Thinking
All things created by the hands of man are artifacts that carry stories and give insight into a culture, a people, and a time. The goal with each collection has been to examine tensions within society and reflect on it through wearable conversations pieces. I deeply believe in the power of clothing to carry stories. A message on a shirt can subvert spaces, spark conversation, and change perspectives.
This collection furthers that practice and will be a year long process and conversation centered on examining the power of dreams as a whole and specifically The American Dream.
1. Explore the power of dreams as a whole, especially in relationship to liberation, autonomy, and personhood.
2. Collectively re-define The American Dream through the lens of those who have historically not been included in it.
3. With each collection there is a balancing of messaging and garment construction making sure that while you are carrying a message that's strong you're doing it in a garment that feels just as considered. From enzyme washed cotton, the crop of the shirts, or the customizable label on the jacket - these are items you can make yours and build a story with over time.
-Erwin Hines
01
The Collection
PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE
A collection focused on re-imagining the American Dream would not be complete without a nod to David Hammons’s African American Flag which re-imagines the United States flag, replacing its colors with the red, green, and black of the Pan-African Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded in 1914. Along with the flag there is a statement on the back claiming that Black history is American History, Black present is Americas Present, and Black Future is Americas Future.
BLACK IMAGINATION IS LIBERATION
A garment with double meanings. On a macro scale, we have long imagined a more liberated future and those imaginings have helped push liberation movements and society forward. On a personal side us being able to imagine and chase those dreams liberate us from the box society tries to put us in.
OUR DREAMS CARRY US
Garments that put central focus on our brand icon of the boy with balloons which represents being able to hold onto all our passions and dreams and allowing those dreams to carry us.
DREAMS LETTERMAN
A quintessential part of American collegiate culture re-imagined for the next generation.
GENERATIONAL WISDOM
Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The literal translation of the word and the symbol is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”
The symbol — on the front of the shirt— is based on a mythical bird with its feet firmly planted forward with its head turned backwards. Thus, the Akan believe the past serves as a guide for planning the future. To the Akan, it is this wisdom in learning from the past which ensures a strong future.
In order to continue building a better future we need to know oursleves and our history.
BLACK COWBOY
Black men were among the first cowboys in the U.S. They roped, branded and saddled up for cattle drives. Some gained fame, such as Bill Pickett and Nat Love.
Pickett, credited with creating the bulldogging technique of bringing a young steer to the ground in a rodeo, was featured in a silent film, “The Bull-Dogger” in 1921.
But mostly, as time passed, pop culture erased Black cowboys from the Western milieu, creating a misleading image of the Old West as peopled by white men on horseback, riding the lonely grasslands.
“The myth of the cowboy is only one of many myths that have shaped our view of the West in the late 19th century,” reads the Library’s introduction to “The American West, 1865-1900” resource timeline. “The stereotype of the heroic white cowboy is far from true, however.”
One quick example: The origins of “Home on the Range,” the unofficial anthem of the West, are famously muddled, but it’s not disputed that the first recording was by a Black saloon keeper and former cowboy in San Antonio, who performed it for folklorist John Lomax in 1908.
