Pop Style: Yaël (Haiti)

Interview by Kendra Dennis
Photos by Eddie Pearson

Welcome back to LargeUp’s street style series, Pop Style, where we talk sartorial shop with the most impeccably dressed men and women of the Caribbean and the diaspora, from familiar faces to everyday people pon di corner. Last year at this time, photographer Eddie Pearson and journalist Kendra Dennis headed out to Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn to take stock of the style and fashion at New York’s West Indian American Day Parade. We put those features together in a package we called Pop Style Pon the Parkway, but there was even more than we could fit into print at the time.  With the parade coming back around this Monday, here’s one more from Labor Day 2014.

Yaël
Occupation: Medical Lab Technician
Spotted: Rochester Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Representing: Haiti

Tell me about your outfit today…
Well, today I went something a little more traditional with the Caribbean look. You know, a little fitted jeans, boat shoes, ripped tee. With paint. I gotta show off the paint.

I see you’re repping Haiti.
The best type of black on the planet!

Why is it important to participate in Carnival in Brooklyn?
I want to preserve our culture.

What’s you’re favorite part of the Parkway?
As far as the interaction, everyone’s cool, everyone’s down to have a good time.

How important is style on the Parkway?
You could see the style—skin out! You tell me.

Whats your favorite thing to see women in on the Parkway?
Favorite thing would be [seeing] them celebrate their sexuality. I know women have a thing in embracing their own sexuality, and sometimes that could be a problem. They do whatever they want. It’s a plus.

Is this the style that you would normally go out in?
A little less, but yes.

Whats the weirdest thing you’ve seen on the Parkway?
A dude pouring oil on himself—completely drenched in motor oil—with a horn on his head.