2 minute read
Pride And Style During
PRIDE AND STYLE DURING THE PANDEMIC Shalonda McNefee- creates cultural fashion line for global pandemic
Shalonda McNefee photography by Jacobsen Valentine Pictured:
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At the start of 2020, none of us knew that we’d be talking about fashion-forward virus-wear (well, maybe save for y’all’s President).
Shalonda McNefee, surely didn’t. The seasoned fashionista had her year planned out — a new clothing line, youth workshops, and some flights… and then, enter COVID-19 stage left.
The “new normal” came knocking hard, and while she did answer, she didn’t exactly come running to the door.
“That’s not my lane” she told us on the PDX Black Rose Podcast in the early days. But a month and hundreds of orders later, she says making her African-style masks has been one of her best decisions of the year.
Why the pause at joining the chorus of others cashing-in on the world’s latest fashion statement? She was actually welcoming the break. As a woman whose business, Sistas LLC, is centered on healing, it’s unsurprising that she saw the break as a chance to ground herself.
“So when everything was cancelled, I was a little relieved and kind of happy that I could sit back, breathe and do nothing,” she says.
But what’s a kid if they don’t crowd your space a little bit, right? Her son told her to do more, and more specifically, do masks.
With money shifting, and the economy bleeding uncertainty, she obliged and began sewing.
In turn, she birthed “The New Normal”, a new line of masks that’ve been flying off of the digital shelves since May.
Her bold, kente-styled design usually reserved for dresses and garbs have found a new home in the cradle of our global pandemic.
Now, she spends her penchant for healing,by toiling away at her office from home and shipping her offerings of protection out into the world.
Orders have come in from all around the country: California, New York, the Midwest and they’re all riding the train of the new normal for now.
She’s not sure when exactly COVID-19 will pass, or when she can get back to some of her other passions, but for now, like the rest of us, she’s riding it out and helping us all do it with a little bit of style.
With Shalanda’s Mask Wear online at:
