Ronan McKenzie Captures Her Bajan Roots For Acne Studios' FW22 Denim Project

Photographer, curator and design aficionado Ronan McKenzie opened their North London-based gallery, HOME, in 2020. It stands as one of the only Black-owned, artist-led spaces in the city, and now McKenzie has been tapped by Acne Studios once again to capture the spirit of its Fall/Winter 2022 denim collection in an ongoing series titled Be Good Now. For the project, McKenzie collates and curates images and films that she has taken herself that explore the denim range, but more importantly, the creative’s relationship with her Caribbean heritage and identity.

With a documentary titled All Comes Neatly Everywhere — which features McKenzie’s mother — as well as a fashion dialogue featuring styling by Mckenzie’s friend Tess Herbert that works the clothes on local Bajan talents, and a self-shot video starring McKenzie, the project sees the duo head to Barbados, which is where McKenzie’s mother was born. With this, the project explores her family’s history and heritage with a closer lens looking into their environment in a natural manner, projecting trust and a strong relationship between photographer and talent throughout.

Speaking on the project, McKenzie said:

“Alongside my good friend and stylist Tess Herbert, we wanted to play with the styling on myself in a way which exemplified my distant, tense, yet very close relationship to Barbados.

This whole project is about my relationship to Barbados, creating space to explore and tell my own story and that of my family. It’s difficult to put words to how it feels to have complete trust and freedom and support in creating works that are so personal and important to me; whether that be being able to bring in loved ones through casting in our first project for Acne Studios scarves, or bringing it much closer to home through this recent collaboration. It’s the first time that I’ve been given the opportunity to truly take ownership over a project and bring it to life in [a] completely non-compromising way.”

The project culminates around the exhibition at HOME, which will also serve as the stockist of a limited-edition publication available here and at Acne Studios’ Dover Street, London, store. Take a look at the photographic campaign project above.

In other news, Daniel W. Fletcher officially kicked off London Fashion Week SS23 last night.

HOME by Ronan McKenzie
Second Floor
399 Hornsey Rd
London
N19 4DX
www.homebyrm.space