MAKING her long awaited – and lovingly welcomed – return to London, Mowalola Ogunlesi’s latest collection was a dystopian journey through corporate greed and sinister technological developments. Though debuted here in the capital, the collection transports us to New York City, a denounced epicentre of rapacity and misdirection, and a catalyst for the “Dark Web” collection.
When a fashion house tackles the idea of consumerism and capitalism, it is always slightly bewildering. After all, what is the fashion industry if not a machine of both…consumerism and capitalism.
However in Mowalola’s case, a designer who has swiftly captured the adoring attention of Gen Z, her latest collection encapsulates an attitude while acting as a mirror into the zeitgeist, one with an immense cultural standing which will most likely be referred to for decades to come.
Passport t-shirts, sewer grate bags and McDonald’s caps all create a skeletal image of a city tarnished by socio-economic divides and the ever-evolving technological advancements at the hands of mankind. Codes of the “American Dream” are infiltrated by anonymous hackers and perpetuated by the faceless figures behind the world’s leading establishments, culminating in a series of garments plastered by graffiti patterns, trompe l’œil airbrushed designs and a bootlegged New York Yankees logo.
Though easy to point our fingers and tut our heads at the commercial giants across the pond, Mowalola’s show serves as a moment of reflection for us here in the UK, and though many of us have been disenchanted by the old white men at the top for quite some time, the smoke and mirrors are beginning to falter for the masses amidst one of the worst financial crises in modern history.
Though social commentary has been a frequented hallmark of the designer, what makes this collection distinctly Mowalola is the sexuality and the boldness of the characters on the runway. It takes a true genius to mock the elite with leather crossover harness tops and super short briefs, and this is something that makes her so utterly transferrable to the masse (particularly a generation of disillusioned young adults) as she is able to reference, destroy and reassemble a multitude of pop-cultural references all in a singular swoop.
It’s certain to say that “Dark Web” is no exception, and a triumphant return to London for the designer.
by Ben Sanderson