Black Leisure, Recentered:
Search vintage archives, flip through old magazines, or scroll Pinterest — you won’t find her there. For decades, poolside leisure and luxury told a narrow story.
BLACK LUXURY, RECENTERED corrects that absence, not with spectacle, but through intentional presence.
Set against the retro backdrop of The Lafayette — a space echoing an era when Black people were often excluded from pools entirely — this series places Black elegance exactly where it should have always been. Not styled to fit, but centered to lead.
Red lips, sunlit skin, and the quiet audacity of ease replace outdated narratives. She does not mimic what was — she redefines what is.
This is not recreation. This is reclamation — a quiet, undeniable shift from erased to essential. A reminder that representation isn’t trend — it’s authorship. And now, luxury speaks her language.
Approach
Black Leisure Recentered draws from visual cues historically tied to luxury, femininity, and social access. Red lipstick, pearls, and a simple black swimsuit reference the aesthetics of classic leisure imagery, while quietly reframing who occupies that space.
Set within the environment of a public pool — a site historically marked by exclusion — the direction emphasizes ease, stillness, and autonomy. Small gestures carry meaning: reading a newspaper, resting in sunglasses, hair wrapped in a towel after swimming. These details allow the work to move between past and present, using familiar symbols of leisure while centering Black presence within them.
Luxury imagery has historically excluded Black leisure, particularly in spaces associated with ease, rest, and affluence. This project was created to recenter Black presence within those visual narratives — not as commentary, but as authorship.
CREDITS:CREATIVE & ART DIRECTION: TIKA Studios
PHOTOGRAPHY: TIKA Studios
MUSE: Katrena
LOCATION: The Lafayette Hotel, San Diego, CA
STYLING: Katrena (Self-styled)
SWIMWEAR: Londre Swimwear
GLAM: Natural / Minimal
PROJECT: Black Leisure, Recentered