Aphrochic Magazine: Issue No. 7
For our Summer 2021 issue, we have an issue full of color, life and all of the things that make our Diaspora beautiful. For our cover story, we are thrilled to sit down with one of our favorite folks in fashion, the amazing Charles Harbison. After a 5-year hiatus and a cross-country jump from New York to Los Angeles, Charles is back with the much-anticipated return of his eponymous fashion line, HARBISON. We also sit down with the iconic Dyana Williams. A legend of the Philadelphia radio scene that we grew up on, she’s better known outside the city as the mother of Black Music Month. We sat down with Dyana to talk about Black music, the newly opened National Museum of African American Music and the artists on her playlist that she feels are doing the most for the culture. In our Hot Topic, AphroChic contributor Ruby Brown takes an incisive look at Pride, all that the LGBTQIA+ community has accomplished and all that’s left to do. And in response to the growing debate over Critical Race Theory, which in the last months has taken over news feeds and legislative floors alike, we take a break from our ongoing discussion of the African Diaspora to offer a brief exploration of CRT, it’s origins, it’s concepts and why it seems to have everyone so upset. Throw in some amazing art from THE CONSTANT NOW gallery in Antwerp, inspirational words from author Alexandra Elle, and the latest updates from the outdoor spaces at the AphroFarmhouse and we think this issue will have you ready for the summer season.
For our Summer 2021 issue, we have an issue full of color, life and all of the things that make our Diaspora beautiful. For our cover story, we are thrilled to sit down with one of our favorite folks in fashion, the amazing Charles Harbison. After a 5-year hiatus and a cross-country jump from New York to Los Angeles, Charles is back with the much-anticipated return of his eponymous fashion line, HARBISON. We also sit down with the iconic Dyana Williams. A legend of the Philadelphia radio scene that we grew up on, she’s better known outside the city as the mother of Black Music Month. We sat down with Dyana to talk about Black music, the newly opened National Museum of African American Music and the artists on her playlist that she feels are doing the most for the culture.
In our Hot Topic, AphroChic contributor Ruby Brown takes an incisive look at Pride, all that the LGBTQIA+ community has accomplished and all that’s left to do. And in response to the growing debate over Critical Race Theory, which in the last months has taken over news feeds and legislative floors alike, we take a break from our ongoing discussion of the African Diaspora to offer a brief exploration of CRT, it’s origins, it’s concepts and why it seems to have everyone so upset.
Throw in some amazing art from THE CONSTANT NOW gallery in Antwerp, inspirational words from author Alexandra Elle, and the latest updates from the outdoor spaces at the AphroFarmhouse and we think this issue will have you ready for the summer season.
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Fashion<br />
Five years ago, Charles Harbison was<br />
everywhere. He was a favorite designer<br />
of Beyoncé, Solange, and Michelle. He<br />
had been featured by coveted fashion<br />
magazines and was in the spotlight<br />
at New York Fashion Week. And then<br />
suddenly, he was gone, relocated from<br />
New York to Los Angeles, and placing the<br />
brand on an indefinite hiatus.<br />
In late 2020 came an announcement<br />
on his Instagram, he would be designing<br />
a sustainable line for Banana Republic in<br />
partnership with Harlem’s Fashion Row.<br />
HARBISON was back on the scene and<br />
fashion-lovers were thrilled. Since that<br />
announcement, HARBISON has been<br />
preparing to launch an A/W21 collection,<br />
is expanding its capsule with Banana<br />
Republic, and was honored by the CFDA.<br />
AphroChic <strong>Magazine</strong> editor, Jeanine<br />
Hays, sat down with Charles to talk<br />
about lessons learned in absence, the<br />
importance of valuing ourselves, and<br />
honoring the “her” in us all.<br />
JH: Congratulations on the relaunch<br />
of HARBISON! Why is now the<br />
right time to start this new chapter?<br />
CH: Damn, this is a good question. I<br />
think now is the right time because I have<br />
the right perspective. It's been, what, five<br />
years? Which is funny, because it's longer<br />
than HARBISON actually existed in New<br />
York. But it's taken that amount of time<br />
for me to get my footing in a new place, to<br />
reconfigure my perspective into one that<br />
is more honoring of myself, that is more<br />
self-protective. And then I think there<br />
are some ideas that I was navigating<br />
in the beginning stages of HARBISON<br />
that needed some maturation. And then<br />
these years “away,” have had me working<br />
for brands at different levels, working<br />
abroad in Europe, and working across<br />
different product categories. So all of<br />
this expansion has refined my design<br />
perspective and I think the years away,<br />
reminding and refining my self-sustaining<br />
nature, has renewed my personal<br />
perspective. It's coming together in a<br />
way that I think aligns with a time where<br />
people are willing to listen to ideas that<br />
I was navigating back then, but in a way<br />
that is a bit more primed now, through<br />
product and through fashion.<br />
JH: Fashion can feel really forced a<br />
lot of the time. As if everyone's always<br />
30 aphrochic
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