This story is taken from Brothers’ Keeper, a special edition of i-D by Slawn and Gabriel Moses. Buy your copy here.
Brazen skin-on-skin contact occurs when Mowalola Ogunlesi rocks her SS25 ‘Dirty Pop’ collection here with a Black sisterhood: friends and models Nyadeng, Akoor and Nyakong, for Gabriel Moses. “I got to pose how I want, smoke my cigarette like I usually do, and wear stuff I hadn’t worn yet,” says the designer, adding that it’s nice to be on the same creative wavelength as friends, fellow Nigerians, and proud disruptors Gabriel Moses and Olaolu Slawn. “I fucking love the blonde hair I’ve had since February,” she says. “It’s giving me the energy I’ve needed to take on the stuff I’m trying to do.” That includes music, for starters: the 29-year-old performed original songs live at her SS25 fashion show-slash-concert this September, soundtracking a parade of titillating silhouettes, animal pelts and sporty bootleg logos.
With herself as a focal point, is Mowalola’s provocative world as narcissistic as some may think? “It is,” she laughs. “I create with so many people and the first part of my name ‘Mowa’ means ‘I am’ in Yoruba. Loving yourself and being selfish sometimes is narcissistic but necessary. My brand is also about community and understanding people’s differences.” That’s when her collaborators like DJ Joey LaBeija, stylist Haley Wollens, producer Chiara Lafour, muse and make-up artist Tilda Mace and design team members Cathy Meyong and Feyi Majekodunmi enter the chat. Here, the designer and her key collaborators break down how they staged the SS25 show, the collection’s origin story and the greatness of the Mowalola world.
Mowalola: I am designing for myself. Humans still act in animalistic ways and I’ve fully decided to be myself no matter what it takes. As Nigerians, we grew up looking at American, British, even Asian cultures, but people don’t really know anything about us. It seems unexpected for someone Nigerian to do something like this but it makes perfect sense to me.
Feyi Majekodunmi, Design Team: SAY WHAT YOU WANT ABOUT MY SISTER BUT SHE CAN PUT ON A SHOW!! I met Mowa when I was five or six, modelling for her mum’s children’s clothing line.
Mowalola: Feyi’s mum and my mum were best friends. So when he came to England and wanted to do fashion, he interned with me and started working full-time when he graduated. I appreciate him because we grew up together and he understands the vision.
Cathy Meyong, Design Team: Mowa’s graduate collection sparked my fashion interest and inspired me to study at Central Saint Martins. I wouldn’t be where I am without her impact. Mowa’s creative vision aligns with mine; I’m free to experiment and suggest wacky ideas like the human hair pieces.
Mowalola: Cathy designed this hair dress for my birthday in March, based on a Savage Beauty theme. It was so incredible that we made it for the show. I took stock of things we’ve designed from the past year and wove them together.
Feyi: Lee McQueen is a huge inspiration for me and the brand. My favourite pieces are the cowhide bombers, cinched mini dresses, and some V-neck dresses that weren’t seen on the runway. This is my fifth Mowa collection and I’d like to think that I’ve got her creatively figured out – but she always keeps me on my feet. This collection kept evolving through film, music and conversations.
Mowalola: Putting on these clothes gives you raw confidence. I am who I am. It is sexy, but the way I see sex is less about fucking and more about the energy you give out. The confidence you have moving through a space, how you talk and drink.
Joey LaBeija, SS25 Music: People who love Mowa wear their clothes as armour, don’t want to blend in, and want to feel badass. I know when I wear Mowa shit, I feel like a bad bitch. How do the clothes reflect that girl? Your cooch is out. The clothes are skin tight, the jackets are cut like hello. Mowa makes cunt clothes and her following is cunt, period.
Mowalola: I wanted to work with Haley because I love her eye. This was her first time working on my brand and it was meant to be.
Haley Wollens, Stylist: Mowa and I had been talking on the internet for years, supporting each other’s endeavours. I asked her to walk in the SS25 Mugler show – I always include women who inspire me, and duh, she’s smokin’ hot. She asked me to style and I was so excited to work with a woman building her own world. She explained her show concept and I was like, “The VMAs except you’re the host, nominee, performer and winner.”
Mowalola: I explained the different show moments I wanted to Parris [Goebel, choreographer], like Eminem’s iconic VMAs performance in 2000. I made the Ebony T-shirt about a year ago and really wanted to see Ebony clones.
Chiara Lafour, Producer: My favourite moment had to be Mowa coming out to her music with her clones all identically styled in the same wigs and outfits.
Mowalola: I’ve seen so many iconic Ebony magazine covers. They celebrated amazingly talented individuals in different ways. That’s how I see the Black people in my life, as who they are and not what society needs them to be. When I made the top, I was thinking about what I wanted to wear. I love the unapologetic energy Ebony magazine had about being Black.
Cathy: I see the Ebony pieces as a homage to the magazine and Black sexuality rather than an insult, and that is exactly what they were meant to be.
Mowalola: My work is like a mirror to the things you probably hide, suppress or fear. It’s more than just fashion for me, I’m living through my gut. Putting out two collections a year isn’t how I want to live. I want to travel, do other things, and bring that back into my fashion and music. I have fun with the way I choose to speak to the world. I’m testing myself, growing, building the future I want to see.
