HENNAFLOWER BY ROBIN SHUMAYS Robin is an African-American fashion designer based in Queens NY. She has been featured at the Harlem Fashion Week, Africa Fashion Week, and Fashion Envie shows in New York City, and has been highlighted in the press for her unique flair for fusing color and unusual themes, with cultural textiles. Currently, she is refining her skills as a designer under the tutelage of Henry Smith, lead instructor at So Harlem. She has also worked professionally as a web developer, graphic designer, social media consultant, and model. She is currently employed as a full-time UX Designer for a major insurance firm. Robin is also co-director and dance performer with Zikrayat, an Arabic Music and Dance Ensemble that has performed at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Museum, William and Mary College, and throughout the Northeast. In June of 2021, she presented a paper entitled “Punk, Paisleys and Polkadots” on Prince and his influence on fashion through the 1980s at the 78-88: PRINCE, THE FIRST DECADE: Interdisciplinary Conference. In March of 2022, she presented another paper on Prince entitled “Bedlah Bedlam: An Exploration of Orientalist Fantasy and Fashion via the lens of Prince Rogers Nelson” for the #SexyMF30 Virtual Symposium. Once upon a time, Robin held a short-lived dream job as an administrative assistant at Prince’s publishing label, Paisley Park Music, and in 2020 she produced and co-hosted a webinar podcast on Prince called The Purple Paradigm. Of all of this, she feels her greatest accomplishment to date is being a mom to her greatest inspiration.