Nina Simone | Unisex Organic Oversized T-shirt

Material: 100% organic combed ring-spun cotton

Fabric weight: 200 g/m²

Fit: loose, with dropped shoulders

Set-in sleeves

1 × 1 ribbed neckline

Self-fabric neck tape at the inside back

The fabric of this product is certified for its organic cotton content.

Joy, too, has a place in a politically engaged portrait. For United Souls, Marie-Claire Laffaire chooses to immortalise Nina Simone’s radiant smile, drawing inspiration from a photograph of her smiling.

In contrast to the often solemn and intense portrayals of the singer, this drawing reveals a luminous side of Nina without diminishing the strength of her struggles or her determination. A way to honour her without reducing her story to the solemnity of her activism alone.

THE ACTIVIST DIVA
NINA SIMONE (1933–2003) – UNITED STATES

Nina Simone was a pianist, singer, composer and activist. The performer behind Mississippi Goddam and several other songs that became civil rights movement classics, she took a more radical stance, aligned with Malcolm X, unafraid to shock or denounce white supremacy with her legendary outspokenness.

Even in music, she challenged labels: “Jazz is a white term to define Black people. My music is Black classical music,” declared the woman who had dreamed of becoming the first Black classical pianist.

From America to Europe and Africa, her life was marked by many hardships. She settled in the south of France, where she continued recording albums and performing on stage. Her powerful, beautiful musical repertoire and her regal presence, worthy of an African queen, continue to inspire us today.