By Oyena Bisholo

This photo project was inspired by the sense of style of the model featured in the project, Oyena Bisholo. Oyena is also known as the Queen of Vastness or the Vasthoe and has a very particular and striking style and is always turning heads wherever they go! Oyena believes that clothes tell a story, they reveal a lot about the person within. Be it their politics or how they see themselves. Oyena’s personal style explores the ‘vastness’ of their being. ‘Vast’ as defined on their Twitter and Facebook profiles denotes anything extreme, jaw-dropping or extraordinary! No limits, no bounds! This concept of ‘vastness’ is founded in queerness and fabulosity as Oyena coined the term in the height of their self discovery, when they decided to stand in their truth and own who they are. We can see this ‘vastness’ in the way they conduct themselves, in their sense of style and also in their personality. Vastness is an art and can be readily seen as you scroll down Oyena’s Instagram or watch their stories!

Vastness has now become a common term in UCT and has become more than just an identifying term for Oyena, it has become a descriptive word or adjective to everyday situations. For example, one can say that: “last night was so vast, I don’t even know how I got home.” This is just one of the many ways in which style can be used in a powerful way to increase queer visibility and thereby cause shifts in the culture of a particular community. Oyena continues to use this concept or art of ‘vastness’ through style to challenge the status quo! This project aims to display that and also encourage more people to use style in a more powerful way because style has the potential to change mindsets, people and by extension, communities!

“We live in a binary society and even the way in which transness is understood is within the binary. Style can, therefore, be a powerful tool as we move towards breaking down this binary.”

This project focuses on four different looks compiled by the Creative Director and Stylist on the project – NolMo. NolMo believes in bringing out the style of the person whom they are dressing and that is how #StyleHasMeaning #StyleIsPolitical was born. This is because Oyena believes that style is political and can be used in a powerful way to articulate certain things about gender, sexual orientation and other critical issues facing the Queer Community. They also note the danger of neatly tying these issues with style and admit that style can only be used to affirm and communicate certain things about our being or gender identity while taking into account the context in which this is done.

For instance, to communicate the fact that women are not defined by their physical features a trans woman who has not undergone gender-affirming surgery can wear clothing that reveals her flat chest and at the same time claim womanhood. This is just an example of how we can start redefining identity and affirming our being regardless of our physical features. I mean, we live in a binary society and even the way in which transness is understood is within the binary. Style can, therefore, be a powerful tool as we move towards breaking down this binary. Style has Meaning, style is political! What about yours?