Studio Jeune Art
Artwork by Farah Jeune

Inspiration
 

I’ve always been inspired by how versatile head-wraps are. Every style, fabric, pattern, color and fold has always caught my attention. Whether they are worn casually, politically or for important celebrations like weddings, head-wraps represent one’s culture, religion, mood, and reverence. Plus they do a great job at protecting our hair!

During the start of the pandemic, I found myself experimenting with head-wrap styles. I watched dozens of YouTube tutorials, Pinterest videos and browsed through Black Fashion magazines trying to look like the fierce models and beauty gurus I saw. It was the first time I didn’t have to style my hair and could give my afro a break while I rocked some unique head-wrap styles. This is what inspired my ‘Wrapped in Love’ oil painting collection!

As I started painting some of my favorite head-wrap styles, I began to learn that head-wraps have a deeper history than just being a fashion accessory. In many Sub-Saharan African, Middle Eastern and some Asian cultures, head-wraps are both traditional attire and functional pieces. Throughout the United States, the Caribbean and South America during slavery, many enslaved women wore head-wraps to both protect their hair and used the folds in their head-wraps to communicate coded messages to one another. In the 1700’s when Afro-Creole women in Louisiana were forced to wear head-wraps, they made it their own by embellishing them with jewels, ribbons and feathers. They made these head-wraps so unique that other free women at the time, copied their styles. During the civil rights era in the 1960s & 1970s, Black American people wore their kente cloth with pride! From famous Black artists to everyday Americans, head-wraps made a bold statement in their attire. Today, head-wraps are still worn with pride, class, style and a functional piece that many women and men appreciate.

I hope that this collection, my first oil painting collection, will make you proud to wear your head-wrap and/or appreciate the history, importance and evolution of this style.