Majesty Hope Bland is a designer and fiber artist hailing from Detroit, MI that reimagines traditional design methods and caters to the individuals that desire to be set apart.
Her approach to sustainability starts with a main root of the problem; how we consume clothing. With an emphasis on introducing this generation to tailoring and proper garment care, her mission is to educate the next generation of the power we have to make effective change on our environment and mend people’s relationships with clothing. Her work explores developing new fabrications through traditional weaving and fiber manipulation techniques from discarded and recycled material, all to contribute to a more circular economy. Creating garments and installations using bold color and texture to spark joy and amplify the beauty that already exists in the world.
With work featured in Vogue,Teen Vogue, and New Balance in different roles such as styling, design, and creative direction, she pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a multifaceted artist with exceptional craftsmanship and captivating storytelling.
Interview
Transcript
Question: Tell us about yourself and your work?
Majesty:
So, my name is Majesty Bland. I’m from Detroit, Michigan. Um, I’m a fiber artist and a fashion designer. My work consists of creating from the beauty that already exists. So, I take scrap fabrics and recycled materials and I weave them into new fabrications utilizing in my set my my accessories as well as um my clothing pieces um and my fibers pieces as well. And the whole goal is kind of to just be resourceful and use the things that we already have in front of us to create something new and amazing.
Question: How long have you been in your craft?
Majesty:
So, I have been I’ve always been creative um designing and I’ve always loved fashion. Um but I really started clothing design um in around 2020. Um and I’ve done like styling and tailoring and creative directing and all of like the mixes. I’ve always just been a creative person. And so I just kind of wanted to be a vessel and just, you know, wherever I’m needed and wherever I can go, I can test my abilities. So I’m I’m grateful that my career has looked the way that it has. Um but as far as like my fiber pieces, that has been something that I’ve kind of returned to um these past couple years. Um cuz I did study fibers and textiles at CCS. Um and from there, I kind of went more of the fashion route cuz I’ve always loved fashion. And like that is kind of like my first love, but I kind of wanted something that was a little less structured and allowed myself to express myself cuz fashion and like garment construction, you have to be very precise sometimes. Like I like working with my hands, so very precise, making sure everything fits. And it’s just like I wanted to kind of step away from that and just kind of be able to create freely without having to think so much. Um, so that’s kind of where like how I was led to fiber and that kind of expression in my work.
Question: As a creative how would you like to see your work show up in the world and within community?
Majesty:
I think that um as far as like my clothing pieces, I think that I always enjoy when I see my pieces organically just out in the wild. Um and I’ve been like fortunate enough to have some of those moments before. Like I’ve had some of my pieces in like retail stores and like after that you kind of never know what happens. You don’t know who buys them. you don’t know where it where it goes or how it exists. But then like some nights I’ll like go out and I’m like, “Oh, that’s my piece.” Or like that’s my thing. And it’s like the coolest feeling ever. Um to be able to see something that you created and someone chose that, someone saw that in the p in in the wild. Like I didn’t have any marketing. I didn’t try and advertise that to them. I didn’t force them on it. I didn’t try and sell it to them. They’ve seen it in the store. They like it and they bought it. Um and that’s an amazing feeling. Um, so I see my garments in, you know, retail spaces, um, for the fun and colorful anyone. And I also see them in gallery spaces as well. Um, as well as my fiber pieces. Like I don’t see those as separate pieces cuz I think fashion fashion is art. Um, and I think that having those being kind of coexisting in the same space is kind of always the goal. Um, I do want to start getting into more um installation sty style pieces. So, just like kind of bigger and just exploring and expanding the world that I can create with that.
Question: Can you tell us about the art works you created using our yarn?
