Justice of Ezili

Jean-Louis's stunning adaptation of the nineteenth-century corset dress features a gilded brooch at the neck portraying Ezili Dantor, the loa (spirit) of vengeance in Vodou that helped inspire and guide self-liberated insurrectionists during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). Apart from the jewelry, much of this regal dress is sculpted from modest materials - paper sheets and clay - celebrating the creative and radical aspects of the Black imagination, both of which insist on "making a way out of no way." With its bold, saturated colors and generous adornments, the ensemble flaunts Victorian ideals of propriety and allows the assertive wearer to push against gendered and racialized expectations.