Celebrating Pride with Illustrator Mlle Belamour

To close out Pride 2021, we’re highlighting Laetitia Charles-Belamour, a.k.a. Mlle Belamour: the INC(RED)IBLE illustrator behind one of our best-selling (RED) Originals Pride collection designs. Her beautiful “DESI(RED)” illustration is available as a T-shirt, tank top, hoodie, tote, and pillow—all of which are for sale on Amazon.com/RED. Take a moment to get to know Mlle Belamour.

A young Black woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Belamour decided to follow her dreams and create her own art after working as an art director in Paris. Today, as an entrepreneur, she balances her passion for art with her role as a mother.

Though you’d never know it from the looks of her design, the (RED) Originals Pride collection was actually Belamour’s first experience designing merch. To her, the collaboration was about so much more than developing a new skill—it was an opportunity to use her work as a force for good. As she put it, “If I can share more love to the world by illustrating my vision of people often oppressed, I will.”

To Belamour, Pride is all about unity and love. Her “DESI(RED)” design is intended to exude love and acceptance regardless of race and gender.

As discussed during (RED)’s recent (INSIDE THE PARENS) panel, the LGBTQ+ community continues to be disproportionately impacted by pandemics like AIDS and COVID. Gay men are 26 times more likely than heterosexual men and transgender people are 13 times more likely than any other population to contract HIV—and COVID is only worsening this gap, as social, economic, and other health factors continue to put global LGBTQ+ communities at greater risk of infection.

Every purchase of Mlle Belamour’s “DESI(RED)” design, or any other design in the (RED) Originals Pride Collection, goes to support (RED)’s campaigns focused on generating funds and awareness for the fight against pandemics.