Crafting As Resistance: CozyFemme Founder Khadijah McCaskill Explains How Her Brand Is Fighting Beauty And Size Norms With Artisan Crochet Fashion
In Feminism is For Everybody, bell hooks presents the idea of consciousness-raising through the feminist movement. In this, hooks states that feminists are not born but made through choice and action, just like any other political group. She goes on to explain how the various branches of the feminist movement were all united in understanding patriarchy and finding ways to upend it, whether through education or activism or other means. As I interviewed Khadijah, I could see how her brand, Cozy Femme, participated in acts of consciousness-raising.
Khadijah mentions how much she wants women to understand how to do things for themselves outside of the institutional systems in place, which for her includes making clothes. Khadijah uses her crochet workshops as a means of spreading this consciousness via education and crafting so that people walk away not only with a skill but with new knowledge that they may apply to other parts of their lives going forward.
In the “Beauty Within and Without” chapter of Feminism is for Everybody, hooks describes the liberatory practice of women removing restrictive clothing and control garments that they had been socialized to wear. With this effort, women allowed themselves to pursue comfort and functionality in their fashion choices and challenge conventional women’s wear. Hooks asserts that this revolution in women’s fashion “let females know that our flesh was worthy of love and adoration in its natural state; nothing had to be added unless a woman chose further adornment.”
Cozy Femme is a perfect example of fashion that pushes back on sexist expectations of women’s appearance, values women’s beauty, and representative of an alternative business where women can spend their money with businesses that respect and celebrate women’s bodies. Khadijah explains in her interview that she creates clothing and accessories that made to fit each person she creates a piece for. She rejects the arbitrary sizes of “fast fashion” that we have come to know from traditional clothing brands and in turn, creates an experience that celebrates the woman at any age or size and does not include patriarchal standards of beauty. The photo campaigns that Khadijah presents as promotions for her Cozy Femme picture such a diverse group of women wearing her fashions that there is no question as to whether or not she ascribes to feminist principles.
The representation of women was also a major theme in Khadijah’s work. Though I could not include the entire conversation we had to fit into the video, she spoke at length about the ways in which she strived to represent a full range of women other all looks, ages, shapes, and sizes, and wanted her customers to believe that she can give them a custom experience with clothing unlike any other experiences they may have had shopping in typical stores. This made me think of the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women, in which Jean Kilbourne spoke about the ways that women are presented in fashion and advertising. Typically, the women and girls who are celebrated in media represent one image of a woman. This image is not what most women look like and thus they aspire to look like the magazine images, even though these images are unattainable. This leads to negative and unhealthy habits and consequences for women and even for men in the way that they come to understand and interact with women. Khadijah rejects those standard ideals of beauty and instead wants everyone to feel good about themselves and their bodies in their natural states.
To me, Khadijah presents a very unconventional feminism through her brand. As we spoke, I got to learn more about her values and principles in a way that I had not heard her speak before. I met Khadijah when we both worked for the same education organization. I knew that she was a talented and experienced international educator and that she was highly sought after by schools and organizations mostly based on her knack for incorporating creativity into all that she did and the relationships that she built with people along the way. The way that Khadijah has shown affection and concern for all people definitely shines through her crochet fashion line. Even though she says that she is only a feminist “somewhat”, she truly does embody the foundational principles of feminism through the basic understanding of ways that women are oppressed through various institutions (in this case, capitalism and mass media) and chose to start a movement through her craft to negate the sexist ideas in the fashion industry.
My interview with Khadijah made me think of a concept of “passion-based feminism” in the way that she took an unlikely method but one that she was interested in and passionate about to present feminist ideas and principles. I see now that feminism does not only have to present itself in the world of academia or politics or at the most recent women’s march. Instead, people can infuse feminist principles they believe in into any passion that they have and use those outlets to educate and inform people. In this way, I believe that feminism is made more palatable to people who are put off by the idea of the stereotypical bra-burning, man-hating feminist when they hear the term feminism. Presenting the same concepts in a new way may be a great way to encourage people to take up the feminist fight and uphold those same principles so that one day the collective effort to end oppression against women can finally end.
