What we wear and how we wear it has much to do with our sense of culture and society. We often take the personal choice that comes with fashion—meaning styling oneself—for granted. Those personal choices—tucked-in or untucked, cuff or no cuff, pattern or solid—are beyond price. Our fashion choices are personal choices that wield power. They say things. They also do things. Just think about how loud a suit speaks in the United States of America. Now imagine that same suit, in that same country, but on a woman.

The word “fashion” has become synonymous with clothing. In the same way, “modern fashion” has become synonymous with brands. The industry is run by brand names pushing their latest lines into the public sphere in the spirit of x-dollar amounts. The trend is about which brand name you sport. Three stripes or checks?

The latest line of Senegalese fashion designer Oumou Sy gives fashion enthusiasts a break from all of that. Instead of exhibiting her latest couture—a myriad of textures and patterns appropriated to Senegalese culture—on the runway, they are exhibited with the backdrop of everyday life in Senegal. In one of the pictures, Senegalese children play ring around the rosie around a towering fellow modeling an overly-large jacket. This particular garment is an homage to Issa Sam, a Senegalese painter, sculptor, performance artist, playwright, and poet. While Sy informs us of Senegalese social and cultural significance by way of clothing, it should come as no surprise that ancient customs and values are encapsulated in style. In light of this, the children that cheerfully go around and around the model are just the right touch to this shoot. After all, Sy’s couture is a celebration of Senegalese culture.

In another picture, we get a side-view of that same model as he sits high on a stack of chairs. I can’t help but read into clothing as the ability to transfigure us. When I imagine that same picture photographed head-on, I see a king.

It is important to know that Sy never learned to read and write, so she relies primarily on fashion as a mode of expression and communication. In that regard, we all do. Clothes do for us what words sometimes cannot.

Another picture shows a model with seashells interwoven into their braided hair and a commanding staff in hand, sporting a red-and-black wardrobe reminiscent of indigenous culture. The tribal style speaks to being fashion primal, in the sense that it is essential to humans as well as a primal form of creativity. However, upon another glance at the photo, it speaks to what we wear being indicative of our association to a social tribe.

These images were originally shot for Document Journal. You can see more of the project here.