Fashion is Art

Both Gavin Benjamin and Everett Johnson source ideas and imagery from family lineage and personal history, creating a symbiotic relationship between their practices for this collaboration. A series of still-life photographs created by Benjamin will incorporate handbags from Johnson’s The Baggage Collection. These handbags were meticulously crafted by Johnson as he watched protestors from his studio just days after the murder of George Floyd. Inspired and called to action to create, the designer realized he couldn’t craft a bag quickly enough before another murder hit the news. For Benjamin, this process recalled his Dressed to Kill series, as he explored the clothing and objects worn by murdered Black men and children in America. Both artists, as Nina Simone said, are fulfilling their purpose to reflect the times.

Everett Johnson is a creative artist from East St. Louis, IL, whose fashion design pursuits were inspired by his mother and two grandmothers. These women were Johnson’s first examples of meticulously dressed and groomed women boasting regal comportment. When his parents gifted him a business, he was catapulted into the fashion industry and entrepreneurship, leading him to become a renowned stylist for almost 30 years. Johnson’s recent fashion design pursuit is the handbag line Liza B. His ultimate goal is to use his line as a way to celebrate his family lineage while offering a high quality, timeless product to be shared throughout generations.