Hip-hop loves fashion. Rapper love to talk about potentially illegal subjects. It comes as no surprise that the next great fashion designer might be a cold hard criminal. Israel is training former prostitutes in fashion trades, Maryland lets inmates knit, and now New York-located Rikers Island's prisoners can take classes in fashion theory.
Anna Lynett Moss of Chyiome (a handbag line) teaches a fashion theory course at Rikers Island that is part of the prison's Prison Education Initiative. The course—that teaches up to 30 female inmates at a time—covers such topics as cultural identity, and looks at collections like Burberry Prorsum's Resort 2012 collection with its use of a Ghanaian wax-print technique to teach the prisoners different design processes. Normally, 6-20 prisoners attend a usual class, but the fashion theory course has quick become the prison's favorite amongst inmates.
Nothing in fashion is perfect, so to expect a designer to have lived the cleanest life is a tall order. Don't be surprised if your next favorite designer has a checkered past, or has served hard time at Rikers Island.
[via Of a Kind]
