Sorrel: A Clothing Collection
Sorrel is a garmenting collection inspired by the hibiscus flowers growing in my grandparents’ backyards in Jamaica and Canada. I take the name “sorrel” from the Caribbean drink made by steeping dried hibiscus flowers with fresh ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and pimento. In Jamaica, sorrel is a popular drink during Christmas time.
In this collection, the hibiscus flower serves as a symbol of Caribbean domesticity, ritual, nourishment, and continuous cultural ties in the Caribbean. As a clothing collection, Sorrel, reflects on nostalgia, inheritance, and the fragmented nature of memory, particularly how memories, traditions, and aesthetics shift, merge, and are reconstructed through migration.
Each piece in this collection is named after the birthplaces of my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents born in Jamaica. By doing so, I pay homage to ancestry, history, and the familial stories that have always inspired me to know my Jamaican culture as deeply as I do.
Sorrel emerges out of my work with Rendering Revolution: Sartorial Approaches to Haitian History. During my research as the Rendering Revolution Maker-Scholar Fellow from 2025-2026, I discovered that the hibiscus (called choublak in Haitian Creole) is the national flower of Haiti.
The clothing collection was presented at the Voices of Caribbean event hosted by UMass Students of Caribbean Ancestry (UMass SOCA) in September 2026.