Charles Harbison: Transformation, Rebirth, Re-Emergence
Images courtesy of HARBISON. Originally published in AphroChic magazine Issue 7, Summer 2021.
In 2016, Charles Harbison was everywhere. He was a favorite designer of Beyoncé, Solange and Michelle. He had been featured by coveted fashion magazines and was in the spotlight at New York Fashion Week. And then suddenly, he was gone, relocated from New York to Los Angeles, and placing the brand on an indefinite hiatus.
In late 2020 came an announcement on his Instagram, he would be designing a sustainable line for Banana Republic in partnership with Harlem’s Fashion Row. HARBISON was back on the scene and fashion-lovers were thrilled. Since that announcement, HARBISON has been preparing to launch an A/W 21 collection, is expanding it’s capsule with Banana Republic, and was awarded by the CFDA.
AphroChic Magazine editor, Jeanine Hays, sat down with Charles to talk about lessons learned in absence, the value of valuing ourselves, and honoring the “her” in us all.Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
AC: Congratulations on the relaunch of HARBISON! Why is now the right time to start this new chapter?
CH: Damn, this is a good question. I think now is the right time because I have the right perspective. It's been, what, five years? Which is funny, because it's longer than HARBISON actually existed in New York. But it's taken that amount of time for me to get my footing in a new place, to reconfigure my perspective into one that is more honoring of myself - that is more self-protective. And then I think there are some ideas that I was navigating in the beginning stages of HARBISON that needed some maturation. And then these years “away,” have had me working for brands at different levels, working abroad in Europe, and working across different product categories. So all of this expansion has refined my design perspective and I think the years away, reminding and refining my self-sustaining nature has renewed my personal perspective. And it's coming together in a way that I think aligns with a time where people are willing to listen to ideas that I was navigating back then, but in a way that is a bit more primed now, through product and through fashion.
AC: Fashion can feel really forced a lot of the time. As if everyone's always forcing it to be cool, whether or not it actually is. But when I saw you start putting out the first images of the new line on Instagram, it felt really magical. It felt organic, and very unforced. And a lot of it surrounded this concept of “her” that seems to be very much at the center of it all. So who is “her” in this collection? How are you defining that and how does it work as connection point for your audience?
CH: The great thing about that pronoun is that, as we are navigating a world that is less binary, less gendered in general, the ideas around pronouns are just far more expansive. So there are a few different answers. My primary “her” is always my mom and those matriarchs that taught me about beauty, who showed me its complexity and evolution, and how to use it as a tool. Also, because the “her” in me is reflective of their “her,” the years of understanding and nurturing those places in me that are softer, more nurturing and more feminine, has really helped round out my design perspective and my experience as a human in the world. And when I do that for myself, I'm much better at doing that for my customer base. Beyond that, the “hers” in my life, the women, the people, peers, who I find so inspiring just watching them live, watching how they navigate oppression in such a beautiful way. Seeing them be women in the world, navigating misogyny and sexism, without sacrificing those parts of themselves that the oppression targets. And then the earth, which is kind of this newer priority for me. Coming to Cali really helped remind me of who I am as a country boy and loving the earth and seeing the earth as my first canvas, my first playground. It's wonderful to remember the earth as the first and primary resource that we have and prioritizing it. It is not just cute, it is imperative. So it's all of those “hers” collectively. And I think I just noticed I was habitually aligning myself with the feminine. So I just made it a concrete decision, one that’s to the benefit of every customer.
AC: You studied architecture and textile design. How does that fit in to your fashion aesthetic and what you're creating now?
CH: Studying architecture was one of the most important foundational things that I did. I didn't complete my degree in it because midway through I found that the tactile nature of textiles gave me a sense of joy and immediacy in the process of design that I adore, and the long lead of architecture was just something that wasn't quite right for me then. But what architecture represents is just my love of building things, of constructing things or configuring things. And that's how I approach fashion. It is building, I love the challenges of construction. I love when I have an aesthetic idea, and then working backward to figure out how do we actually build this thing? That really excites me and it shows up in my work, in construction but also in textile design, and everything. Textiles, and fibers become the bricks I use to build dresses or suits or whatever it is. And I love all of it. That's why I comprehensively adore the process of fashion design.
AC: We’ve spoken at a number of schools and met with Black students who were studying architecture, and they were having a really tough time. In many cases we found that the school was telling them that there was no such thing as a Black architectural perspective, really trying to beat into them that their perspective was irrelevant to “real” architecture. What was it like for you studying architecture as a Black man? Was it also constraining? And is fashion less so?
