With Rihanna commandeering the covers of Dazed’s autumn 2021 issue, it’s only right that its inside pages should travel back to her fabled birthplace. Inspired by “God Bless Bim”, a Barbadian anthem that sounds throughout the island on Independence day, this editorial finds itself amongst the country’s many multicoloured chattel houses and sun-baked terraces. Owing their fruity paint jobs to West African architecture, and now lensed by photographer Carlijn Jacobs and stylist Imruh Asha, these locales offer a fleeting, though kaleidoscopic, glimpse into the country that once raised Robyn Rihanna Fenty.
It makes sense as to why community forms a central tenet to the shoot, then, with parents, siblings, and toddlers dressed near-identically in GCDS’ boisterous AW21 collection. There are Giuliano Calza’s fuzzy, lemon bodysuits and knee-high boots shot deep within purple compounds, meanwhile pale blue minidresses and baby rompers come together with banana bungalows like candied almonds. These are family portraits to reckoned with. Elsewhere, a father stands stoic between his two sons in lovingly baggy suits and saucer shades, while two sisters vie for attention in scalloped, tobacco minidresses, faux-fur bags, and wadded stilettos. Click through the gallery above to see the GCDS mini-me collection in full force.