This New Creative Brand Pulls Inspiration from “Tommy’s Girl Keisha” (Interview)
1853AHE is reimagining classic 90s themes
When Hype Williams finally got his shot to direct a feature film after years of revolutionizing music videos, he brought his undeniable style to the big screen. Belly (1998) is more than just a hood classic, it’s a moment that will forever live in Hip Hop infamy. Alfred Houtsnee -- A dope creative and entrepreneur -- pulled inspiration from the film, and with it’s 23rd anniversary just passing, he seized this moment to launch his new creative brand called 1853AHE. The brand’s first project “Tommy’s Girl Keisha” is themed after Belly’s iconic characters, bringing them together with classic 90s streetwear.
Tommy Bundy, played by the late great DMX and Keisha played by Taral Hicks, are two of the most memorable characters in black cinema as a whole. As a darkskinned woman, Keisha’s role as a sex symbol and love interest was fairly not often seen on the big screen. 1853AHE highlights this iconic character with their debut clothing drop. “This is an ode to the various street styles created by black women, that are often appropriated by society and go uncredited,” Alfred says. “In BELLY Keisha exuded Black Girl Magic and gave Brown Skin Women an image that was almost nonexistent on screen. She gave dark, beautiful brown skin women around the World the confidence to say “you know what my skin is beautiful."
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Tommy Hilfiger -- And it’s streetwear offshoot Tommy Jeans -- play a prominent role in this drop as well. 1853AHE references one of Tommy Jeans’ most popular releases “Tommy Girl”, recreating a vintage Tommy Girl crewneck. Over the past 3 years, Tommy Jeans has collaborated with smaller artists and upcoming brands, allowing them to reimagine their classic Tommy Hilfiger flag logo by adding their own twist. 1853AHE’s piece highlights the role of Taral Hicks as Keisha in Belly while maintaining the timeless style of the 90s.With this release, 1853AHE honors a great film and the legacy of the late great DMX. Their end goal is to create another stream of revenue for the Simmons family, design a full collection and keep giving DMX his flowers.We got to speak to the founder of this new creative brand and ask him more about his inspiration, and the future of 1853AHE.
1. Your creative brand 1853AHE is off to a really great start with this project. Can you let us know what inspired you launching your own brand, and what it represents?
1853AHE is meant to serve as a creative relief for me and others who take interest into what I produce. The name "1853 AHE" has a double meaning. 1853 is the number of the building I grew up in, in Brooklyn, New York. This was important because as I got older I was able to trace my roots back a couple generations and found out a large portion of my family is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands (and they are all black). This gave me one of the deepest lessons of my life because New York used to be colonized by the Netherlands. Words like Brooklyn and Harlem or "Haarlem '' are both dutch words with origins to The Netherlands. The biggest shock was, my neighborhood Brevoort, which is a dutch word and owned by a dutch company. The lesson was we often have a certain attachment to "our" "hoods" but don't own anything. For me this adding 1853 symbolizes me not having ownership in actually real estate, however, controlling my intellectual property. "AHE" is an acronym that stands for Artist, Hustler, Entrepreneur. Hence, we all start with an idea aka intellectual property, a fresh perspective aka art and it is our hustle that dictates our growth as entrepreneurs.
2. You really bring a lot together in terms of creative influence for the "Tommy's Girl Keisha" project. What does Keisha represent to you, and why was it significant to start your brand off with this project?
Keisha is a black woman. As stated in the movie "Our most valuable resource, the black woman". Keisha represents so much that she could have had her own spinoff. A around the way girl with style and a divas attitude. BELLY was released in 1998 and to this day there is still a major colorism problem in media. Women of darker complexions aren't casted as nearly as much as women of all races with lighter complexions. If you search the "KeishaBelly '' hashtag on instagram you'll see nothing but beautiful brown skin women recreating scenes from the BELLY because of the confidence Keisha instilled in them. I plan to release numerous collections of thought provoking items in the future. The goal is to wake up the "streets" so I wanted to build my foundation around pieces that are going to tap into the hood. Items that people where I'm from can relate to then gradually work my way up to more abstract original pieces and collections.
"I plan to release numerous collections of thought provoking items in the future. The goal is to wake up the 'streets' so I wanted to build my foundation around pieces that are going to tap into the hood."