MXVV, the more accessible street wear off shoot of alternative menswear label, Maxivive has always had a more flexible approach to fashion schedules.
Maybe it’s because the line’s parent label has chosen to embrace the rain/harmattan fashion cycle slowly gaining ground in the Nigerian fashion industry, or because MXVV puts a listening ear on the ground, with a view to reflecting streetwear and subculture trends in Nigeria.
Either way its offerings tend to be more adventurous and more in line with the tween fashionistos that are the DNA of fashion enthusiasts.
The new collection ‘He Who Lives in A Pant’ alludes heavily to the life and work of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti (he was infamous for stripping down to his underwear publicly, his polygamy and use of recreational drugs) and millenial Nigerians, looking for identity latch on this mystique of Fela, trying to recreate it.
Oyeyemi takes classic streetwear silhouettes and constructs them in orthodox ways, embellishing them with pockets and blocks of repetitive text. He also employs panelling and exaggerated silhouettes to suggest an ennui with clothes, a metaphor for the apathy with which millenials approach the issues that Fela was so aggressively passionate about.
The collection will be jarring to many, but it seems, at least from the poem that serves as the collection’s press notes, personal introspection seems more important for people buying into this collection than the approval of a heckling audience.
Credits
Brand MXVV: @mxvv_ng
Photography: Ogoh Clement
Art direction and styling: Tokyo James
Model: Seun Logan
PR/enquiries: [email protected]
Website:www.maxivive.com
