Translator: David DeRuwe (Singing) “But she at the same time says that everything will change Because she will be what she wants, inventing a place. ” (Singing ends) The first time I heard Caetano Veloso’s verses of “Tigresa” in depth, I was a teenager moving on to my university life, that place to create a new space, to transform, to invent. All of which seemed wonderful to me because when you feel out of place, out of step, out of line, like you fell out of the nest, everything gets a little weird, you know?
But when you create a new space, you don’t have to keep doing that difficult work to adapt, to fit the standards, the stereotypes, the social conventions, because deep down, we just end up not being part of anything. You know that old-time grandmother expression, when they would say inventing fashion is a bad thing? Well for me, inventing fashion was freeing for my individuality, to understand my body, to understand my corporeality, to understand my aesthetic.
These were fundamental for me to feel powerful, self-confident, and strong, and to not lower my head in the places I occupied. And look, they were very lonely places. Instead of getting into that “I’m not, I can’t.
It is not for me,” I chose what to add. I am needed, I count, I belong. When I was young, a child, a teenager, my main book didn’t have a cover, not even a page.
It was located at the end of commercial galleries or in the backstreets and alleys of the periphery. Its name was Afro beauty salon. Yes, that space.
It brought me a very important sense of belonging because it was from there I got my references: political authorities, artists, doctors, and businesspeople - Blacks and Blacks in power. This really helped the construction of my image and self-esteem because I understood that fashion and aesthetics were more than only clothes, more than something empty, something futile. Fashion is a tool of expression and of strengthening.
And maybe these experiences were the most important I had in terms of becoming part of the quilombo culture. I grew up in a very welcoming and loving family with lots of space for opinion, critical sense, and exploration. My educator mom was trained in psycho-pedagogy, and my father in law and engineering.
They may not have had that opportunity to read books on racial debate or study Black theorists’ thinking from the 60s and 70s when they were the first Blacks in my family to enter this academic space, but they literally felt it in their skin what it’s like when you occupy a place, do everything the system requires of you - studying , education, training, “good presentation” - and still not be part of it. And then decades later, with so much self-knowledge, so much awareness, I actually thought my “Tigresa” method would “take off. ” I studied at good universities, I lived abroad, I studied four languages.
I did everything for it to work out right. And then I arrived at my career, the beginning of my journey with fashion. I saw this “she will be what she wants, inventing a place.
” It even existed, but there were no Black women as leaders. To work with the biggest names in Brazilian fashion, occupy the main companies of the sector, write in the main media outlets - all of this is incredibly awesome. I was very proud, but there was still a little bit left because I felt that from there I wouldn’t completely validate my journey.
And then I understood that fashion for me wasn’t only about the look, about a good fashion walk, but was about understanding the Black people in this sector, pointing out the gaps of invisibility, establishing conversations, and most important of all, we’re telling our own story. I saw that I was not just a reproducer of formats, but a person who builds her language and creates her place in the world every day. Create your spaces, invent, make it happen, and do all this without fear of making a mistake, and evolve, but without those fears of prejudice or judgments.
This is very important because we feel we have to do four times more than the entire world. This is all that a woman like me, Black women like me, want for their lives - they want to feel. Because representation, yes, it opens doors, but belonging, it’s that rolled-out carpet leading to your dreams and your desire to create new spaces.
And this is what I like to call “circular belonging. ” And what is the power of this circular belonging? It is the evolution of our occupation and representation.
And we take on all the roles in this structure, from entry to leadership positions. It’s people creating what suits us, and feeling comfortable with it. It’s like in the metaphor about being more than just a party - with circular belonging, someone invites you to dance, carries you to the dance floor, and at the end of it all, you take your shoes off because you feel so welcomed by your new friends.
And speaking a little bit about mental health, a study from Washington University researcher Darrell Hudson shows that belonging is very important for Black people in social ascension because when we don’t feel like we’re a part, what happens is that we are much more affected by stress and health problems. And that’s why I believe in this new place of belonging. But how to create these safe places for Black people?
How to enter in these places of social prestige and still reconcile with the image with self-confidence, with self-esteem, principally for Black women? An important step is the connection with our ancestry. For me, fashion was fundamental because from it, I came to know more about the history.
I understood the power of my image and my intellect. Still I did it, not only for me but with other people, and we had grandiose transformations with the occupation of this space. The second step is to maintain the look of innovation for imagination and courage because sometimes we’ll look for to places that still don’t even exist.
We need to have a lot of creativity to think of these spaces and courage because we’ll have fear, we’ll think that we won’t be accepted, we will want approval for everything and from everyone, but that’s not the way to do it. It’s very well to have fear, and it is with fear that we will go. Third thing, the community is everything.
Create a welcome niche, not only for you, but for those around you. It’s about hacking the spaces. It’s about inventing a place and making people feel welcome and free to have active voices.
And that is what I do on my platform “Mequetrefismos. ” Because it’s not only belonging that is very important but also protagonism and plurality. Walking down the street one day, I was looking at the statues they had of our history’s heroes.
They were all people that I didn’t feel like belonged or who are very far away from me. Then, I understood the importance of fashion in the city, because different from those static, cold monuments with uniformed people, fashion goes around. It belongs and it’s alive.
And the importance of circular belonging is that it is more than just getting into the boxes that oppressor groups insist upon putting us into - it’s exercising our space of freedom. Representation matters; belonging humanizes. Thank you.