CH: One-hundred percent. That was it in a nutshell. It did feel early on as if architecture required some sort of removal of identity and personal aesthetic. I didn’t feel that when I began painting and then moving into fiber arts. For one of the first projects I took on when I transitioned from architecture to textile science I was on the loom for 17 to 20 hours a day, weaving yards of fabric. And when I took this fabric, and started creating forms on the body I felt I was really trying to work through my indigenous heritage, trying to find some way to connect to that age-old process of weaving on a loom, and applying those textiles to the body in ways that were reflective of me. So it's interesting to see that the freedom of those curriculums showed up immediately in ways that affirmed my cultural identity in a way that I never was able to remotely process early in architecture.
AC: Congrats on winning Banana Republic’s design competition. It sounds really exciting. How did the collaboration between Banana Republic and Harlem's Fashion Row come together? And what what are the goals for you in terms of this collaboration with them?
CH: So I think Harlem's Fashion Row and Gap Inc, had been working to establish a greater partnership. And then with Banana Republic, they decided to hold a competition, looking for a designer with whom to create a capsule collection of sustainably thoughtful pieces. And it's hilarious, because it all happened in such a weird way. I don't do competitions. Because I have lost a lot of them. And my perspective on losing them unfairly isn't based on ego, it’s based on judges coming to me, telling me about backroom deals and loyalties, people on the judging panel pulling rank and all kinds of stuff. So one of the things I decided when I decided to leave New York was that I would never compete again. But this felt different. It was being led by Harlem’s Fashion Row, and I have so much respect for Brandice, who has been an advocate for us for years. So I knew that that piece of trauma that I experienced for years wouldn't be present. And Banana Republic is an entity that I relate to. I worked there for a while in undergrad. The idea of attainable luxury is something that I adore and Banana does it in a way that gets into people's hands quickly. And sustainability was a central component.
So I was like, ‘this just requires me to say stuff that I've been saying and see if they like it and submit some sketches’. So I submitted my application and I didn't think anything else of it. I was happy that I had decided to do it, and for me, it felt like I was getting my muscle back, as if doing this was taking the step forward and HARBISON would be in the near future. And then I got a couple callbacks. And I didn't say anything different from what I've always said. And I didn't really even prepare. It was incredibly authentic, incredibly organic. And I stuck to the things that I love, and our approach to sustainability, which is not just environmental sustainability, but also personal sustainability, and cultural sustainability, and needing all three of those components to be present. And they loved it. The collection was supposed to be 3-5 pieces when it was announced in Vogue in November 2020. Now we're up to 20 pieces and the size range has expanded to go from zero up to 22. And that's wonderful. It is a capsule of pieces that I just find really, really comfortable and fun and desirable and thoughtful. And it's a really nice way to reintroduce myself to the industry, because it does a thing that I couldn't do before, which is make pieces more democratic and more accessible. I'm happy about it and the Banana team is great.
AC: So on top of everything else you’ve just been awarded by the CFDA, which is like the ultimate moment of recognition for a designer. How are you processing this this moment?
CH: For the four years that we were doing collections, made Fashion Week, had incredible celebrity endorsements and press articles, print, digital, everything - I had no relationship with that entity, which was in essence the mother of fashion in New York. And then all of a sudden these years later, they just show up. And for us, we just wanted to know why. And when I talked to Lisa Smilor, it was really an amazing conversation because she acknowledged all of those things. And even after that conversation, I was honestly prepared to walk away. I let them know that if this comes with strings attached, I don't want it. I would rather navigate life with a tight budget and our agency intact rather than take on a grant that would force us to have to defer to an entity that my trust in had waned. But the response was that this is for you to spend in the way that you find most profitable for your business. So it feels right. And I'm grateful. And I'm excited. And it's coming at a time where we all we need it. But it's also nice to know that we genuinely deserve it. And being able to say that and know that it's coming from a place of humility, but also from a place of knowing your value, which is central to the experience of Black people in every industry. It’s very, very important for Black creatives, because we do navigate systems and dynamics that are inherently racist. And so in order to persist, and to be tenacious, you have to go back to that mirror, you have to go back to your drawing board, and look at your work daily, and know that it is better than what they are trying to tell you It is. And that if we stay true to our crafts and the reasons why we do them, eventually they catch up.
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