If the guys behind Street Etiquette are known for anything, it's their creative use of fashion and photography to tell stories about blackness, in the U.S. and beyond. They've taken that concept to the next level with SLUMFLOWER, a beautiful 20-minute film based on a short story and editorial they conceptualized. In the film, directed by Augustus T. Romeo and Nikki Taylor-Roberts, an aspiring young botanist living in a public housing project navigates between the outside world and the world contained in the apartment he lives in with his dad. Together, they traverse time, space, and reality, documenting a different side of the projects. Both Jeremiah and his dad Calvin dress in perfectly tailored garments, and exist in a surrealist world that's only interrupted by occasional appearances from Calvin's jilted ex. Watching it recalls Tupac's classic poem, "The Rose That Grew from Concrete"—an ode to misunderstood populations across America and to people who survive in spite of the odds.
"SLUMFLOWER started out as a seed idea that we had about years ago, about the misconceptions formed about public housing. The story is centered around a 10-year-old boy finding beauty and growing in the midst of concrete," write Street Etiquette's Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs. "It's always been a mission of ours to tell a story through our editorials and brand—preferably one people haven't heard of before. We were perfectly aware that the sight of twenty some odd immaculately dressed gentlemen—and a baby faced cute kid—would lure people in."
Watch the video above, and obsess over the gorgeous images below.
