October 19, 2022 |
Ronan Mckenzie is probably best recognised by the striking portraiture and exquisite fashion imagery dedicated to Black bodies and female divinity that she lenses in celebration of individuality, connection and relationships. She has a sensitivity and an openness that allows her to engage with her subjects, capturing their truest and most honest emotions – immortalising their energies and souls in a single second. Shooting for an extensive roster of clientele traversing i-D, Vogue, Stella McCartney, Nike and Adidas, among others, her evocative photos are acutely emotive and searingly beautiful. But, while being behind the lens might have been her first love, the British-Caribbean multidisciplinary’s peerless eye for style and design has led her to the whirlwind world of sartorialism.
Enter: Selasi, Mckenzie’s infantile, pacifying clothing brand. Meaning, “God hears me,” in Ewe – a language spoken in Ghana – the name Selasi seems sacrosanct. However McKenzie is agnostic, really; spiritual yet unsure of the existence of a God. So, what Selasi means to Mckenzie is inner power and her bearings with herself; hearing herself, understanding herself, trusting herself. Staging Selasi’s first physical catwalk at St. John’s Church in Hackney last week, a new collection emerged from the settling wake of a year awash with healing, heartbreak and self-discovery following the end of a long-term relationship. Its title: When I Close My Eyes and Taste Desire.
Taking meditative, slow steps, models circled around the space hand clasped in hand, their movements seemingly indicative of Mckenzie’s own precise and obsessive thought-processes. At the centre of the chapel sat a subversive chair-like structure dubbed Body Language 001. Created in collaboration with close friend Jobe Burns, it pores over the relationships between human form and sculptural design, informed by the acts of holding and of being held.
The basilica was swallowed up by a sensual custom scent from Ezra-Lloyd Jackson and the resonances of Melo-Zed’s clattering composition which was overlaid by distorted recordings of the designer’s most intimate thoughts and ushered in an open-ended conversation about Mckenzie’s life – her triumphs, her failures.
For the 45-minute-long ceremonial show, Mckenzie brought her closest friends and collaborators together for a delicate inquisition of the raw human experience and the dimensions of physical connection. Mckenzie’s ex-lover was there too, temporarily reunited with the designer, who inserted herself into the kinetic tableau. Their intimate embrace upon Body Language 001 felt both brave and bittersweet, navigating Mckenzie’s deeply personal heartache and recovery by separating romantic intimacy from the ability to connect with people.
Drawing reference to skin, a palette appreciating Blackness, Black people, and Black skin was seen throughout. Elsewhere, calming lilacs felt therapeutic and vibrant crimsons seemed to symbolise the anger that comes in the period before healing.
Pieces were like a playground of catch-22 tensions, held and released, pressurised and caressed, inhaled and exhaled; designs drawn along powerful, undulating feminine lines, just like the ones found in her poignant photography. Tender, torso-cut knit frocks, were softly swept away with protrusions on the side of the body, turning and twisting onto themselves while little tops and miniskirts were worked into new fabrications, like leather and animal hide, with wavy hems. These were skilfully sewn into puffers and slouchy trousers as well. It was a culminating fashion show-turned-performance-art piece tackling the importance of being held by the clothes we wear and the nuances of shared vulnerability, too.
Photography courtesy of Selasi.
