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One of London’s hottest rising talents and the former designer behind Yeezy Gap is off to Paris to kickstart a new chapter.
Mowalola Ogunlesi, known for her powerful and sexy designs, will stage her debut solo show for Spring/Summer 2023, marking her return to the catwalk after a three-year hiatus. Confirmed to Vogue Business that she’s also no longer working with Yeezy Gap, her focus is back on her own brand, Mowalola. To do so, she has secured a show sponsor in New Balance, signed a new showroom to manage her distribution globally and is leaning on her community of collaborators from hair stylist Virginie Pinto Moreira (who also works with Fenty), Inge Grognard on beauty, casting director Mischa Notcutt of 11C (used by Balenciaga and JW Anderson) and stylist Lotta Volkova, who works with Miu Miu and Blumarine.
The 27-year-old Lagos-born designer is among a new cohort of fashion designers who thrive on not only their creative talent but also their ability to generate big ideas and bring in collaborators, sometimes outside of fashion, which extend their own brand halo into the wider cultural world. It was one of her biggest learnings from working with Kanye West, she says.
The off-schedule show will take place in the Élysée Montmartre performing arts theatre on 25 June, after streetwear brand Casablanca and before upcycling darling Marine Serre (both brands are on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar). The collection, titled “Burglarwear”, is inspired by the idea of “all kinds of thieves, from people who work on Wall Street to online scammers”, the designer says on a call from a Paris-based studio where she is working this week. The SS23 collection will feature new fabrics and more experimental silhouettes, a departure from her current “wearable fun clothes”, Ogunlesi says. “RIP to this era,” she wrote on Twitter this week, prompting interest from her community of over 24,900 followers.
A big part of Mowalola’s success is her deliberate strategy of working outside of, or at times against, the fashion industry. Her off-schedule show, taking place on a smaller scale with no more than 300 attendees, is a reminder of that. Ogunlesi was particularly set on Paris — it’s a city she has fond memories of — but she “didn’t want to have to ask for permission”. Brands that show on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar have to be approved by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. Ogunlesi would rather break in through the side doors. The brand, which employs 14 people, is profitable but under £1 million in revenues, Ogunlesi says.
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