Since Jawara Alleyne emerged onto the scene by way of Trend East, he’s made a long-lasting impression together with his cut-and-paste, punk-meets-pirate aesthetic that subverts gender ideologies. The designer usually attracts from his Jamaican-Caymanian heritage, particularly in the best way islanders categorical themselves by means of clothes. This summer time Alleyne’s return residence ignited a artistic spark that reverberated by means of his new assortment—his first-ever solo present—within the type of collaboration with the native model Mutiny. “I nearly forgot about how there’s a streetwear vibe to the best way folks costume again residence,” he shared after the present. “I needed to mix that sensibility with a layer of deconstruction, and dealing with Mutiny helped join me much more with my roots.”
Going down at a transformed church alongside East London’s Whitechapel Highway—now serving as artist Alvaro Barrington’s studio—the spectacle kicked off with Alleyne’s musician brother, Tafari, charming the viewers with a spoken-word efficiency set to a thumping fusion of dancehall, rock, and reggae. As the gathering appeared, it grew to become evident that Alleyne was centered on particular person clothes from a particular vantage level, one which skews and distorts.
From crisp shirts and twisted tees (some that includes the Mutiny brand throughout the chest) to minidresses and maxiskirts, every bit integrated parts of his signature safety-pin elaborations. Remaining true to his signature type, jersey material in all its variations performed a outstanding function all through. “It’s what I name ‘island underground,’ which is breaking free from the zeitgeist by taking probably the most extraordinary, on a regular basis wardrobe items and hacking and fucking them up in probably the most punk-rock manner,” he mentioned.
Silhouettes had been tighter and provocatively decrease than previously—males’s seems to be adopted an edgier stance (observe the low-slung trunks), whereas girls’s embraced extra masculine contours. Alleyne deconstructs gender norms in his collections, however when requested to broaden on the idea of sexiness, he clarified that it wasn’t his intent to ship such. “The place I’m from, that is how folks costume due to the warmth, however after I moved to London, I spotted that displaying pores and skin is prescribed as overtly sexual,” he remarked. “Being snug along with your physique is extra what it’s about.”
Highlights right here included a spin on eveningwear, reminiscent of a striped jacquard-jersey costume with a plunging neckline and low-rise again, in addition to a crimson wool maxiskirt-and-top set. Alleyne’s multifaceted design talents end in intriguing shapes that may be as demure as they’re leading edge.
