Sovereign, Unbothered — Josephine Baker — Crewneck Sweatshirt — Vintage Black — CMD&C

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

She was the first.

Josephine Baker — born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, 1906 — became the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, to integrate a concert hall, and to receive full military honors at her funeral in Monaco. She was also a French Resistance agent in World War II, using her status as an entertainer to carry intelligence across enemy lines written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

The United States refused to give her the recognition France did. When she returned to America in 1963 to march on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr., she wore her French Resistance medals. She was the only woman to speak at the March.

She left America again. She didn't need it.

This print renders her in full green duotone — close, smiling, the red-orange halftone field behind her like a stage light that never goes off. Hands folded. Eyes doing something the smile doesn't say. The vintage black base turns the green figure into a monument.

Sovereign. Unbothered. Always.

— 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.