In the first part of our Black Body Politic series, we briefly discussed the history of black models and fashion. This installment finds us chatting with up and coming model Khayattollah. Khayattollah has been a model and muse for the Boxing Kitten brand, an amazing company whose designs are based on the tradition of women with “ethnic rockability.” You may have also caught her in the campaign for fashion brand A Peace Treaty (which made it’s way to the e-pages of FADER), as well as being featured by TRACE and more. Here’s her pov.

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AS: Which models/fashion icons have had the most influence on your work? Were there any specific people or events that prompted you to begin modeling?

You gave me the model-slash-icon option eh? To respect the order of operation, the one woman who happens to be a model who hooked my attention as a youth was and now is Iman. The early 90’s happened at the same time that I began grasp larger concepts like my own poverty [and] world poverty. The early 90’s was also the time that I started to grow into a young girl. I started to grasp what beauty was both in the physical and natural world and I truly wanted to be apart of that never ceasing movement. Due to her beauty and my care for poor folk when I saw Iman on the page I was captivated by her ancient aesthetic and by her story. Thankfully the early 90’s [was also] a time when the atrocities happening in Africa started to gain national recognition: Nelson Mandela, Rwandan massacres, and of course the famine of Iman’s home land Somalia. She has substance, conviction, beauty, and so much wisdom – what else could a girl wish for?

Fashion icons? I’m a Gwen Stefani girl from day one! Lucille Ball, urban Latinas and sisters, Kelly and Peggy Bundy, jersey guyals, native cultures all the way. They have the ability to know that if nature puts a zebra next to a giraffe, then I will put these prints and patterns together too.

AS: How important is the attribute of confidence in your line of work? Are there any aspects of it that become nerve racking?

Confidence is key. It’s nerve racking because it takes true courage to become confident. I just looked up synonyms of confident: poised and secure. The image of a lioness eying her pride’s food-to-be came to thought. When she is hunting she is so graceful but not because it makes her appear super cas, but because it takes this poise and grace to enrapture and to succeed. I was painfully shy for most of my life. Absolutely terrified at having attention placed on me. I used to think it was because I was insecure, but there’s always more depth to these things. Now I realize the fear is because if I get the spotlight I cannot be sure what would course through me to you. [I just] know it’s gonna be mighty powerful both coming and going. Courage is key.

AS: Would you consider yourself an example of beauty for women of color? How important is breaking the norms of what is considered beautiful for you in your work?

It is said that Mother Teresa would never go to an anti-war protest but that you could count her in on a peace rally. With this said I try not to focus on what the social or aesthetic ‘norm’ is anymore. I just learn to stand more firmly in my own shoes and hope people (can) dig it.

AS: What does your ideal photographer say or do on set that brings out the best in you?

Oo this is a good one. The fastest way to a model’s heart is through lighting and composition. My ideal photographer has a great grasp on both of these. My ultimate photog is concise and deliberate in their direction while maintaining an air of gentility. The ultimate photographer respects their model as a fellow creator and knows there is art to be drawn from her lines.

AS: If you could model for a concept editorial shoot that brought to life the protagonists/supporting characters in novels by Black women writers which one would you choose: Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Shug Avery from The Color Purple or Lauren Olamina of Octavia Butler’s Parable series? And why?

Are there any characters from the minds of Black Women that are not named that you would love to portray?

Hmm. I would love to play Anyanwu from Octavia Butler’s Wildseed. Anyanwu is a healer who happens to be a shape shifting immortal African woman who has the power to transform even betwixt species. Awesome! I happen to be a Piscean woman, which I’ve recently learned is the eldest zodiac door, age bracket being 84. My thoughts and ideas feel ancient, like I have lived many lives spanning several eras. I am she. On a dream shoot there would be dramatic hair/makeup/clothes/sets/stories fracturing all of these past lives lived much like these slashes flash through my words.

AS: Finish this sentence, Black women are…

Dynamic as all hell and heaven, but mosty heaven

AS: What are some things you hope to accomplish with your career? What statements and ideals would you like to convey?

When I think of all the things I dream to accomplish the list flows to the floor, just because I’m so detailed yet expansive at times. But in general terms, there are definitely some essential ingredients in a meaningful life: evoking and inspiring love, joy, the pursuit of truth, the pursuit of peace. Beauty is in the eye of the held and the beholder and most things. events are neutral, it’s all in our interpretation; if you say ‘disaster!’ or feel ‘blessing,’ either way you are correct. Because I’ve always been pulled between youth and the elders, terrain and the great beyond, I dream to drive a sense of purpose across all ages and species (shouts out to my animals&aliens). I wish to be a vision of the beauty that I know lives inside me and every ‘fat girl.’

AS: This space in the interview is left free of questions so you are able to express whatever you so choose. What are your closing statements?

I want people’s heads to know that what’s inside of them, is a tireless unbridled dragon. A dragon whose savage self is soothed with the arts of music, whose collar is freed by compassion’s key, whose fire sparks only growth and exploration. Our life is only here for us to have and hold. Time is not running out but your life here, IS. Know that you are a grain of sand on all the beaches of the planet; and let this evoke brotherhood, mammalhood, motherhood, universehood, and thus godhood. You are a spiritual being having a human experience. I like think of my yoga practice; you aim to align your chakras from your 1st/root/red to your 7th/crown/violet, yet the 7th chakra actually floats above the crown of your head. This reminds me that the being who I am and that you are is what we have been. There’s something so powerful in the all [and] the elements that have laid the red carpet out for you and placed you here in this time of freedom or confinement, with such wealth of knowledge and misinformation, all for you to do what ;-? I’m here.

words/janine – img/tone