Brooklyn Bridge underwent a transformation last night for Off-White™’s “DUTY FREE” show, scaled into a giant basketball court for the brand’s New York Fashion Week debut. With Ib Kamara heading up the house, the designer referenced his inspiration as being a trip to Ghana (where Off-White™’s founder Virgil Abloh is from) and visualising what America looks like through “the collective imagination of Africans: a dreamland of utopias made real, a place of opportunities.”
The collection perceives American sportswear through the lens of first-generation immigrants to the US from Africa, mixing the palettes, iconography, and styles of both cultures into a vibrant blend. In terms of menswear, this translated into distorted denim heavy with zippers, plaid pants paired with “SEX” belts, hooded sweaters ribbed with crystals, and padded shoulders on cream jackets.
The construction of each look was tailored and proportional, designed to be fitted and wearable with the city in mind. Womenswear featured asymmetric skirts designed to look like hoodies wrapped around models’ waists, and high-neck, fitted zip-ups. Off-White™’s familiar branding also adorned plenty of the collection, alongside the show’s name “DUTY FREE.”
All in all, Ib Kamara made a three point shot at Off-White™’s SS25 show, and from what we can tell, he landed it.
Featured image via Off-White™ ©
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