February 21, 2026 |
It’s dire news to hear of even more clubs in London shutting down. At the end of next month, Corsica Studios in Elephant and Castle will hold its last party after 24 years as one of the city’s most beloved party spots. Jawara Alleyne knows first hand how important our dance floors are. Moving to London from the Cayman Islands at 19, he’s met most of his community and close collaborators in clubs scattered across the city. His most formative night outs were at PDA, legendary POC queer club night in Bar a Bar, Stoke Newington, that ran for a decade until 2021. “Nothing lived up to those nights. It was the place I felt most comfortable to experiment with dress and to develop a design language,” explained the designer. The basement bar was a place to show up and show out, with Alleyne remembering leaving work of a Friday night and putting together a lewk for a night on the tiles.
Some of the people he met on those nights out star in his latest lookbook, including set designer Ibby Njoya and the writer Osman Ahmed. He decided not to show the collection on the catwalk and instead staged an exhibition where garments were presented as experimental sculptures.
The collection wasn’t about clubbing but a reflection of what it’s capable of producing. “It’s about how people carry their energy, their style, and their communities throughout the city,” said Alleyne. Highlights included lace frocks that danced into bulbous shapes near the neck and shoulders. Elsewhere, there were shiny gold, oversized trousers that were pulled and twisted in crumpled shapes as well as a deconstructed shirt made from slithers of mesh and the remains of a chopped-up polo shirt. The looks were anchored by custom iterations of Converse’s Chuck Taylor Lo model which Alleyne smothered in paint and tangled with chunky shoelaces. They’re the sort of kicks that could take you from pres, to the club, to the afters and to the after-afters, and still look good.
Photography courtesy of Jawara Alleyne.
