From The Excess Issue
Meet one of the most radical (and unpredictable) figures in British fashion, a designer who plays entirely by her own rule book.
London Fashion Week SS24. The space had the aura of a James Bond villain’s lair, or the arena where you’d fight a video game’s final boss. At one end of the warehouse there was a huge white light that illuminated the runway and nothing else. Good luck finding your seat. If you’d got this far, it meant that you’d made your way through the crowd of several thousand people outside. It was an event that had had no precedent on the London Fashion Week calendar, because it wasn’t on the calendar. It was off-schedule and clashed with Chopova Lowena at the other side of the city. And yet, everyone was here, in an old warehouse in London’s docklands. This is a Mowalola show. And you don’t miss a Mowalola show.
Mowalola Ogunlesi was born in Lagos in 1994, the daughter of two fashion designers. When she was 12, she relocated to the UK to attend boarding school and she eventually found her way to Central Saint Martins School, the famed art college in London, where her graduate collection debuted in 2017. Ever since that graduate collection, Mowalola has been one of the most prominent names in British fashion. Her collections often encompass everything from baggy tracksuits to skimpy bikinis and her style is instantly recognizable—it is effortlessly cool and incredibly sexy. She loves leather and showing plenty of skin. She achieved almost instant fame from that graduate collection, which was inspired by the car-loving boy racers of Lagos who rev their engines deep into the night. Quickly afterwards, she was contracted to design Nigeria’s soccer kit for their World Cup campaign.
Like many of the biggest names to come out of London in recent years (such as Jonathan Anderson, Simone Rocha and Craig Green), Mowalola joined the Fashion East incubator program in 2019, which gives young designers a chance to stage a show during a prime slot at London Fashion Week. Her first Fashion East collection is still remembered: the models had greasy faces and wore leather mini-skirts, like a biker gang on their way to the club. But by this time, she had already struck up a lucrative friendship with Kanye West, who scooped her up to be the design director for his collaboration with Gap, Yeezy Gap.
Back in London’s docklands at Mowalola’s SS24 show, there was a single, solitary figure who was already seated when the crowd was let in. Wearing all black, every part of his body was covered, including his face. Quickly, whispers dissipated through the crowd—“Is that…Kanye? Oh my god, it’s Kanye!” Sure enough, it was Kanye West, sitting inside this former sugar factory in one of the last parts of London to be fully gentrified. When the show began, he was joined by Mowalola herself. Instead of stressing out behind the scenes, putting the final touches on the collection, Mowalola eschewed tradition and sat front row at her own show.
Mowalola’s time at Yeezy Gap was short. Gap cut ties with Kanye in 2022, abruptly ending their collaboration and sending Yeezy Gap to an early grave. But Ye and Mowalola have stayed close collaborative partners ever since. Many of the headline-grabbing outfits worn by Ye’s wife, the Australian architect Bianca Censori, are designed by Mowalola. But the controversy stoked by Censori’s outfits is nothing new to Mowalola. If anything, controversy has been part of her brand since the very beginning.
The SS24 show was a blockbuster. It was a sexy mix of grease-stained denim, super short mini-skirts and tongue-incheek graphics. But then, the controversy ensued. One of the pieces from the collection, a miniskirt that was printed with the flag of Saudi Arabia, was met with condemnation online. The flag, and the religious inscription on it, is seen as sacred in the Middle East and therefore, its reproduction on a garment was viewed as sacrilege. Mowalola put her hands up and immediately apologised—a gesture she’s used to making. Controversy like this follows Mowalola wherever she goes. From her outfits for Censori to her infamous bullet hole dress that Naomi Campbell sported in 2019. As we wrap up this issue, Mowalola is getting ready to present a surprise show today - "Dirty Pop" - during London Fashion Week SS25, which she describes as “bigger than ever.” One thing’s for sure: everyone will be there. With clothes as good as hers and a vision that feels totally unique in the London scene right now, Mowalola is the rightful Queen of England.
