ONEITA PARKER
“Being a woman, Black, and gay isn’t easy,” says Oneita Parker. “Life in general is not easy. But if it were easy, what would be the point?” The Los Angeles-based stylist and designer has always embraced challenges with open arms. At age 8, Parker started designing and sewing her own clothes, a practice she continued as a teenager. After growing up in the Bay Area of San Francisco, Parker moved to New York City and graduated from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and worked in the city as well as in Hong Kong before heading west. For the past 20 years, Parker’s designed and made costumes for film and television, and she’s also the founder and designer of The Proper Bunny, a whimsical line of tees, hoodies, stickers and more. “I started The Proper Bunny because I wanted T-shirts that I like to wear,” Parker says. “Ever since I was a teen, I loved T-shirts and would draw one of a kind designs on them with Sharpies for myself and my friends.” Parker’s own heritage also plays a part in her original characters, like The Proper Bunny and Afropanda. “I love black and white animals, and being biracial has been an inspiration for me to write stories about out of the ordinary beings that don’t fit a usual mold,” she says. Parker, who is married to film and television director Rosser Goodman and has a pit bull named Bunnybear, is currently writing her first graphic novel “that chronicles the life of The Proper Bunny and the various denizens of the local forest and the nearby city.” Stylist, designer, maker, and now graphic artist: Parker embraces it all. “I am a creative human being that has to be creating almost all day, every day,” she says. “Creating is like breathing. I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t create.”
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