Alone in This Together: A Fashion Editorial on Winter Blues

Cast your mind back to earlier this year. It’s January 16th, 8:39am. You’ve snoozed your alarm four times already, but you still can’t bear to get up. Twelve minutes ago, after snooze number 3, you tried to put one foot out of the blanket but the bitter cold outside was unbearable. What is there to look forward to anyway? Another day under those buzzing fluorescent lights working too hard for too little? Sending half-hearted lols in response to too many whatsapp messages? Fighting and losing the urge to order takeaway because cooking from scratch—that healthy, new-year-new-you food—just doesn’t feel possible in the cold, dark January blue? On top of all this, your money doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to, and every headline you read is telling you that soon it might even get worse. How to turn these feelings into a fashion editorial was the question that led me here in January this year, to Alone In This Together.

Rather than trying myself (or encouraging you) to start a million new ventures during the toughest time of the year (did you know that the third Monday in January is known as Blue Monday?) I wanted to evoke the possibility of hibernation: making soup, lying down, staying warm; with snuggle, rest, and sleep as aspirational themes. My sense is that we are alone in this together because, albeit quietly, we all long for these things. And we deserve them too.

Can we imagine deserving more than working too hard to make millionaires too rich and watching our ridiculous electricity bills bump up profits to be enjoyed elsewhere? Something other than contributing taxes that seemingly aren’t enough to keep people from being hungry or waiting so long for an ambulance that it proves fatal? 

Yes we can imagine better, especially when we make space for that imagining, and celebrate quiet moments, and come together, and be honest about how hard winter really is, and resist the urge to just keep going and – in whatever ways we can – practice rest. 

I hope your upcoming spring months have some restful pause instead – some loose time, some nourishing space and the sweet relief of much-needed togetherness. 

Creative Direction & Styling Rashida Taylor

DOP Shane Duncan

Photography Shenell Kennedy

Gaffer Ian Blackburn 

Set design Maureen Kargbo

Set Builder Anton Hetherston

Junior Producer Sayo Olukoga

Hair Manwigs by Sam Roman

Makeup Kayla Selway/Afrolion

Makeup assistant Thea Cartwright

Retouching Poetic Sparkles

Styling assistant Naomi Odia

Models Kamilah Oladapo, Sabrina Williams and ZamZam Warsame

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