Sovereign, Unbothered — Dorothy Dandridge — Heavyweight Crewneck — Vintage Black — CMD&C

Product: Oversized boxy  CREWNECK SWEATSHIRT 
Brand: CMD&C (Command & Create)
Collection: Sovereign, Unbothered
Subject: Dorothy Dandridge
Colorway: Vintage Black
Material: 460GSM organic cotton
Construction: Oversized boxy cut
Origin: Portugal (WATC Studio blank)
Print method: Heat transfer
Edition: Limited — one production run, no restocks
Price:  $110 

In 1954, Dorothy Dandridge became the first Black woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She did not win. She never won. Hollywood gave her the nomination and then gave her almost nothing else.

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922. She performed from childhood, toured the country with her sister, and by her twenties was one of the most glamorous figures in American entertainment. Her performance in Carmen Jones earned her the Oscar nomination that should have changed everything. It didn't. The roles that followed were beneath her. The industry that praised her refused to cast her as anything but spectacle.

She died in 1965 at forty-two. The cause was listed as an accidental overdose. She had forty-two cents in her bank account.

Halle Berry accepted her Academy Award in 2002 and said Dorothy Dandridge's name out loud from the stage. It was the first time a Black woman had won. Forty-eight years after the nomination.

This print is the rebuttal. Green curls, red lips, gold cuff, halftone field, black geometry. The architecture of a woman who was always more than what she was given. 

Sovereign. Unbothered. 1922–1965.

— 460GSM organic cotton crewneck
— Oversized boxy cut, true to CMD&C's silhouette
— Heat transfer print on Portuguese WATC Studio blank
— One production run. No restocks.