Table Of Content
We started the company due to our collective interest in the cultural retention of storytelling, transference of storytelling narratives in the family context, and the reclamation of these narratives within the black community. We are particularly interested in how these narratives are expressed communally, spiritually and in the present time. How do you bring your own personal experiences into what House of Aama is doing? We have looked to our own family legacy to inform the stories we can tell in a sartorial fashion. The Bloodroot collection was inspired by Rebecca’s maternal grandparents in Shreveport, Louisiana. Every summer, when Rebecca was a child she would spend her summers in Louisiana on her grandparents’ farm.
How the Mother-Daughter Duo Behind House of Aama Created Their Entirely Personal Met Gala Looks - Vogue
How the Mother-Daughter Duo Behind House of Aama Created Their Entirely Personal Met Gala Looks.
Posted: Tue, 14 Sep 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
House of Aama
Rebecca, the mother of the duo is an attorney in private practice by trade but artistically oriented in nature with sewing, quilting, and art hobbies. Akua learned from her mother and is a graduate of Parsons The New School of Design. House of Aama’s Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka revisited ideas put forward in the 2017 “Bloodroot” collection for fall 2022.
House Of Aama Taps Into Its Intersection Of African And West Indian Cultures
Our BLOODROOT designs are reflective of the PostBellum Southern United States. Rebecca and Akua were inspired by this earlier time period because they believe it’s tremendously significant and critical in Black culture. This was a time when their ancestors had been emancipated from slavery and they were striving to claim their rightful place with forward determination and dignity. These designs are meant to convey a strong sense of self worth built on the retention of strong cultural traditions. Rebecca’s maternal grandmother used to give her bloodroot daily as a child as a medicinal tincture in Louisiana.
Incredible Moments From The Daily’s Fashion Los Angeles…
In the summer of 2019, Rebecca and Akua traveled to Jamaica and collected personal narratives as part of our storytelling gathering. In addition, they have previously traveled to Cuba, Louisiana and Senegal to conduct research and archive personal narratives. In furtherance of their storytelling interests, they launched an online platform for their social media guests to share narratives from their personal family histories. These narratives included favorite familial narratives, folktales, quotes and sayings. Rebeca and Akua soon realized that a niche market existed for modern, contemporary cultural wares and thus House of Aama was founded. Soon thereafter, they began experimenting with original designs reflective of their individual and collective cultural influences.
Meet Courtney Davis Schlesinger: Funnywoman, Fashion Fixture, And…
For Fall/winter 2023, mother-daughter duo Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka presented a collection that taps into the intersection of their African and West Indian cultures. The ambiance was set to pay homage to family and an old story of a spider on a long journey surviving obstacles and his own foolishness at times. An altar was set up front right next to the curtain opening, where models walked out. It was a dedication to Akua’s father and Rebecca’s family members, as well as photos of them were placed on a table with ornaments of colorful cloth, fruit, and coffee for the well-being of those ancestors. House of Aama enters the latest season of New York Fashion Week with a continued commitment to ritual, exploring new modes of materiality.
House Of Aama Brings Los Angeles' Jazz Scene Into The Present
We are excited for our growth and the opportunities to reach new consumers and retailers. Parsons The New School for Design graduate Akua Shabaka and her lawyer mom Rebecca Henry are the creatives behind House of Aama, an LA-based brand that wants to bring African American history and heritage to the forefront of its modern designs. The environmentally-friendly, unisex brand has sustainability front and center, with each low waste piece piece made to order and produced in the City of Angels. Here, the duo tell The Daily about how they’re emphasizing the black experience, culture, and tradition through their garments. 2015 House of Aama is poised to become the next “great expression” in fashion and design. House of Aama is the spiritual expression of mother and daughter design duo, Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka in material form.
There may be some new faces in attendance as cities in North Carolina made history by electing three Black women as their leaders. A time-limited eligibility pilot program expands the education pathway for medical assistants to be eligible take the CMA (AAMA) Certification Exam. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The ladies weren’t alone at this party; the fellas joined the soiree in letterman jackets, cardigans, relaxed-fit polos, and pinstripe button-downs stamped with the brand’s logos.
MORE FROM Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear
In 2013, Shabaka, currently a student at Parsons School for Design in New York, and Henry, who is a trained seamstress in addition to being a lawyer, began making their own clothes with vintage textiles and traditional African fabrics. For the next few years they created various capsule collections together and designed a line in collaboration with Senegalese artist Bassirou Seck; now the pair is ready to take the upstart label to the next level. On Monday they will launch their official House of Aama website and e-commerce store featuring their first full collection, for Fall 2017, called Bloodroot. In the fittingly tropical, low-key atmosphere of the Freehand Hotel, Henry and Shabaka’s spring show nodded to that era with circle skirts, crochet tanks, scarf prints, and beachy stripes, with a retro playlist to match.
