clothing creates is my favorite thing about my collection, for sure. My work gives you the opportunity to talk about hard subjects. And if you choose to do so, you are choosing to help us grow,” Danyele says.
This intentional perspective on design was in Danyele from an early age. She recalls memories of trying on coral satin heels for her eight-grade dance and feeling like a superstar, strutting and twirling in the aisles at Payless. “That was when it clicked for me: I wanted to give other people the confidence that those satin heels gave me,” she says. “When people have confidence in themselves, they can do great things. And when people do great things, they can change the world. I just wanted to do my part.”
Danyele honed her skills throughout high school, parlaying her noticeable talents into a spot at SCAD, and later at internships for Badgley Mischka and Barbie. She’s long been drawn to visual artists who wade in identity-based work, citing Hank Willis Thomas, Glenn Ligon, and fellow SCAD grad Masud Olufani as inspiration. Her fashion influences include the aforementioned Jean-Raymond as well as Miuccia Prada and Thom Browne.
Danyele says her collection was in part an homage to those who have experienced injustice, evoking the names of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Antwon Rose, Sandra Bland, Terence Crutcher, Rekia Boyd, and more. “I believe that in order to get through the darkness you need light, so I was also inspired by people like Mamie Till or the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Maya Angelou—people that give me hope. Creating this collection was my form of hope, my form of acknowledgement. It was my way of being the light.”
Perhaps the most affecting piece from the collection is one inspired by a police vest. “The most heartbreaking [piece] to create,” she says. It features the names of victims of police brutality embroidered throughout. It’s worn over a white collared shirt, which is embroidered with the words, “I can’t breathe,” the final words of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014. His crime: being in the wrong place at the wrong time or, depending on your perspective, simply being a black man in America.
“Fashion has always had a role in social and political conversations and I believe it always will,” Danyele says. “Sometimes it is not enough to just tell people what you believe; sometimes you have to show them. As consumers of the fashion industry, that can mean statement-making apparel and/or money mindfulness, by knowing exactly where your money goes when you support a brand. For brand leaders that could mean showing well-rounded representation in your model castings, donating profits to support causes, and/or using your platform to be an activist in your own way.”
But make no mistake, these pieces are statements meant to be worn. In fact, Danyele wants them to be multifunctional, appropriate to wear in the workplace and in the street. But more important to her than where they are worn is who is wearing the clothes, saying she wants a consumer who is “woke,” and socially conscious of what is happening in the world.
When she showed the collection Danyele heard the applause, but she also noticed the silence and discomfort, something she does not want people to feel alienated by. “I am asking us to work through discomfort and speak through silence,” she says. “If we do not acknowledge and talk about hard things then there is no way that we can ever grow from them.”
Pieces from the collection are currently available on Danyele’s website. As for what’s next post-graduation? “I’m working hard, preparing, and enjoying everything right now.” One thing is certain: Whatever comes next will be worth watching.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
