Showing on the heels of similarly named design label Adji Style, Ghanaian fashion label Theo Style’s showcase didn’t quite begin until it’s third look. In a showcase where the Ghanaian brands seeemed to have all dug themselves into a rut that found them heavily depending on African inspired wax prints for their collections, the Accra Mens Fashion Week had most of it’s bright moments come via the design labels invited from other countries. Theo Style seemed to have the potential to bring some glory home to Ghana, but did not deliver.
The clothes weren’t bad, not by any stretch of the imagination. Like many of the home based brands, Theo Style’s tailoring and construction was excellent. The clothes fit the models well and there was no garishness, or any ill-thought combinations. But the design team took many of the traditional menswear conventions and rehashed them, favouring atypical nondescript pants, colour blocking, bishop collars. There is a distinct lack of innovation or even a discernible theme behind the collection.
It then begs the question, why bother going through the whole facade of prepping to showcase a collection if as a label there is no interest to innovate, or at least provide the potential buyer with an interesting back story. Because ultimately it is evidence of intelligent design that separates the design label from the roadside tailor.
We will hold out hope for this.
Photo Credit: Qwesie Asephua Photography.
