Elsewhere, designers are building entire collections centered on slow methods that leave room for uncertainty.
“I like to leave a lot of things to nature to allow mistakes to happen,” said Bubu Ogisi, the founder of IAMISIGO, a fashion brand and research practice based between Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria that explores Africa’s diverse and interconnected textile histories. “I mean—I don’t want to call them mistakes, but I would like for life to happen. I would like for time to happen.”
Time is a key ingredient in Ogisi’s practice, which embraces unconventional natural and synthetic materials, including glass from electronic and building waste, banana and palm leaf raffia, old clothing, upcycled plastics, and a durable fiber from the Agave sisalana plant called sisal. Some of these are then dyed through exposure to the elements and organic processes. “I love collaborating with nature,” said Ogisi. “For me, it’s also about letting go of having control of everything. A lot of our works have frayed edges and undefined pieces because playfulness and rawness go hand in hand when you’re allowing yourself to be playful in how you create.”
IAMISIGO featured eight pieces in Dirty Looks, some of which incorporate an ancient Ugandan textile called bark cloth made from the Mutuba tree. “We scrape, we beat, then we soak it in water for about six to eight months,” Ogisi said. “After that, we have to dye it in clay. There’s nothing clean about the essence of bark cloth, and no shade is ever the same because it depends on the type of clay we use, where the clay is sourced, and how it is stored.” The team then folded patterns into the cloth and used ground coconut husks to push the dye further.