Keep on Keepin' On, Death Car Girl!

I am a goth-industrial loving alternative lifestyle living punk influenced AFRO FEMALE, who is inspired by culture, heritage, environment, and technology with which I influence the world around me.

As an AFRO ALTERNATIVE, I define daily who I can be and who I am regardless of what I am seen to be. I am not simply a black designer. I am not simply anything.

Walking a fine line to redefine and undermine……………..

As a woman
As a role model
As an intellectual
As an artist
As and alt. Afro

Socially it is hard to find a place to call home. I am an outsider to the Afro-American dominated hip-hop community, the outsider to a soul fly swinging family, outsider to the mainstream. Then alternative lifestyle gurus told me that I wasn’t enough and couldn’t be like them and a poseur because I was dark. You have to be, and were, three times as goth, as punk, as cool, as obscure, as the next person to make up for your “afro short coming”. I was an outsider among the outsiders. Once you accept not being accepted by peers then you truly begin to accept yourself. The secret that no one ever told you is that you are enough and more so. Each alt. Afro paves the way for the next generation; the future generations won’t remember a time when we were the “exotic Goths”. We have helped to create our own alt. culture to embrace each other. We have our own “secret society” within, our own “secret handshake”; it’s called relaxer. Unashamed of loving those break beats while simultaneously embracing that sinister guitar or industrial chaos. We represent Fusion. Evolution.

As a designer
NPRadio snubbed me for not creating clothing befitting of my heritage. I wasn’t newsworthy for lack of Mud Cloth Couture. My work was beautiful and fashion forward, but not what they were looking for to complete the piece on ethnic designers. Because fulfilling the Afro-American stereotype must dominate all aspects of our lives creatively and socially. No true artist is bound by their cultural surroundings, yet released by the cultural richness of the world. Contrary to some people’s beliefs, I have embraced inspiration stemming from my heritage and cultural surroundings. Subtlety speaks loudest when created masterfully. In a field where Afro-Americans are under-represented, I pave the way, walking softly. And what if I decided that the Torso Corset would look great in Kente Cloth? Would I finally be a true Afro-American designer in their eyes?

As a alt. goth designer
I love my Goth roots, my black weeping willow. As with my cultural heritage I am not strictly bound by those social rules. There are only so many “Romantic Goth” or tight PVC club outfits one can design before it all looks alike. The gothic wardrobe is not just club wear. I design for the Epicurean Goth, to them it is a lifestyle. My customer requires a broader range of options as a goth or alt. lifestyle individual. There will not be the need to run home and change because three other people are wearing the same outfit. What one liked as a “baby bat” - the nylon Halloween cape with red lining - may not be what you wear now - floor sweeping opera coat with feather delecatage. The Aesthetik offers an evolution of gothic design from the “Gothling” in high school wearing Hot Topic to the “Uber Goth” or “Sophisto-Goth”. Welcome home you ultra stylish dark individual; we embrace you.