September 20, 2023 |
A captivating smorgasbord of Afrobeats, death metal and spoken word opened Jawara Alleyne’s SS24 show. Articulated by Tafari – the designer’s brother, a musician and muse – inside a converted church in Whitechapel, it was Alleyne’s first-ever standalone showcase since graduating from Fashion East last year.
Calling the collection Beach Business, Alleyne cooked up the concept during a trip home to the Cayman Islands after four consecutive years living in London. There, he worked with local streetwear brand Mutiny, known for its rebellious spirit – and whose logo appeared on Allenye’s show-stealing graphic tees – and looked at the dresscodes of Caymanian youth to inform his chopped up and reassembled-with-safety-pins designs.
Backdropped by a hand-painted Ibby Njoya tapestry, models slowly skulked between aisles, disrupting the homogeneity of menswear with each draped, knotted and reconfigured look. Comfortable and loose shirting, skirts and baggy jeans were cut with a blasé kind of punk sensibility. One model wore a gold vest that resembled ancient armour with striped mariners shorts and a rastacap in a subtle nod to Alleyne’s Rastafarian father. Silhouettes were otherwise tighter than usual, with cuts skimming below the navel and pelvic line.
Allayne also considered dressing for the workplace in super sweaty weather – especially in an island setting. “I was pulling from my time working at a bank on the island and dreaming of a wardrobe that presented an ease in such a hot space,” he relays in the show notes. Cool – in both temperature and temperament – and with a tailored sensibility, his erratically reworked garms were designed to beat the heat.
Closing the collection with sensually deconstructed “drapework” – the kind of glam you’d want for a five star dinner by the sea – this was the epitome of beachy streetwear. Jawara Alleyne called it “island underground”.
Photography by Jebi Labembika.
