With the end of his collaboration with Yeezy Gapafter a three-year break, Mowalola Ogunlesi goes back to taking care of its brand Mowalola and it does so with a new collection presented during the Men’s Paris Fashion Week which, even now, makes people discuss and not a little.
Born in Nigeria, but based in London, the stylist born in ’97 on her debut during the Parisian event decides to amaze, as she always did during her young career, showing the world Burglarwear which, as the name suggests, was inspired by the world of crime.
In addition to items dear to her such as trench coats and mini t-shirts, here is a slew of grotesque caricatures that show the gaze of Mowalola towards the darker side of our society. Balaclava, body and lots of black – which blends so well with the night – are the protagonists of the show Spring-Summer 2023.
Yet the most significant dresses are the ones structured through an aesthetic that plays on distorted proportions and on the compulsion of movements. Not only laces that wrap the whole body but also of the long sleeves joined together they tie arms and hands – sometimes forward and sometimes behind the back – as if, rather than clothes, handcuffs were worn. And, among these, even stronger is the white column dress that pushes the elbows up and the hands behind the neck, a posture that translates into a sign of submission, as before a stop.
Between the traditional thief and more skin-tight T-shirts with colors and symbols that lead back to the supervillains of comics, references could not be missing to white-collar crimes. False balance sheets or stock market manipulation, crimes that can only be committed by those wearing a suit and tie and told by the stylist through a personal reinterpretation of style Wall Street with cut suits.
Not even the clerical world is spared. Here it is the most puritanical aspect that is challenged with always minimal dresses that contrast the symbol of the cross and the skin, up to the long veiled dress with a cross in the center that allows a glimpse of the wearer’s body.
Current even after weeks, the show is one such strong complaint towards the darker aspects of reality affecting the heart and stomach. Some themes are incredibly current, like autonomy and control of one’s body – told by a pregnant woman parading with the cross tattooed on her face and a beaded dress – or the presence of male and female nipples in plain sight to underline the equal censorship that affects the bodies.
Yet, to leave even more speechless is the demonstration of how through hoods, masks and more, Mowalola manage to show how crime is so easily depersonalized. Emphasizing how this can be something that goes beyond gender, status or time and capable of embracing a latent nature that resides within each of us.
They will not be clothes to wear, of course – this is one of the criticisms leveled on social media – but let’s talk about outfits that want to make you thinkand if at the age of 27 there is a need to tackle certain issues then we need to make a profound reflection on our time and on what we want to build.
But, if you are still not convinced and you think that it does not affect you, look at this parade through the eyes of the handcuffed victim or of the robbed one who raises his hands to the sky so as not to suffer further violence … because it works great that way too.
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Source: Vanity Fair