Cyber Chic: The Beauty, Design, and Labor Practices of Independent Fashion Designers of Color

My project examines the work of independent fashion designers of color in the New York City area. I focus on the work of two designers Sanjay Guman and his company SNJCO and Jordy with is company Grandpa Jordy. My methods for data collection include participant observation and interviews with these designers and those they work with. My ethnographic research explores the processes that they utilize in order to create cohesive and marketable fashion brands. They use alternative modes of exchange as they navigate the precarity of their labor. Sanjay and Jordy subvert the white standards of beauty within the fashion industry by supporting and working with people of color. The relationships that they form allow them to exchange work with other artists within this industry. The cultivation of aesthetic and design within their brands is steeped in subversive commentary concerning gender norms and representation of people of color.