By Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter
One of Damion Thompson's pieces on show at Spunky Fashions on the Catwalk 2K4, staged by La Face International Model Agency, on Sunday, December 19, 2004 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, St. Andrew. - Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
IT HAS appeared in the
collection of Christian Dior; has always been on the streetside on the stalls of Rastafarian peddlers; in souvenir stores and, lately, on the runway at fashion shows. It is used to promote from revolution to black history.
And now, red, green and gold, the traditional colours of Rastafarians, have taken on a new hue sexy and decadent.
DESIGNER ALTERNATIVE
Red, gold and green has found its way into the dancehall, not in the usual flag-waving, banner-bearing, Jah Jah-chanting way, but as a sexy, hip designer
alternative and addition to
store-bought outfits.
Rastafari and the representative colours have been a long time coming to a place of even casual acceptance. The proliferation of the use of the colours in everyday life and now in the cultural
yardstick, the dancehall, suggests that acceptance, even a
celebration, is imminent.
However, whether or not the
corresponding values and way of life of Rastafari are as widely accepted as the use of the colours remains to be seen.
Despite this, however, there is an awarenes of the colours and what they represent and some Rastafarians are not quick to condemn the use of their
symbols in fashion, though some, like Jackie Cohen, designer for Mutamba, has some reservations. While she concedes that there is strength in the number of persons who recognise the traditions and meaning of Rastafari, she is aware that the ideals of Rastafari, as represented in popular culture, are not always accurate.
" We have to go back on our feet and stop standing on our heads", she says. "The focus is on the wrong spot; we are not thinking."
According to Cohen, the proliferation of the colours of Rasta in the dancehall is indicative of a disintegration in the quality and focus of the music. She suggest that the music of the 80s and early 90s was more conscious and thus brought a different focus - even to Rasta. However today's music "distance our youth and turn it into a sexual energy". This, she says, is part of the reason for Rastafari being used in this way. "The red green and gold gets caught into this decadent web. Everything is just a fad."
Cohen does not utilise what has now become a 'fad' in her designs - and never has. Besides the fact that using the colours in the traditional way as a designer "lacks creativity" and "lacks expression", Cohen also thinks that the flag of Ethiopia should be treated with more reverence. "I don't really believe in wearing the flag of Ethiopia on my body," she says. "It's a representation of the country that we revere and the King that we look up to. We use the flag in such a casual way and such a popular way; we don't use it in reverent way," she says. "That's probably how it got into the dancehall."
Damian Thompson, another designer whose line of Rasta-inspired clothing is called 'Knotted-Up', uses the colours extensively in his collection. His use of the colours range from male to female wear, but extends to bathing suits, hot shorts and impy-skimpy dresses and tops. "I'm a Rastafari, they are my colours so I use those colours," he explains. He adds that he uses the colours both as a representation of his "tradition" and as a "fashion statement".
"It look good. It's earth colours; we always see it everywhere like trees, rainbow. Red, green and gold is like anything else in nature."
Thompson does not think that making skimpy outfits are in any way subversive of the values of Rastafari. "It's not really promoting wearing skimpy clothes, because I am a designer and I use that colour and put it on the designs to make it look good," he says. "It's not promoting short clothes."
Additionally, Thompson argues that wearing red, gold and green does not automatically signify a belief in Rastafari and therefore does not detract from the tradition's meaning. "Mi nuh really link it to that. A lot of people like the red, gold and green but they don't like Rastafari in terms of how they would live. I don't have a problem with it."
Cohen also expresses a duality towards his trend. She believes that using the colours in this way is similiar to a man who wears dreadlocks and is not a Rastafarian. "He is walking through the energy that we experience every day. Eventually he is going to just fall into place or cut it (the locks) off", she says. "The kids that have the flags waving, a lot of them is just peer pressure," she suggests.
But there is the recognition that with popularity comes acceptance, an acceptance which may or may not be genuine. "It's strength of numbers that make this thing. It's the number of Christians that make them strong," Cohen says.
In addition, she says, not every woman who wears skimpy clothing is loose or decadent. Instead, just like society's perception of the Rasta was - and perhaps still is - flawed, the perception of the skimpily clad female as loose may also be wrong. "Skimpy clothes does not mean you have a skimpy character. There are women who wear a long skirt down to their ankle and they'll lift that skirt up in a minute," she says, "while those girls would probably throw acid in your face."
