POWEROTICA
2018ZAIRE STUDIO
photography by joilyn jackson
performance by jade nikaylah williams
art direction by ayana zaire cotton
garments by zaire studio
The debut collection, Your Satisfaction is Our Future, explored the concept of “labor” and its relationship to capitalism and the human condition. The upcoming collection titled, POWEROTICA, is inspired by the essay, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power*, by Audre Lorde. POWEROTICA will continue the investigation on labor and how it touches all aspects of our lives. The collection will feature carefully found and forged reconstructed men’s dress shirts, suiting, and outerwear; to include a bodysuit inspired by the uniformity of leotards worn by dancers. The bodysuit will be made out of substantial, but breathable ponte knit. This collection is an ode to deconstructing and reconstructing our understanding of “power” while meditating on how we make love, play, perform, and remain flexible in our thinking about labor and work.
“The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects—born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.”
— Audre Lorde, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
