Anastasia Leuluai

Don’t Let It Happen Again

Resene Palm Green; this colour is strong, confident and bold. I took inspiration from the energy my colour gave me, which led me to Oshun.

Oshun is an African orisha, a spirit, a deity, or a goddess that reflects one of the manifestations of God in the Ifá and Yoruba religions. Oshun is the goddess of the rivers, fresh and sweet waters. The goddess of love and sensuality. She’s known for having a very flirtatious, central light-hearted temperament, yet can isolate from that to being heart broken, dark and revengeful, which is another aspect of Oshun.

She was sent down from the heavenly realms with many other deities, who were kings, the dominate ones, the ones who did the most when doing their parts to give to the earth. One of the male deities make a comment to the effect that they really don’t need Oshun.

Oshun is very sensitive towards insult, so Oshun decides to leave, knowing that they will soon see how much they really need her. She sits by the waterfall, powdering her face in the mirror. While she does this, all the sweet water and rivers on earth dry up, which stops them from being able to continue running their parts on earth.

I wanted to capture Oshun’s character and show it through my design. Having the classic ‘off the shoulder’ look symbolises the flirtatious aspect of Oshun. Yet, having a stunning, elegant and bold collar wrap around the shoulders and neck giving an intimidating and fierce look.

Having big oversized sleeves is inspired by the head wrap in my mood board worn by an African women, which is also worn by Oshun in many illustrations. In the back of my design, you will see a beautiful trail of leaves that is created also by Resene Palm Green fabric. This is inspired by the blue swirls which represents the rivers and sweet waters that Oshun runs.

Reading between the lines, the story of respecting the divine feminine has a lot to do with the background of this design. Why not a dress? Or a skirt? Designing trousers, I felt, complemented the jacket and really pushed out the “I am a strong, independent woman” energy when looking at this design. Which also leans towards the history of woman who fought for equal rights.

Resene Whitecliffe Colour of Fashion clothing - 2018

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