BLAXE: On Blackness

In a connected age somehow more polarised than ever before, the discussion, dissemination and design of culture, race and beauty needs the forthcoming generation of fashion image-makers to bring clarity. The photographs included in this exhibition strive to formulate a new language around diversity. What does Blackness mean in a revived framework that includes Edward Enninful’s distinct casting at British Vogue, the sensitive, academic research behind Grace Wales Bonner’s clothes and Virgil Abloh’s vibrant Vuitton?

BLAXE is a New Age zine created by first year BA Fashion Promotion & Imaging (FPI) students, Prince Ugorji, Siobhan Martin and Tia Micheal-Bovell. It satirises the prevailing pop views of Blackness and presents fictional characters to establish multiple narratives for our consideration. As the excerpts taken from dissertations written by FPI alumni proudly affirm, people of colour do not belong to a single archetype. ‘We can be fluid, we can be queer. We can be silly. We can be loud. We can be shy,’ BLAXE says. ‘And that’s okay.’

BA Fashion Promotion & Imaging

In the leafy outskirts of the city, the BA Fashion Promotion & Imaging course at UCA Epsom has spent the last three decades nurturing creative, curious and cultured minds. This is the place to unpick fashion, the arts and visual culture – to ask the questions that need to be answered. Our students graduate with a point of view. They are editors, stylists, agents, photographers, marketers, researchers and artists. They define the here, the now.

Instagram:  @blaxezine  @fpiepsom