Kenneth Ize has a new look. The Nigerian designer is sporting an afro these days, and said he’s been dressing differently, too.
That desire for change filtered into his fall collection, which was designed in New York City, where he spent the holidays with his stylist Ib Kamara scouting thrift stores. The result carried a whiff of ’70s movies like “Taxi Driver” or “Midnight Cowboy,” or what the designer labeled the “dark and dingy” energy of the city.
Ize said he asked himself: “What do I really love about this job? How can I move myself over the next 10, 20 years, doing what I love so much? And it’s really just about celebrating how you find things in fashion, and how you travel around and the power of clothes.”
Ize was also thinking about the way that Western countries ship bales of unwanted clothing to the African continent, and how they could begin to solve the problem at home. His solution? To incorporate upcycled garments into his collection.
This season, his signature plaid fabric was spliced with an electric blue cardigan, and inlaid with leaf-shaped patches. A workwear-style jacket with big front pockets came in a spectrum of lilac and gray stripes, and was paired with purple velvet flares.
Vintage jeans were printed at the crotch or bottom with a white Ouroboros, a circular symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, which the designer first introduced for fall 2021. Tiny denim shorts came with a cropped caramel corduroy jacket, and zipped black leather HotPants with an ivory fringed shirt.
While some of the outfits had a shabby chic flair — think a beige cricket sweater and beaten-up jeans — the overall effect was uneven. Unlike a designer like Marine Serre, who takes apart and reassembles discarded items into original designs, Ize appeared to have minimally altered his vintage finds.
The intention to work with recycled clothes was laudable. Now he just needs to find a way to make them his own.