Friday, July 02, 2010

My Latest Bra-Black Beauty

This bra depicts the journey of black women through times history in America where they were considered to be either not attractive, or to be "second-class" beauties that did not meet the white "ideal". Black women bought bleaching creams, tried to hide their full lips and africanized features. As time moved on, with the advent of the civil rights movement and campaigns such as "Black is Beautiful" and song like "I'm Black and I'm Proud", black women began to celebrate their unique aesthetic and soon the media began to (somewhat) embrace their beauty. This bra is a tribute to black beauty across the ages and encourages all women to realize their beauty and not try to fit into someone else's ideal. It was fun (and cathartic) to work on it. The bra is black velvet embosses with gold and embellished with photos printed on fabric, charms, trims, silk flowers, fringe. The charms are implements of grooming, such as combs and mirrors.

3 comments:

SEWButterfly said...

Simply AWESOME, lady! You rock!

Cathy said...

Willa, your bra is beautiful, and so are YOU!! Stacy is right; you ROCK! Big hugs, Cathy

FredaB said...

Hi willa

You did a great job on this and how true the history. thank goodness times have changed.

Missed you in St. Louis. Maybe next year. MA says to keep the last weekend in June open. Sherrill of the Bead Ranch has the usual weekend tied up with her retreat so MA graciously changed ours.

Hugs

Freda

ps - see you in mid Oct.