LaShawn Kenley: The Subsequent Gen of Fashion Setters Taking Over the District

D.C.’s acquired fashion. With every part from cute streetwear to tailor-made fits, loads of folks flip heads simply strolling down metropolis streets. However who’s making their clothes, serving to them resolve what appears to be like good and dreaming up the newest in vogue? It’s the designers of the town, the tailors, the entrepreneurs. Meet 14 of the must-know figures in vogue from the DMV.

Founder, CEO + designer at Sun Gods

District Fray: How do you go about handcrafting garments, from design to completed undertaking?
LaShawn Kenley: Solar Gods is a gradual vogue enterprise the place our designs are made in-house by our personal workforce of seamstresses. We both sketch or drape the look of the design, then use [the mockup] to attract or lower out the sample and stitch the material collectively to realize the ultimate look. This then turns into the prototype for making the design in several sizes.

How do you guarantee your garments are sustainable and ethically sourced?
Previous to the pandemic, I might bodily go to varied nations inside the Black and brown diaspora and go to artisans and souks creating and promoting material to make sure its authenticity. You simply have to the touch and really feel every part. All through the pandemic we made it work. I nonetheless look again like wow, what a technique to pivot and never miss a beat throughout the top of all of it.

What impressed you to start out Solar Gods? What motivates you to maintain going and develop the enterprise?
I began Solar Gods for 2 causes: to construct a legacy for my household and group, and have a vogue model that speaks to my group inside the bohemian house. I really like shops reminiscent of Free Folks and Anthropologie. Such lovely manufacturers, however I didn’t see myself mirrored in these shops when rising up. The colour palettes had been at all times very gentle (utilizing pastel hues) and that doesn’t look the perfect on brown pores and skin tones. I really like mixing Black tradition and the diaspora with free-flowing, bohemian-inspired designs. That is what created Solar Gods. Seeing the continual assist from our tribe we lovingly name “folks of the solar” additionally retains me motivated as a result of everyone seems to be so invested and needs to see us do nice. It’s the real love for the model that retains me going.

sungodsofficial.com // @sungodsofficial

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