"Everything about it feels slightly beachy and airy, grounded also in the kind of work their ancestors would wear," says self-taught independent designer Damian Joel of the clothing pieces in his line for Songs of the Gullah, a live exhibit inspired by the Gullah Geechee Nation that launches next week at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn. Example: "the basket hats, the straw hats, were guided by the fact that basket weaving is a very strong commercial activity in the Gullah Nation."  

Joel said he consulted with Queen Quet, the chieftess of the Geechee/Gullah nation to make sure he got the influences right. "There are jumpsuits, a lot of men's shirts that were passed down to them...and the colors are slightly muted, sandy, mimicking the sand, the sun, the sea," he said.

He also uses what's called deadstock fabric — leftover pieces of fabric. It's a deliberate choice based in part on the fact that much of the textile waste leaving North America goes to Africa. "For me, it's a twofold problem," he said. "(It's) the psychological impact of seeing my people going through and rummaging through...leftovers, or what somebody else doesn't want — but also the whole process of just the environmental impact of the landfills, when they burn whatever isn't sold in these markets."

Joel, who is Jamaican-American and queer, also told WNYC's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll that in addition to honoring the Gullah tradition and livelihood, it was important to him that his pieces be gender-neutral, as a way to push against the "tight confines of masculinity" he saw growing up as a child in Jamaica.

"I come from a very heteronormative country," he said. "I was raised to know that there are certain things men don't do." Joel said he hopes he can help change those kinds of restrictions, particularly for men. "I'm trying to usher men into this new understanding of their own individuality," he said. "Not being defined by their friends or their peers, but defined by themselves."

The meaning and impact of "Songs of the Gullah" being featured at Weeksville, among the first free black communities established in America, is not lost on Joel, who has a history with the center. "I'm still pinching myself," said Joel, who booked his debut show as costume designer at Weeksville when he first arrived in America from Jamaica. "Weeksville is very full circle for me." 

"Songs of the Gullah: Live Fashion Exhibition" will be at the Weeksville Heritage Center on December 4.