In the hectic pace of London Fashion Week, Duro Olowu’s presentations are a breath of fresh air. Step inside his bijou studio in St. James’s, and Olowu’s understated approach to showing his collections is an object lesson in why some brands just don’t fit the standard catwalk format: if these clothes whizzed past you to a blaring soundtrack, you would you I could never appreciate them as much as you do in this intimate environment. Let’s hope more young designers feel encouraged to follow Olowu’s lead, after all the talk about the financial challenges of staging a full-blown runway show this week.
It does help, though, that Olowu is one of the few designers who is as eloquent about the finer technical details of each look as he waxes lyrical about dressing the women around him. “It encourages me to understand what I’m trying to do,” he said of the dialogue he opens by inviting press and buyers to sit with him each season and discuss the looks as they appear, one by one . (In Olowu’s presence, it’s much less awkward than it sounds.) “Whether they love it, like it or hate it, I believe in clothes that are powerfully emotional.”
Seekers of powerfully emotional clothing need look no further than Olowu’s supremely elegant spring collection, which reiterates his abilities as a master of clashing prints and colors. A pattern of unusual flowers and diamonds from antique chests of drawers was both expanded and contracted, while another print – graphic swirls inspired by the Surrealists – was carefully repainted in multiple colourways, spliced together to form a pleated skirt or the sleeves to decorate a loose skirt. -matching shirt (and then paired with trousers in an invigorating shade of scarlet). “I didn’t want it to feel prissy or special,” Olowu said. “Although of course I always want the person wearing the clothes to feel special.”
It takes a certain level of fearlessness to bring it all together in a single collection, but an even rarer level of expertise to pull it off with good taste. Olowu’s version of a classic summer dress with a narrow waist was a standout, with pleated bodices and tulip-like ruffles that extended from the waist and doubled as pockets. “I think a dress without pockets is very old-fashioned,” Olowu smiled. So it was with the deliberately messy floral arrangements that served as the backdrop to the lookbook, put together by one of Olowu’s former assistants, Ragnhild Furuseth of Studio Lupin, and which he accurately described as “meticulous but messy – and not snooty at all.” .”
It’s that fascinating balance between the exquisite execution of Olowu’s clothes – the perfect pleat of those trousers, the palpably luxurious silk rayons and cloqués from which they are cut – and his renegade creative instincts that makes his vision so compelling. But it’s also the pleasure of listening to him that allows you to fully appreciate it. “The people I admire and hope to design for are never people who make things, or believe in things – politically or creatively – because they want to be part of a club or part of a movement,” he said. “I don’t make collections prescriptive or didactic. I just hope that in some small way they can contribute to a new way of looking at and thinking about clothing.” On that front, the mission is completely accomplished.
