We talked last week about designer Uju Offiah teasing images from her official campaign editorial for her Spring 16 collection and how much we loved the art direction behind it as well as the choice of Lakin Ogunbanwo to photograph the campaign.
Offiah’s Meena has finally released the images. The 2015 collection, a critical success, was one of our favourites. It referenced drawing inspiration from Christopher Kane’s Origami dress of 2011 and built that idea while staying true to Meena’s aesthetic of heavily structured architectural pieces.
We drew inspiration from various sources for our Spring/Summer 2016 Collection. As our first venture into custom made prints, we were influenced by ‘NSIBIDI’. Nsibidi is a pre-colonial symbolic means of communication among the Ibos, in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. The symbols were arranged in clusters to tell a story of victory, resilience, love & hate, peace and unity of a Nigerian.
Details are influenced by strips (ropes) to create a bound effect of unity and peace amidst the challenges and insurgences ( in the Northern part of Nigeria ) we are faced with as a nation. Further details are flap layerings of shapes – trapeziums, triangles, and rhombus. Hand embroidered Nsibidi symbols also run through the collection.
Architectonic undertones which is our core is visible in origami details and sophisticated cuts.
We particularly love the sparse, almost dystopian backdrop of the shoot and how it allows the clothes stay the center point of the editorial. The choice of Aduke Shitta of Beth Models was also an inspired one as she is able to step outside of herself in this editorial and embody the Meena woman. An all round coup.
Photo Credits
Photography: Lakin Ogunbanwo
Creative Direction: Uju Offiah and Lakin Ogunbanwo
Hair Styling: Bernardsmiless
Makeup: Stellasaddiction
See the collection below.
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