Of all the names to turn up on the short list for the brand-new LVMH Prize, Maki Oh is perhaps the most surprising. Designer Maki Osakwe's presence on the list is richly deserved, but as a designer based in Lagos, she remains outside the range of fashion industry groupthink. That makes her something other than a usual suspect for a Paris-based fashion competition, but it also helps account for the utter distinctiveness of her work.
Osakwe always premises her collections on a story, and this one, she explained, came from her imagining a woman at her mirror, reciting the song lyrics, "Tell me I'm the only one, even if you choke." As Osakwe went on to say, that vignette presents the question: Is this woman mad or not? And thus the collection toyed with themes of madness and un-madness, love and anti-love, and other states that fluctuate and are a matter of perception. All this was transmitted through Osakwe's most elevated and accomplished collection yet. This time out, she emphasized relatively easy silhouettes—a pair of track pants, a soft silk blouse, a lean tailored dress with some slouch to it.
Further, Osakwe really upped her textile game this season, developing a traditional Nigerian aso-oke material with Lurex thread; pulling luxe gobs of fringe out of selvedge; and translating prints, such as her Yoruba translation of those song lyrics, into hand-appliquéd lettering.
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