Decol: The fashion project "decolonising the brain from the norm"

Cousins Feya and Jhelissa decided to work on a fashion project together, Jhelissa being a designer and Feya a stylist and Fashion marketing student, put their skills together to create these eye-catching pieces. They wanted something different.

“we didn’t want to come up with a streetwear brand, we wanted something wacky and something that challenges the norms”.

They came up with Decol, short for Decolonisation, it’s about decolonising your brain from the norm.This duo combined their creative skills to develop this three-piece set, consisting of pants, a dress and boots. You can see for yourself from the images that they thought outside the box, embodying many of the runway couture looks we see today, we ask ourselves Vogue who? They made Couture without having to break the bank, as they help the environment by upcycling garments, using fabrics, craft supplies and piecing them together to create the finished products. Using a colourway that represents them as people, yellow, black and green the fragments that make up the Jamaican flag. They were able to come up with a theme which contrasts well together, whilst still embodying who they are.

Constructing projects aren’t easy, they take time, effort and dedication. The duo went through a process of drawing up designs and coming to a decision of what looked best. They were able to overcome their difficulties of time and space to collaborate. Feya tells me how they overcame this

“The project just kept on evolving, the majority of the design was done by Jhelissa where she sent me updates since we both live in very different cities, I had to catch the train to Huddersfield to help out”

Today more than ever before creatives are coming together to collaborate on joint projects and it’s a beautiful thing to see. It’s no longer a dog eat dog world, but now one where artists can coexist to use their unique strengths to create something new and different. With the help of social media, it has made it easier to contact models, photographers and artists to create a finished product which is something beautiful about the fashion industry. It provides more opportunities for those that want to create. Maybe Decol can inspire some of you to collaborate with others and create your own masterpieces.

The cousins used their finished pieces to direct a photoshoot, both being dark skinned black women, they wanted the models to reflect themselves. Over the years in the fashion industry more and more men and women of colour are being included. However there is still much more that needs to be done before POC can feel like they are really represented in the industry and no longer the token, the duo wanted to challenge these European beauty standards. Moreover, The shoot really embodies the delicacy of dark-skinned people which goes against media betrayal of them, which stereotypically is aggressive.

They used the location of a botanical garden, to contrast well with the clothing and to carry along the theme.

The Duo plan to work on more projects soon, each piece that they produce will be completely different to previous pieces “we are constantly being introduced to new information, and our brains take inspiration from what appeals to us most. We want that to be reflected in what we do”. To keep up to date with this duo they can be followed on Instagram @bratlanice and @_nu.beaux.