At long last, it is finally here. When Adebayo Oke-Lawal, creative director of Nigerian menswear label Orange Culture began to tease images of their Spring 17 collection ‘Rebels’ on social media, it was immediately obvious that the label was switching lanes. It’s last two collections had been heavy on the Nigerian references; prints that paid homage to ancient Bini and Yoruba legends, traditional motifs on cotton made using the Adire technique. This new collection had no Adire, no tribal masks. What it did have were gang signs and the
middle finger thrown proudly.
When the label debuted the collection at London Collections: Men (a first for the label and Nigeria, thus far Orange Culture is the only Nigerian menswear label based in Nigeria ever invited to showcase) we got our first proper glimpse at the full thing. The collection was called ‘Rebel’s and drew inspiration from adolescent rebellions and explorations of the boundaries of conventional tradition and emotional and intellectual awakenings. It still had all the quirk of Orange Culture collections but none of the African influences grounding it. Perhaps the label had outgrown its need to defined solely by its heritage.
The collection debuted properly at the South Africa Menswear Week, Orange Culture’s third time showing there, and these were the impressions we got from our first proper look. Now the editorial campaign is here, featuring Nigerian model Seun Logan and South African model Seth Ncize as two teenage rebels.
The demographic is definitely younger than we’ve ever seen from the label and promote a specific body type that might draw flack from body positivity activists. We’ll let you make your own conclusions.
