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Amid the masses of posts on the internet, there’s something genuinely compelling about artist Chelsea Billingsley’s crocheted monochromatic creations that makes her stand out from the crowd. Part shirt, part balaclava with curls of yarn “hair” piled high on top, the works are reminiscent of a woman with rollers in her hair or a glamorous 90s updo, always accessorised with stacks of gold necklaces, rings and bracelets, and of course thick gold hoops. 

Her creations are rooted in the beauty aesthetics of the Black communities that she grew up in on Chicago’s South Side: the fashion of her aunts, her grandmother’s curlers –  “she would wear these foam rollers in her hair and then she would put them in my hair and give me my first perm with the Shirley Temple curls,” she tells Dazed – and the vintage Black hair shows where young women would sashay up and down makeshift runways showing their style and unique hairdos. These inspirations all come together to create the maximalist yarn creation series that she has dubbed “Curls n’ Culture”.

It’s not just the hair balaclavas that Billingsley, who has been crocheting for 13 years after starting in high school, creates. The 29-year-old’s artistic practice involves crocheting everything in sight from footballs to sneakers, covering them in her unique, colourful designs. She’s crocheted flower bouquets, bicycles and entire jackets. But in an era where “grandma hobbies” are more popular with young people than ever, it’s the new designs of crochet hair that have captured the audience’s imagination and reached another level of virality. 

Amidst this resurgence of interest in fiber arts, Chelsea B’s work turns crochet into a celebration of Black beauty culture, honouring and continuing the work of Black artists like Nick Cave who have used crochet as a medium for decades. Below Billingsley tells us more about her inspiration for her crocheted masterpieces.

Why do you do what you do? 

Chelsea Billingsley: It has always been rooted in shifting perspective and changing what the representation was like when I first entered the space. We didn’t have a lot of fiber artists of colour. My first introduction to textiles, and the coolness of them, was through artists such as Nick Cave and Ebony G Patterson. But I had the question of ‘why can’t I see this in public culture? Why can’t I see this in a music video or editorial? Why can’t we do some cool, fun things with this?’ Coming from the South Side of Chicago, what I was doing was seen very much as foreign. And so I wanted to awaken something, innovate. 

What are you trying to communicate through your work? 


Chelsea Billingsley: I think right now, I don’t want to say communicate. It’s more about honouring my inner child, and we’re co-collaborating together. Currently, a lot of my work is referencing my first viewpoints in fine art. I didn’t necessarily grow up going to museums and things like that. But I was in vintage Black hair shows, and I think about the things that my grandmother would wear, my aunts would wear, the nostalgia behind different films and music that we would listen to. 
 


Describe your beauty aesthetic in three words. 

Chelsea Billingsley: One of my friends told me, ‘You’re kind of like a 90s bombshell, you could be one of the girls in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’. She was right; I feel like I’m right there; I’m just a modern version of it. TLC, Hilary Banks, but less bougie – I got a little bit of tomboyish edge in there.

What is your current obsession? 


Chelsea Billingsley: My current obsession is bamboo earrings and grills. A lot of times when I’m creating my art, I don’t just look to straight-up fashion references. 
I’m often looking at people who create things from the simplest forms. So, for example, it used to be just sound engineers because they created sound from the very smallest thing. But right now it’s grill makers and how they take the wax and just get real creative with it, the different jewels and iconography and colours, mixing metals.

What fictional character do you relate most to? 

Chelsea Billingsley: 
I’m gonna say Spider-Man. In a way, I’m kind of this modern-day superhero princess of Chicago. Some people don’t know that I’m me because I teach by day and I’m not in a ski mask or anything like that. But when I show up, there’s Chelsea B, this crochet enthusiast. It’s almost like this is my Spider-Man moment where I’m shifting the world in my own way.

When do you feel most beautiful? 

Chelsea Billingsley: Surprisingly, I feel most beautiful – I call it my queen essence – when I’m wearing my ski masks. It’s almost like I’m wearing my crown when I put it on and the way people sort of revere me when I’m out like that. It’s almost like I feel that energy; I feel like I walk a little bit differently. 
My swag is different. I speak a little differently; I’m very confident when I’m wearing it because it’s like my crown. Not that it’s a bejewelled thing on my head; it’s like my moment when I’m wearing it. 


Are you optimistic about the future? 


Chelsea Billingsley: Yes. I’m a little nervous because I think that where I’m at right now, I’ve never been in this space. I’ve never been so clear about my artwork. 
I’ve never been so clear about the direction that I want to go into. So I definitely am optimistic. I think that there’s so much more for me. I just don’t fully know it yet, but I know it’s something great.