Majesty:
So, for this project, um, I didn’t really have like an idea goal coming into it. Like, I just kind of really wanted to do the yarn justice because I knew that it was it kind of meant a lot. like even when me and Tamika connected um I was just like wow this is amazing and I didn’t want to just throw something together and like with this cool yarn like kind of this cool idea and this cool story um so I kind of worked backwards and I kind of started experimenting with the yarn um I dyed the yarn using like organic um dyes so like I cut up fruit and like you know I steeped them and everything and made natural dyes from there and like I tried to dye the yarn and it ended up raining so it ended up messing up the die pass. So, it wasn’t as vibrant as like how I wanted it to come out. But like looking back, I think those are like the things that I love about like fiber art and experimentation and just kind of like exploring your craft is that like something that you kind of planned in the beginning like things can come beautiful things can come out of your mistakes um or like your inconsistencies or things that aren’t planned like you can always turn those for good. Um, so even like the lighter palette of the pieces, um, I really enjoyed, um, and I kind of played on that and that’s kind of how like I went into, um, the pieces that I did. So, um, recently I’ve been exploring with, um, a lot of framework in my fiber work. So, like kind of creating tapestrums on top of weavingings. And this this one kind of made me um realize how much I enjoy creating out of a frame. Um, and I really explored using like negative space and kind of creating um, without boundaries. Um, and I think um, when I was creating it, I realized like that’s kind of something that I’ve been exploring in my own life of like figuring out which way to go, how to navigate. Um, because again like I’ve been in fashion and tailoring and styling and all these other things and just trying to figure out where I really wanted to go and trying to like hone in on something and everyone’s like, “Oh, you have to choose.” And I’m like, but this is this is everything. Like this makes sense to me. All of the things make sense to me and they live together and they coincide together. So, um, so the pieces are recalled are called the coming. Um, and I feel like that is kind of like the stages I have been in my life of just like figuring out what exactly I wanted to do um, and creating without bounds um, outside of like kind of this framework of what everyone is expecting. So, um, also like the materials, just being able to use the yarn, um, in the way that I did, as well as incorporate, um, some of like the recycled fabric, um, that I’ve used previously of just like, um, speaking on like the aspect of sustainability of like using what the resources that we have, but also merging them with kind of like these new products and like not forgetting our past to kind of like join everything together to like create and tell this amazing story. Um, and then for the bag, I just really wanted to make a big clutch. I think for my clothing pieces, I’m like, I just want to make a like something like really cool to like kind of coexist with the um art piece. And I was experimenting with like beading and things like that. So, like a lot of my pieces and my works come from like the desire to experiment and just kind of like test my craft and how that can kind of fit in. And the story kind of like unravels itself as I’m like kind of doing and making. So, it’s it’s a it was a cool process to do.
Question: What is your legacy story or introduction into textile arts and fashion?
Majesty:
I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve always been the crafty person, too. Um, and I’m I’m grateful. I was talking to my mom not too long ago that like I’ve always just been like I can get my hands if I can get my hands in it like I’m going to change it, rework it, do anything. She was like, you can do all the things, but you just have to clean up afterwards. So like I I was very I I explored all of the things and like I made like like canvases out of water bottles and like always like being able to use the things that I had available to me as a resource um and trying to make do with that. Um and um that’s kind of kind of like how this idea of using what’s in front of me came to be. Also like again my mom like she was just like don’t waste anything. like if we got clothes, we always had to give some away and just kind of like being able to circle and cycle that through things. Um, and that also birthed kind of like my desire for tailoring too. Um, because if we got handme-downs or like things from the thrift store before the thrift store was cool, um, certain things didn’t fit. So, it’s just kind of like learning those trades, but then also again just being resourceful and using what you have and like making do with what you have. But like it didn’t have to be like kind of this like oh like we only have this and it’s just like this is this is a cool thing. Um and I studied at uh like CCS. So that’s kind of like was my introduction to fiber art cuz I didn’t really have an idea of what it was. Like I didn’t know it was like a thing. Um I thought you just kind of knitted or like you you know that was just like its separate thing but I didn’t know like it was like oh this is a thing. Um cuz I was originally studying fashion accessories. Um, but I was kind of gravitating towards fibers cuz I realized like you can do so much. Like fiber doesn’t put you in a box of like this is what you have to make within the confines of this. It’s just you can kind of make anything with this textile and material and then you know it can be like I feel like fashion is a form of fiber art as well. So it’s just kind of like they can they intertwine with each other you know they they coexist together. And I’ve always been like a texture touch person too. So, I’ve always been very a physical maker. Um, and like I want to I want to sew. I want to crochet all the things. Anything that I can get my hands on. I love like get I love painting, getting my hands dirty, like that is me. Um, so that’s kind of like my introduction to fiber art and then just like doing research and finding like different methods of like weaving and techniques and like how things come to be. Um, it’s kind of how like I started doing this again. It was like two years ago um when I was kind of like in between spaces and jobs. I was just kind of wanting to move my hands and kind of get back into like physical creation. Um, and I looked up some weaving videos cuz I took a a a weave like a a looming class um at CCS and um yeah, I just started making like little handbags and exploring with texture and it was just so freeing um and kind of like it just kind of snowballed from there.
