Jennie Baptiste’s photographs explore fashion and style as expressions of black British identity, often with a focus on music culture. She was born in Northwest London in 1971, after her parents moved to the city from St. Lucia in the 1960s.

The trend of wearing baggy low-slung jeans is thought to have started in the American prison system when inmates were prohibited from wearing belts. African-American prisoners used the style to critique the prison system and it was later adopted in the wider black community, becoming associated with hip hop music culture and black masculinity. Wearing low-slung jeans also became a way to display designer branded underwear, which was in keeping with the hip hop style of wearing bold fashion labels to show social status. The trend became popular in Britain, which was acknowledged in 2004 by British rap artist Dizzee Rascal in his lyrics: ‘I socialise in Hackney and Bow, I wear my trousers ridiculously low.’

The V&A acquired four photographs by Jennie Baptiste as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives. Two photographs by Normski, which document further examples of black British male style in Brixton were also acquired as part of Staying Power.