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#City of gay men fashion houses full
While previous work of hers has typically focussed on exploring Africa with Nigeria – the country her father comes from – as a primary point of access, this season saw the London-based designer draw inspiration from the continent’s full cultural panoply. Showing on a gloriously sunny afternoon in a sunken garden in the City of London, Priya Ahluwalia delivered a nuanced ode to the cultural – specifically sartorial – wealth of the continent. The reality is, however, that Africa is almost inconceivably diverse – or, as Ahluwalia put it with the title of its latest collection, ‘Africa is Limitless’.
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Nearly all of us agree that it comes across as plain dumb when people refer to ‘Europe’ in one fell swoop, but still, when it comes to discussing the world’s second-largest continent and the more than 1.2 billion people that live on it, a broad brushstroke approach still prevails. The situation has certainly improved in recent years, but it’s still striking how often you hear Africa referred to as a single, homogeneous mass. Wherever Robyn’s heading on holiday is where we want to be this summer! Elsewhere the chintz of see-through highlighter-hue trousers is offset by the sumptuous bouclé ponchos that hugged the wearer like tightly-wrapped beach towels, and ripstop vests and jackets bring an outdoors-y edge. Loud printed tees - typically cut from low-grade cotton - are reimagined here in fine jacquard knit, and quotidian cargo trousers are constructed with hidden zippers and curvilinear seams, resulting in a subtly elevated riff on a humble staple. While the spirit of the collection is notably cheap-and-cheerful, the resulting pieces themselves are anything but. Drawing inspiration from an acid-smiley tee her mum picked up on a gals’ holiday to Mallorca in the 80s, this season saw Robyn tap into the blary energy of boozy, Brits (and, well, Irish) abroad on summer holidays. Where previous work of hers has offered explorations of memories of growing up in Ireland, this season sees her turn her sights to the package-holiday hotspots of the Mediterranean.
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Presented to a live soundtrack by friends of Foday flown in from Freetown especially for the occasion – Freetown Uncut, Drizilik and DJ Rampage – it was a timely reminder of the importance of “the idea of a borderless society, where merging of cultures would coexist with constant migration,” Foday said – “ of different cultures living under one roof.” The exacting cut of dandyish suits and overcoats seemed to nod to the tailoring know-how for which these rainy isles are well known, while panels of richly woven textiles and wools in sunny hues nodded to Sierra Leone, where Labrum’s founder, Foday Dumbuya, was born. Rather than trumpet a political message for the sake of building noise that would later convert to sales, Labrum’s latest collection was a self-assured embodiment of the richness that comes from people moving between places, proving how it benefits us all. This, however, was an example of what that can look like when done well. Now, just how well placed fashion is to comment on grave political circumstances has been an important topic of discussion of late.