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\nIt was the first Off-White show not designed by Virgil Abloh
\nIn an unassuming venue on the western edge of Paris, a box painted in a deep Klein Blue-ish blue framed the first Off-White collection conceived without the artistic direction of Virgil Abloh. After his death in November 2021, Ibrahim Kamara \u2013 who served as stylist on the late designer\u2019s Off-White shows \u2013 was appointed \u201cImage and Art Director\u201d of the brand co-owned by Abloh\u2019s Estate and LVMH. Inside the blue box, dancers dressed and painted in the same colour emerged from a cube and performed a ritual dance choreographed by Nicolas Huchard as models made their way around the edges of the box wearing Kamara\u2019s debut collection.<\/p>\n
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\nIbrahim Kamara dedicated the collection to his and Abloh\u2019s shared roots
\n\u201cIt\u2019s funny; we are both West African and share similar cultural references,\u201d Sierra Leone-born Kamara said in an interview included in the show notes, referring to Abloh whose parents immigrated to America from Ghana. \u201cI saw American culture, but I am often more interested in my own culture, where my people come from and our kinds of music because I think that is so cool. I guess I like slightly off-cut things because the western media sometimes overpopulates the culture. I can only reference myself because that is my own story.\u201d What played out in his blue box was a celebration of Abloh\u2019s love of pan-African culture and the visual world Kamara knows best, set to a soundtrack by Faty Sy Savanet of Tschegue, incorporating the balafon xylophone native to West Africa.<\/p>\n
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\nThe collection celebrated a pan-African spirit
\nIn his work at Off-White and Louis Vuitton \u2013 where he also served as Men\u2019s Artistic Director \u2013 Abloh was devoted to restoring, advancing and promoting a Black canon of art, which included fashion. He wanted the world to have the same knowledge about the African history of art as we do that of Europe. In every way, Kamara\u2019s collection \u2013 titled \u201cCelebration\u201d \u2013 was an amplification of that objective. While the show notes didn\u2019t reference the specific cultural and tribal references that underpinned the collection \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s complete imagination,\u201d Kamara said backstage \u2013 garments and accessories were imbued with a spirit of Africa that would have been as prominent without the blue-clad dancers enriching the mood.<\/p>\n
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\nGarments centred around anatomy
\n\u201cPossibilities are boundless. This collection is a celebration of that alongside our freedom to dream, create, and choose,\u201d declared the show notes, written in a collective \u2018we\u2019. \u201cCoincidentally, this mood has fallen upon us as anti-abortion laws are being reinstated in real-time across America.\u201d Next to launching a Jenny Holzer-designed t-shirt with the pun \u201cThe abuse of flower comes as no surprise\u201d as a nod to the flower motifs that permeated the collection, Kamara\u2019s collection was an investigation of human anatomy interpreted in everything from muscle embroideries on tops to x-ray jacquards in suiting and protective padding in knitwear. Clearly tied to the brand\u2019s pro-abortion message \u2013 there were also holes showing women\u2019s stomachs \u2013 the body mapping also felt like a nod to Abloh\u2019s oft-reiterated point that regardless of appearance, all humans are built from the same components.<\/p>\n
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\nIt carried on Abloh\u2019s ethos
\n\u201cMoving forward, our vision will remain uninhibited and regenerative. Our ideas will evade the binary in favour of the dynamic. This is a new beginning grounded in the ways of our modern master,\u201d the Off-White show notes promised. With Kamara at its helm, fashion will continue to benefit from the horizon-expanding fashion that meant so much to Abloh. The overall feeling may have been different to Abloh\u2019s Off-White, but in spirit, Kamara\u2019s debut collection lived up to what the late designer set out to do with the brand he launched a decade ago: to challenge, enlighten and improve the outlook of a fashion industry that needed it, and still does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first Off-White show that was not designed by Virgil Abloh celebrated a pan-African spirit \u2013 and carried on Abloh\u2019s ethos, discovers Anders Christian Madsen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":19466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-19469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n