Stella Jean produced her new collection with Haitian artisans, many of whom have lost their homes, workshops, and sense of stability, though not their spirit, to crime. “These are my Buffalo Soldiers,” Jean said, borrowing Bob Marley’s metaphor to describe her the women she worked with on the project. Shot across the city of Cap-Haïtien, and blending the designer’s Italian-Haitian roots with her commitment to cooperative design practices, Aesthetic Coup d’État, as she called the new offering, is her way of giving back to the country that has given her so much.

The collection stems from a reflection on uniformity and autonomy, specifically Haiti’s historical relationship with Western dress codes and the phenomenon of secondhand clothing exports, known locally as ‘Pepe.’ Staples of Eurocent

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