Combating racism through cultural sustainability with apparel brand founder Michelle K. Hanabusa
A fourth-generation Okinawan Japanese American born and raised in Los Angeles, Hanabusa recalls being targeted by racial slurs and feeling overlooked throughout her life. This was the impetus for her to start UPRISERS in 2019, a community-driven fashion and lifestyle brand that is stitching together the stories of Asian resistance from past to present.
In 2020, Michelle K. Hanabusa and her team started #HateIsAVirus, which grew into a global movement to combat anti-Asian hate and violence. Now, as the founder of UPRISERS, she’s channeling her activism into fashion and redefining what sustainability means from an Asian American lens.
It is UPRISERS’ distinct visual style and meaning behind their movement that sets them apart. From headlining the New York Times at COMPLEXCON, to partnering with PacSun, to selling out at Coachella and to supporting local community initiatives through the fundraising efforts and the stories behind their designs, Michelle K. Hanabusa and her team are setting an example of what it means to be a fashion–and community–forward brand.
See also: Asian fashion influencers in North America
Fashion as resistance, celebration and storytelling
Fashion can be a powerful tool for memorializing the past while bringing it into a modern context.
UPRISERS’ 1924 collection captured 100 portraits of American immigration stories to mark the 100-year anniversary of the 1924 Immigration Act, which banned immigration from Asia to the United States and placed quotas on immigration from other countries. This led to a system that favored White immigrants while discriminating against immigrants of color, a practice that persisted until 1965 and continues to reflect in attitudes towards Asian Americans today.
“When we explore history through the lens of our own families, not only are we strengthening the…
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