Is the 'black designer' label there to warn everyone not to have the same level of expectations for me, or is it some type of prize? I just want to work in an even playing field where I can get press for my work and not just my race and my personal views on it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a desire for equality in recognition and opportunities regardless of race.
Kerby Jean-Raymond's quote addresses the complexities and challenges faced by designers of color in the fashion industry, questioning whether being labeled as a 'black designer' serves to limit expectations or to celebrate diversity. He expresses a yearning for a level playing field where talent and creativity are recognized without the overshadowing influence of race, advocating for a more equitable environment in which all creators can thrive based on their work alone.
In practice
In a panel discussion on diversity in fashion, one might quote this to emphasize the necessity of equal recognition.
The work of black creatives seems to always get undermined in one way or another, and that's what this new generation is actively changing by speaking up. We aren't accepting group categorization and group classifications to describe our work anymore - it just leads to group dismissal.
Think about how much fashion profits from black culture and how underrepresented we are in the industry. If you insist on using black celebrities to peddle your merchandise and add a cool factor to your front row, it is indecent to not care about the plights of that person's community.
Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.
I work very deliberately, with a plan. But sometimes I come to a point that I planned as the end and it needs softening. Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep - it can't be done abruptly.
The great hope is that people who wouldn't normally make films will be making them. Suddenly, one day some little fat girl in Ohio is going to be the new Mozart and make a beautiful film with her father's camera and for once the so called professionalism about movies will be destroyed forever - and it will really become an art form.
I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population and gave birth to the whole world. Without them the rest [of the world] are not getting to know the whole story.
My notion of a great novel is something like a five-hundred-page shaggy-dog story, with only the punch line omitted.
I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding. I went crazy over the outdoor work, and at last had to confine myself to the house, or literature must have gone by the board.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.