Afro Mod is one of the African labels trying to find new ways to engage the vast demographic of the continent’s female fashion consumers by concurrently putting out several collections. Their second collection of 2016, ‘Fugu Elegance’ is a sharp deviation from their first, which was heavy on ankara and chiffon and day looks.
Fugu Elegance is all slink and sex appeal. The entire collection is built around black cotton so heavily sequinned it takes on a almost serpentine quality. It is this overstated glamour that tilts the collection from daywear straight into sensual territory. Afro Mod uses the fabric best when they use it simply; a peplumed tunic and sequinned leggings is the strongest look of the collection, closely followed by a mini dress with a vest style sequinned top and an ankara layered skirt bottom fringed with lace.
The rest of the collection isn’t that smoothly executed. A gossamer cape, ends up looking like the model is swaddled in reams of mosquito netting. Tulle is layered unnecessarily on the ankara skirt of a look that is already way too busy. Perfectly good jersey dresses piped with ankara are given unnecessary flared sleeves, destroying an already good silhouette. It is almost as though ankara is a crutch for Afro Mod rather than a medium of expression, and as a result the label limps through a collection that had the potential to have been legendary.
