Day 3: Thursday, 7 November, was the halfway mark of the 2024 edition of Confections x Collections. “It has been incredibly rewarding to work on expanding our reach for this year’s edition,” said Jackie May, reflecting on the task taken on by Twyg to curate and produce the CxC fashion shows presented and hosted by the Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel in Cape Town.
Bubu Ogisi, founder of IAMISIGO, was the second Nigerian-based designer to show at CxC, following Lagos Space Programme. Bubu collects inspiration from her travels across the continent: “Everywhere she goes she excavates history, and thinks of ways to reimagine it, celebrate it, and bring it back to life,” says master of ceremony Seth Shezi who wore an IAMISIGO vest, made of interlocking bronze circles, styled with a white shirt.
While Bubu’s work carries stories from around the continent, all IAMISIGO pieces are made in-house in Nigeria. The only machine used to create the collection shown was the furnace to craft the glass pieces. Everything else was stitched, knotted, linked, and crocheted by hand. For Bubu, preserving handmade processes is paramount to her work, as is honouring the cultures from where they originate.
IAMISIGO’s collections are a celebration of artisanal craftsmanship. “I truly believe in the worth of our hands,” she says. “I enjoy the act of crafting and the ritualistic modes of making and creating.”It is impossible not to consider the hands that make the perfectly beaded dresses, the crocheted trousers, the leather shoes, the knotted skirts…
Bubu is often considered a hyper-intellectual designer. Her “wearable art” (as described by Vogue) is both beautiful and a tool for decolonisation. Using unconventional materials—such as glass—leaving edges ‘unfinished’, and exaggerating silhouettes are just a few methods she employs to push back against Eurocentricity and expand our understanding of what’s possible with textiles.
“I’m trying to decolonise everyone’s mind into understanding more and more fibres and materials that we can adorn ourselves with,” says Bubu. “I think the evolution of design has to evolve. Whatever we think is for our bodies needs to change too.”
The CxC presentation was a sensory experience: knotted, fraying sisal; crocheted squares with feather-like edges; hand-blown glass vessels; stiffly draped beaded pieces; and garments made of interlocking golden metal discs that chimed as the models walked by.
Bubu sees clothing as a way to share her research into African cultures and, ultimately, broaden our perspectives. “I always want to show people new ways to create, new ways to dress, new ways to see how culture may evolve,” she says. “For me, it’s creating wearable pieces, but also seeing clothing as an art form as opposed to just something that you just put in a wardrobe.”
Guests were served a white chocolate cinnamon mousse with strawberry and honey compote, topped with a red-and-black checked motif that appeared throughout the show.
- All images by Paige Fiddes
- Find out more about Confections x Collections at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town here