PHOTOGRAPHY Brandon Baldassare
STYLISTS Brandon Baldassarre, Denzel Coke
MODEL Denzel Coke
This portrait explores Denzel Coke’s lived experience as a black professional, and the in-voluntary expression of masculinity which is his personal style. Having longer hair, wearing multiple pieces of fine jewelry and sporting bold facial piercings, all traits Denzel possesses, are not exemplary of North American “professional” standards of dress. He juxtaposes this outfit, featuring a houndstooth double-breasted jacket of a wool blend, against the grain of this seemingly mundane cement side street in Downtown Toronto. This style of dress takes cues from the Pitti Uomo-esque European standards; a nod to little details that go unnoticed by many, but applauded by a knowing few.
