Mowalola has never been into telling people how they should dress, and for Spring/Summer 2027, she takes that rejection of convention even further, building a wardrobe around the idea that sensuality can be something you own rather than something performed for somebody else.
Titled "The Hunger," the collection brings Mowalola Ogunlesi back to some of the instincts that shaped her label from the beginning. Think freedom, sexuality, and the ability to construct an identity entirely on your own terms: these values are what operates the Mowalola label.
Within the collection, whisper-thin chiffon sits almost invisibly against skin, while leather traces its contours and a palette of flesh-like shades deliberately blur the boundary between clothing and wearer. Mowalola even extends the idea beyond what can be seen, introducing the brand's first fragrance. Sweat, smoke and dark berries form its scent, effectively making smell another layer of the collection.
Some of the strongest looks come from placing materials together that have no business collaborating. Weightless organza pencil skirts hang from snakeskin waistbands, while suede is turned into underwear. Perspex jewellery then sits against tactile animal-effect surfaces and tailoring becomes transparent. Finally, lingerie is pushed into the territory normally occupied by officewear.
As the woman running her own company, Mowalola rejects the idea that leadership comes with a predetermined uniform. SS27 imagines women who can be powerful, professional and openly sensual without treating those characteristics as contradictions.
There are bras coated in glitter, dresses made from eelskin and gowns hand-beaded in Nigeria. This isn't pristine red-carpet glamour, though. Mowalola's version is dirtier and slightly damaged, where beauty becomes more interesting once something has gone wrong.
Nothing demonstrates that better than the closing gown. Created with Tô Genesis, it is constructed using fragments of smashed plastic plates. Something destroyed is rearranged into something desirable, neatly capturing the collection's fascination with attraction, damage and excess.
The silhouettes are disciplined and relatively direct, but their surfaces begin corrupting that order. For example, snakeskin creeps from collars and cuffs and waxed cotton catches the light. Trousers cling tightly to the legs, denim receives a metallic finish and leather is airbrushed into bronzed surfaces.
The Air Jordan 14 also appears repeatedly throughout the collection, providing a familiar footwear shape underneath a wardrobe that spends much of its time challenging familiarity elsewhere.
