Fashion designer and hair artist and self-described “Ivorian Goddess” Laetitia Ky creates sculptures out of the beautiful dreadlocks on her own head. Many of Ky’s sculptures are whimsical, reflecting how she feels, the time of year, specific holidays or just clever images from Ky’s imagination. Yet as she grew more popular, the more she realized that she could help other women speak out about issues such as gun control, women’s rights, self confidence and sexual harassment.
Ky explained how this evolved in an interview with CNN.
When I started posting, my sculptures didn’t really have meanings behind them; I just thought they were pretty,…people remember what you say because of how you say it. My art is a bit unusual, so I thought, if I add a message, maybe it will stick.
Ky also explained how these unique sculptures originated.
I don’t really plan a lot before doing them — I’m a pretty intuitive person,…I mostly just have an image that comes to mind, like a flash. Then I try to draw it and figure out what I need for it to stay in place. …Anything can inspire me: the news, an object. There are no rules…