The last time knitwear experienced seismic change was during the Industrial Revolution. Automation and large-scale machinery increased quantities and overall accessibility of fabric. Since then, there’s been little progress. “It hasn’t developed in decades,” Wei Lin—founder of the womenswear label PH5—says with a sense of frustration. “Well there was Alaïa,” she adds. But, apart from the late “King of Cling,” very few luxury labels can …
Tempus Now, helmed by South African-born designer Ora Fine, is an LA-based label that fuses African influences and processes into contemporary menswear releases. For SS19, Fine designed a collection called Afrofuturism—pulling from her intellectual and creative memories to create clothing that’s representative of her world; a place somewhere between South Africa and LA. “I was looking for context as I set out to design SS19, …
Orange Culture‘s founder and designer, Adebayo Oke-Lawal, is adamant that he didn’t simply build a brand, but a movement that goes beyond stereotypes surrounding masculinity and African heritage. Born and raised in Nigeria, Oke-Lawal created the label to start a new dialogue rather than add to the noise. And, as he made clear at this year’s Design Indaba, that’s exactly what he’s doing. “It’s more …
