Bubu Ogisi was studying fashion in Paris when her perception of Africa changed. Ms. Ogisi, a Nigerian fashion designer from Lagos, was the only Black person in her class, and she had been assigned to work on a project about the continent by her teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was adding Egypt, Morocco, everything, and my teacher told me, \u2018No, do a project on Africa \u2014 Black Africa.\u2019 I never knew there was a difference. I never knew there was this divide of how people think about Black Africa and the rest of Africa,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was kind of a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Ogisi went on to found her women\u2019s wear brand, IAMSIGO, based in Lagos, Nairobi and Accra, in 2013, in part, to tell the historical stories of the African continent. Her collections are composed almost entirely of hand-crafted pieces and revolve around preserving ancient artisanal techniques and celebrating new ways to create ecologically friendly fabrics.<\/p>\n
She has produced more than a dozen collections in the years since and has shown her work at fashion weeks in London, Paris, Lagos, Durban and Bogot\u00e1. Her designs have been exhibited throughout Europe and are currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as part of the \u201cAfrica Fashion\u201d exhibit.<\/p>\n
Ms. Ogisi\u2019s work, which is inspired by communities across the African continent, is unconventional and plays against the principles and politics of modern industrialization. As a storyteller, she is interested in communicating the complexities of identity, spirituality and culture. And as an artist, she holds an inherent belief in the body as the ultimate canvas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of my work is to decolonize,\u201d Ms. Ogisi said. \u201cTo be colonized is to be barricaded, to be controlled, to not be free; so I do that with textures, gravity, mass, density, lighting, everything possible, to open everybody\u2019s mind to a better and freer world.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her spring-summer 2022 collection, \u201cGreen Water, Blue Forest,\u201d she collaborated with artisans in Kenya who hand-crocheted recycled plastic and wove together silk, cotton and hemp from Agraloop, a company that produces textile-grade fiber from agricultural waste.<\/p>\n
Brightly colored plastic, hemp and cotton, intentionally left raw and unfinished, are central to the 14-look collection, which includes tassel dresses, drawstring waist culottes, hand-woven tunics and recycled PVC bikini tops. Pieces from IAMSIGO cost $234 to $750 and can be purchased through the online marketplace Industrie Africa and other retailers.<\/p>\n
Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of Lagos Fashion Week, has followed Ms. Ogisi\u2019s work for over a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just always been clear since day 1 that she had a considered approach to creating,\u201d Ms. Akerele said. \u201cShe had a distinct point of view that always drew you in and invited you to take a deeper and closer look at the inspiration behind the collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo not just what you\u2019re seeing, but the story behind it, where the materials been sourced from, where it came from, the community of people that she\u2019s collaborated with just bring it to life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Ogisi works with a network of artisans in countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Benin Republic, Togo, Rwanda and Senegal. The work does not rely on heavy machinery; instead, each piece is made almost entirely by hand, and the process to make a single 100-centimeter piece of fabric, which can include weaving, beading or dyeing, can take more than a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about fusing what is old with what is new, preserving what is wasted, and recreating that and reconstructing that into new,\u201d Ms. Ogisi said.<\/p>\n
For her accessories, Ms. Ogisi has worked with bronze jewelry makers to create earrings and pendants that take inspiration from masks used by tribes in Ghana, Nigeria, Benin and the Ivory Coast for religious purposes. She has also collaborated with other well-known designers like Kkerele, a Nigerian shoe designer, and Brian Kivuti, a Kenyan jewelry designer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in love with her idea of sustainability, the way she explores what it means to be an African designer in her materials, the way she weaves and combines materials and the way she considers the history of the materials and their significance,\u201d Mr. Kivuti said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Ogisi was raised in Lagos and London. As a child, she was deeply influenced by her surroundings, she said. She would often observe the differences between each city \u2014 the rowdiness of Lagos, the bustle of London \u2014 along with the cultural differences.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I used to be a very shy child,\u201d Ms. Ogisi said. \u201cI loved fashion so much that my clothing became my own medium of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also explores historical narratives through her work. Past collections have spotlighted the power of the Amazons of Dahomey, a group of women in West Africa and the legends of Queen Nyabinghi, a powerful ancestor in East Africa who spoke through priestesses.<\/p>\n
The IAMSIGO autumn-winter 2020 collection, \u201cChasing Evil,\u201d in which Ms. Ogisi used raffia and recycled cotton, examined her understanding of fabric as a spiritual entity, channeling the ideas of self-preservation, self-protection and how humans connect with different cultures and different people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bubu Ogisi travels around Africa, resurrecting artisanal skills that have been in existence for years to explore sustainability and identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-20321","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