Behind the Cover: Santia McKoy on Cultural Roots, Family & Motherhood

When you look at a visionary artist at the top of their game, it is easy to see only the final masterpiece—the precision, the acclaim, the flawless execution on the cover.

In our latest cover story, we explored the boundless creativity, powerhouse drive, and cultural impact that defines Santia McKoy’s professional design world. But true icon status is built on something much deeper. Behind every stitch lies a fierce dedication to Haitian heritage, activism, and a profound statement on critical global issues.

From her celebrated Haiti 222 collection bridging centuries of heritage to the boundless creativity defining her professional design world, her work consistently turns fashion into a living record of history and resilience.

By midmorning, the Florida heat has already settled in. The air hangs heavy on your skin, and everything seems to move at a slightly different speed. Around the swampy water, the crew checks equipment, shifts things around, and waits for the next setup. Nearby, Tabitha Brownstone waits for her turn, watching it all unfold.

There’s mud underfoot, humidity everywhere, and a constant reminder that this isn’t some soundstage dressed up to look like a swamp. It’s the real thing.

This is the swamp. And somewhere out there are real alligators.

Haitian Designer Santia McKoy Stiches A Nation’s Contrubtions Into History

For our special edition Haiti 222 cover story, Breakaway Magazine goes inside the powerful work of Haitian designer Santia McKoy, whose latest couture pieces transform fashion into a living record of Haitian history, resilience and contribution. At a moment when the future of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians has created profound uncertainty, Santia’s work puts the people behind the headlines at the center—healthcare workers, engineers, drivers, chefs, IT professionals, military members and countless others whose work has helped build communities across America.

There’s a certain kind of artist who doesn’t announce themselves with arrival. They accumulate. They circle their own sound for years. Sometimes across countries, careers, and identities, until one day the voice they’ve been searching for stops feeling like something they’re chasing and starts feeling like something they’re finally willing to trust. Laura Goodstone lives in that space now. She is singing like someone who finally stopped holding back.

Nashville, Tennesse

Cover stories are usually remembered for the final image: the pose, the lighting, the finished photograph that eventually appears on the page. What rarely makes it into the frame are the moments that happen in between: the laughter, the conversations, and the connections formed when artists who share the same struggles and dreams come together. Only Talent: Buy the Record, Not the Bod is a movement about recognizing the artists, stories, and years of dedication behind the music.

There’s a certain stillness in the struggle, an unspoken strength in doing what’s hard, in showing up when your energy wanes, and in choosing persistence over ease, day after day. There’s a kind of quiet fight in pushing yourself further, in showing up even when you’re tired, in choosing discipline over comfort again and again. Sophie Spurn carries that into every movement. It’s not aggressive. It’s intentional. And somehow, that makes it even stronger.

For Shaw Jones, boxing started as a way to survive bullying. One fight inside a Tennessee prison became a memory he never forgot. He still remembers the sound of the doors. Heavy steel doors closing behind him one by one as he walked deeper into a maximum-security prison in the rural South. He was fourteen years old. Most teenagers spend their evenings worrying about school or friends. That night, Shaw was walking past razor wire, armed guards, and watchtowers on his way to a boxing match. It sounds unbelievable now, which is part of the reason he decided to tell the story.

Perfumery requires quietude, an intimacy that cannot be rushed. It does not arrive fully formed; it blooms, shifts, unsettles. It requires patience and restraint, a willingness to learn its language before attempting to master it. In that sense, Sol Romero's expansion into scent is not a pivot but a widening of her artistic language. An act of crossing boundaries, a reminder that creativity cannot be confined to the forms that first made it visible.

Jesse Kove has stepped into the film industry with the kind of quiet momentum that can only come from grit, purpose, and an unwavering belief in the long game. What makes Jesse compelling isn’t just his talent, but the intention behind it. He treats storytelling as a responsibility; to make people feel, to reflect resilience, and to show what’s possible when passion meets perseverance. Whether he’s stepping into the boots of a conflicted gunfighter or slipping into the soot-stained coat of a determined firefighter, he carries with him a sense of purpose that’s impossible to ignore. Kove doesn’t talk about “making it.” He talks about building, carving, and honing his craft. And that mindset is threaded through every performance he’s delivering this year.

Before he was a celebrated painter and sculptor, Sir Daniel Winn was a child of war. His latest film, Chrysalis, transforms that past into visual allegory—a cinematic reflection on memory, identity, and the enduring power of art to heal. Shot on location in Vietnam, the film captures not only the landscape of a nation in transition, but the emotional terrain of a boy finding his place within it. A journey from a painful war-torn childhood to artistic rebirth, Chrysalis renders Sir Daniel Winn’s life of survival as a cinematic act of transformation.

Nashville, Tennessee

In the old fairy tale, Goldilocks sneaks into a house that isn’t hers — quiet, curious, and careful not to break the rules. But this Goldy? She’s rewriting the story. Goldy isn’t here to stay small, be sweet, or settle for what’s “just right.” She’s kicking down the industry’s doors with her “Only Talent” campaign — a bold, bare protest against a system that still tells women to lead with skin, not skill. This is no fairy tale. It’s a reclamation. A rally cry. And Goldy’s not running away — she’s building something of her own, and she’s daring the world to listen. She’s not just raising her voice — she’s calling out the industry’s obsession with skin over skill.

Behind the Cover: Santia McKoy on Cultural Roots, Family & Motherhood

Into the Unknown with Actress Tabitha Brownstone

Haitian Designer Santia McKoy Stiches A Nation’s Contrubtions Into History

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