Tzar, the Nigerian menswear brand is consolidating the shift in design aesthetic it began with it’s Autumn Winter 15 collection Antisocialite. Over the last three collections, we have seen the brand shed it’s brightly coloured exterior of retro-inspired heavy prints usually used to craft shirts that won the brand a vast majority of it’s fans and shift its focus to explorations of silhouette.
The New collection 1706 continues this new direction of lounge wear with high slit pants, wrap shirts, loose fits and an easy wear aesthetic in tans, whites and shades of blue. We also see the brand experiment with Adire, the Yoruba indigo dyeing technique made popular by Amaka Osakwe of Maki Oh and Bayo Oke-Lawal of Orange Culture. Creative director, Ian Audifferen also joins several other peer brands in the accessories race, crafting his own brand of ‘wrap’ slides in a variant of colours.
What is most intriguing about this collection is that it mirrors many of the trends shown at the 2015 Lagos Fashion and Design Week; tassels, hgih slits even accessories unique to the brand.
This collection is timely and indicative of the new wave of Nigeria’s young menswear designers. There are enough of them now, most inspired by the same things that we are beginning to see trends spread across the collections offered each season.
And the hope is that this will trickle down to consumer and drive fashion at the lowest levels.