Question: How has Black history influenced and impacted your work?
Majesty:
I love research. I think um researching and finding things in the past, currently and then like also like trends in the future is extremely important. And um I think that like as creatives it’s always important to see what people have done and then also what people are doing to pave the way currently and see where there is room to move and shake in the future. Um, and so I think that black history plays such a huge role in what I’m doing because as a black woman, like being able to see others pave the way in a way that I couldn’t often see or like sometimes I think that something is impractical and I’m like, I don’t know if I can do that. And taking kind of bits and pieces of other people’s stories to be an inspiration. I think like that is kind of the goal. Um, and I think that being able to be a vessel to tell other people’s stories also is extremely important. Um, because that can again that can be inspirational. Like I know I have stories to tell. Um, but I know that other people have stories to tell that might not be able to do it in the lens that I can. Um, so being able to I think that’s a superpower to have. um even as a as an artist, as a designer, the superpower to be able to storytell effectively and efficiently um is extremely incredible. So I like I hold that to a high standard of being able to use my voice in a way um that reaches other people that can connect everyone together. Um so yeah, it’s all about different perspect everyone has a different perspective. Um, and it’s it’s also amazing to kind of go out of yourself to go into those stories and being able to tell those too. So, yeah. And I think like creativity is so limitless. Um, and again like being able to see black history and again even current creatives who are like flourishing now, like it’s so inspirational to be able to kind of move your career and inspire that.
Question: What is the value to you creating with Black grown and made material that is reclaiming supply chain systems for our community?
Majesty:
I don’t think people realize how much material is in everything. It’s not just your clothes. It’s the fabrics in your in the rugs, in your furniture, in PL like in sales, in all the things like in car cushions and things like that. Like it’s it’s in it’s everywhere. So the fact that um we as black people shy away from this material that is basically at the forefront of all materials that we use this it’s the like number one like natural fiber that like we use and it’s just like the fact that we have opted ourselves out of that because of our past. Um, I think that, um, it just kind of does us a disservice and kind of being able to reclaim that is extremely important to our history. And again, like everyone’s building businesses and things like that. So, being able to pour back into us is extremely important, too, because like you can have like, you know, your manufacturers and all these things and your designers and things like that, but like at the source of it, like your that’s, you know, the materials that’s that is the source that is the root. So like I think that is extremely powerful to have it literally from the from the root into the product like that’s that’s so amazing to me. Um, so yeah, and the importance of it too and it also like helps educate people too that like just because it has this like one connotation like it’s still you still use it like every day, you know? So it just doesn’t disappear just because you don’t like the plan or like the imagery of it, but like it you use it every single day, you know? And like if I’m using it every single day, why not be able to know where this is from and know that it was intentionally made and cared for? people do it with everything else. So like why not this, you know, like as artists like our materials and again like the stories that we tell and like the intention behind it is like that’s our bread and butter. Um, and I think that when sourcing materials as an a fashion designer, as artist, whatever you whatever regardless, I think that those little, not even little, but those intricacies and those details like kind of make a piece and that that I feel like that’s what makes a great artist who is intentional and to be able to have that in some of my work to like know like this is a black woman-owned company that I use and even just being being able to support And then also like being able to amplify someone else’s work too within my work is like extremely powerful as well. So it means a lot to me.
Question: Can you tell us of any upcoming projects you will be working on?
Majesty:
So, I am currently working on a series um right now just exploring um exploring um hand-me-downs and as well as just kind of like our culture with um resources and uh sustainability um and how being a resource to not only ourselves with clothing but to others and being able to be a resource to others by giving help and assisting. Um, so that is going to be a series that I’m working on. It’s going to include fiber art as well as garments that I’m very excited for. Um, so yes, be on the lookout for that. And then, um, I’m also like selling gar like accessories and garments as well. In the meantime,