Cathy: There was an online backlash – the Ebony pieces especially created controversy. After reading comments and think pieces by African-American creators, I understand why it would be offensive to some. African-Americans are more than entitled to be protective over their cultural achievements.
Mowalola: I’m only here to appease myself, and I want more Black people to think in that way. I see myself without boundaries or limits and I don’t feel like what I do is physically hurting anyone. It makes people question the ideas they thought they knew, because I put what I like or inspires me into what I do. I explained to Chiara how I wanted [the SS25 show] to feel like a mix of performance art and fashion and she got it.
Chiara: Mowa kept reiterating, “This is not a normal fashion show.” She wanted to go to the next level so I had to be clever with the production to make all ideas come to life: set design, lights, performances, choreography, music, casting, everything you can think of. We crafted controlled chaos. Production-wise, [the show] was a beast but we did it and I’m proud of that.
Mowalola: I met Chiara a year and a half ago when looking for a producer. A friend introduced us and she amazed me. She has a great heart. I love collaborating with people but I only really want to work with people who are in love with what they’re doing. It makes me care more and I learn from them.
Chiara: Our collaboration comes very naturally – I see the vision and understand exactly where she’s trying to go and she trusts me with it in return. After every show, Mowa and I laugh and share the biggest hug, we know we’re making history. She’s fearless and makes all of us around her fearless too. That’s what makes the shows so great.
Mowalola: I enjoyed myself and felt like I was doing what I was supposed to. I’ve been performing music for the past two years and, after watching the last show, I was like, “Wow, this is insane but I need to see something more. How far can I take this?” This show helped me figure out which songs are going on the album I’m hopefully dropping next year.
Joey: My role in this was helping with the song order and figuring out how to make existing songs sound fresh for the collection. I came across a “Wet” remix, and Mowa got another “Add To Cart” remix from the producer. That was the first time we’d done the music live. It was exhilarating and I don’t think I breathed the entire time.
Mowalola: I first met Joey at a party he DJed in 2018. We started hanging out and we worked on the music for my first London show together.
Joey: I met Mowa when I brought my Techno Cumbia party to London. We have a relationship that only a Sagittarius and an Aries could have: fire for fire, idea for idea. We feed off each other’s energy positively, and there’s lots of laughter.
Mowalola: I stayed with him in New York this August to work on the show music and then went to LA to meet Parris and create the choreography.
Joey: I cherish that time because we had so many beautiful, meaningful conversations about life and art and making shit. I say this with my whole chest: what makes Mowa so special is that she actually does not give a fuck. She just wants to create and doesn’t care what gets in the way.
Mowalola: I made the first song “You Not” earlier this year with Trinidad James. It’s very bratty and cunty. He’s the one who inspired me to have this show idea. I was like, “I want to perform it and have my fashion show happening around it.” And he was like, “Yeah, you could do that.” That’s what birthed ‘Dirty Pop’.
Tilda Mace, Prosthetics and Makeup Artist, aka MugQueens: Mowa said she wanted me to walk the show fully MugQueened. I was going to perform the drums but I wasn’t ready… maybe next year!
Mowalola: Yeah, Tilda was nervous so I was like, “Why don’t you just walk, be yourself, and demand attention?”
Tilda: I wanted to be this albino alligator with beautiful plucked bird skin. Very monotone and a bit like a beautiful-ugly birth, but I kept my own skin down the sides of my body so I wasn’t the full character, just a half-transformed orb.
Mowalola: I love the time that Tilda and I spend creating stuff. The first time we worked together was a [2023] Beats campaign.
Tilda: The meta electrical sex baby we made on that Beats X Mowalola campaign in Paris with Hugo Comte was perfect. I love sharing space with her.
Mowalola: So much joy went into creating this collection. Everyone nerded out on everything they did, from Parris to Joey to Tilda to Feyi and Cathy.
All clothing and shoes (worn throughout) MOWALOLA.
Credits
Photography: Gabriel Moses
Artwork: Slawn
i-D Global Creative Direction: Jamie Reid
Fashion: Gerry O’Kane
Hair: Amidat Giwa at Bryant Artists
Make-up and prosthetics: Tilda Mace
Nail Technician: Edyta Betka using OPI
Set Design: Julia Dias
Movement Director: Manu Loca
Photography Assistance: Darren Karl-Smith and Jack Savage
Digital Technician: Ben Quinton
Styling Assistance: Anna Sweasey
Tailor: Della George
Hair Assistance: Avrelle Delisser, Kreszend Sackey and Funmi Oriola
Set Design Assistance: Sam Edyn, Isaac Ashley, Matthew Payne, Ellen Forbes Scenic and Ferg Lockyear
Production: Liberty Dye And Victoria Mancisidor at Concrete Rep Ltd, Thea Charlesworth at theArcade Production
Production Manager: Jeremy Rwakasiisi
Production Assistance: Kate Roswell
Retouching: The Hand Of God
Casting Director Isabel Bush at Concrete Rep Ltd
Special Thanks: Grace Rotimi and Cassia Agyeman
Models: Adit Priscilla at Storm, Akoor Yel at The Hive, Nyakong Chan at Select, Nyandeng Makur at Milk and Mowalola Ogunlesi
