As I reported earlier, Duro Olowu is the hottest Naija-UK fashion designer. Olowu's known in the fashion world for his electic sense of style and his Afro-centric prints. Below is an aritcle clipping from "Suede" magazine:
[click on the image to read or continue reading...]
[click on the image to read or continue reading...]
"Duro Olowu's fashion sensibility took shape somewhere between the 1970s look of South African soul goodness Miriam Makeba, Nigerian icon Fela Kuti, and the icily chic spectacle of actress Romy SchneiderHere are my top 4 looks from the show...
in the mid '70s French film Les Innocents Aux Maims (innocents with the dirty hands). The dynamic is quite clear in his signature best seller, called-what else?- the Duro, which combines bell-sleeved volume inspired by the traditional buba of his native Nigeria and graphic prints reminiscent of the mittel Europa-style clothes his Jamacian-born mother, Inez, used to wear. Every time she met up with Olowu's dad, lawyer and diplomat Kayode, in Geneva on her way back from visiting family in London, Inez would buy bolts of Swiss silk to take home to Lagos. Like mother, like son-the 38 year old designer has a small mountain of georgette piled behind a curtain in his little shop at the newly fashionable far end of London's Portobello Road. Most of it will be turned into Duros to satisfy waiting lists for stores like Barneys New York and Kirna Zabete in New York, Beram in Chicago and Browns in London. Fortunately for them, Olowu defied his original destiny, law, to become a designer. Now the Duro seems destinied for the same kind of cult status as Diane von Furstenberg's wrap dress-and for the same reasons. Why do women love the Duro so much? Because the Duro loves them right back. "It celebrates what women are and what they want to
be," says Olowu in a voice whose velvety depth suggests he knows all about selection."
Visit [Bella Naija] for exclusive pictures from his Fall 2007 London Fashion Week fashion show. [Thanks Bella for the shout-out!]
