The body as a site of punishment. The body as a site of resistance.

Whilst at work, the bodies of the enslaved were in service of their owners and the clothing they wore reflected that. The clothing was made from fabrics, commonly referred to as 'slave cloth', that were coarse and durable and the items were typically mass produced and of low quality. The scarcity in the availability of the clothing, along with the back breaking work they endured daily, meant that the enslaved wore through their supplied clothing at an extreme- ly fast rate. Due to limited access to extra materials, many had to make do with what they had, repairing what they could as and when they needed to. By providing low quality and limited wardrobes, plantation owners were creating a visual code of dress that was meant to mark enslaved people. Immediately, by sight, you could tell who was free and who was not.

The enslaved didn’t just wear these markers of slavery without push back. Their bodies were used as sites of punishment, but they were also sites of resistance. People in the worst circumstances always find ways to bring joy and pride back into their lives in any way they can, and the enslaved did this particularly through taking pride in their dress and craft. They were resourceful, recycling, collecting scrap materials, using plants for natural dyes and also 'stealing' what they could to create clothing that spoke to their individuality, and their desire to rise above the way they were treated.

The following images show the initial development of The Uniform, a collection of base pieces created in a ‘slave cloth’, allowing for small individual customisations such as colour pocket placement and sleeve length. Intentional areas with a less than perfect fit to allow the wearer to show off other adornments of the body, changing the way we think about made to measure and what we define as luxury. A representation of creative resistance and resilience.

The possibilities are endless.