Darlyne’s Grandma’s House

This look is based on a memory shared with me by Darlyne, one of my dearest friends. In the memory she was a young child, walking home through a fierce tropical rain shower along the street of her grandmother's house in Paramaribo. She lived in a traditional Surinamese wooden house, many of which are deteriorating and disappearing due to urban redevelopment plans and the fact that not everyone has the means to maintain the upkeep of their homes. Along with the heart and soul poured into these structures by the (great) grandparents who built them, comes the loss of all the stories and memories embedded within its very architecture.

Darlyne’s Grandma’s House is the second of five looks in Sandy’s digital fashion collection: "there". The collection in its entirety proposes an alternative method to archive stories, lived experiences, and memories of people with roots in the Caribbean region. More specifically, it depicts places that no longer exist outside of the memories within her interviewees’ minds. “there” is not in denial of the subjective nature of its collection and instead deliberately deploys it to amplify the voices of those who have long been denied agency over their own representations.