These looks transported onlookers between the various eras of folk and jazz aesthetics. At once showgoers were a part of multiple eras of ancestral pasts simultaneously. In its entirety, the House of Aama showcase was a welcome warmth on an otherwise chilly, dimly-toned day. The experiential component of this season’s show was in careful conversation with all the textile elements of the pieces themselves.
“Many of the models this season, are walking for the first time,” Cochrane adds. Your pieces are made to order; do you think this is something we’re going to see more brands turning to? Especially during this time of major uncertainty, the last thing we need in fashion is unused gametes, fabric, and waste. Rebecca and Akua hope that Bloodroot conveys to people of color the strength and resilience of the experience of African people in the Southern United States and that this strength and resilience can be conveyed in a sartorial artistic medium. Akua's friends became interested in her clothes and in response Rebecca and Akua began making simple items for sale, such as culturally adorned cut off shorts and t-shirts with African fabric sleeves. A deep exploration into the night sky.Due to the unique printing method of this design, colors and patterns may vary slightly.
But Henry and Shabaka aren’t just in it for the clothes; they’re as passionate about storytelling and sharing knowledge, particularly about the lesser-known histories of Black people in America. Built along Midwest lakes and California coasts, the resorts were a joyful respite at a time when most beaches were not yet desegregated. As a child, Akua Shabaka loved watching her mother, Rebecca Henry, at work. “She was a self-employed female attorney in a male-dominated field,” Shabaka says. “I watched my mother working for herself and I was inspired to be an entrepreneur.” As fate would have it, the mother and daughter forged their own business relationship with a fashion brand, House of Aama.
HOUSE OF AAMA - WOMEN FW 2023/2024 - NEW YORK - Fashionnetwork USA
HOUSE OF AAMA - WOMEN FW 2023/2024 - NEW YORK.
Posted: Wed, 10 May 2023 14:35:03 GMT [source]
On the farm, Rebecca would help with planting crops, fishing, feeding farm animals and other country chores. At the end of each day, Rebecca’s grandmother would administer a spoonful of Bloodroot as a medicinal. House of Aama chose to not present a new clothing collection but instead focused on gathering archival data and field research to enhance the storytelling which forms the basis for our clothing collections.
To speak to anyone on the involved teams, this was a proud day, a win for true storytellers. For their Tuesday evening presentation, Akua Shabaka and Rebecca Henry reunited with longtime collaborators at the Lower East Side jazz bar, Club Canary into an intimate site for a different kind of creative exchange. Each individual who had a hand in the show was equally committed to being a part of the chronology of Black sartorial legacy told from the perspectives of Shabaka and Henry. “We worked together to conceptualize and bring forth the story of Salt Water by conducting historical research and honing in on the relationship of Black people to water that would lend itself well to a story told via textiles,” Shabaka and Henry said.
Overall, the show is sure to have commercial success with a blend of different aesthetics. House of Aama’s ability to stay true to different historical subtexts at the same time, is in no small part thanks to the execution of styling, production, and casting partners. Cochrane, for example, has managed model selection for more than one hundred Black artists and creatives. As a collaborator, she seeks faces that can represent the brand with a freshness communicable through striking new runway and editorial talent.
They intend on showing up at the cocktail party as characters from Camp Aama, embellishing their creations with even more personal touches. Mother-daughter duo Akua Shabaka and Rebecca Henry are the creative force behind House of Aama, a Los Angeles–based fashion label that has been telling “nuanced Black diaspora stories” since 2015. Just three days ago, they hosted a presentation during New York Fashion Week and are sporting their latest spring 2022 collection at the Met Gala’s cocktail reception held before the dinner.
This experimentation led to the birth of the youth oriented Urban Nomad capsule collection. Urban Nomad was geared toward the modern savvy youth consumer who wished to identify with an African ethos and express this interest in clothing and lifestyle choices. In keeping with this African ethos, fabric and motif selections for the Urban Nomad collection drew from West African Ashanti, Ghanaian Kente Cloth and Adinkra symbols and East African Maasai, Kenyan tartan plaid fabrics. We look forward to continuing our mission to explore narratives around the black experience that inform our timeless garments.
No comments:
Post a Comment