Have you seen designer Ikire Jones’s Fall/Winter 17 collection?

You should, you really should. For a designer so incredibly talented, Jones is criminally underrated. The fashion world was first properly introduced to Ikire in 2016 when he was chosen alongside U-Mi-1 and Orange Culture as part of a collective of four African designers to show their fall 16 collections at the Generation Africa Showcase at Pitti Uomo, the world’s most prestigious Menswear trade show. The biggest honor an independent brand can get is an invite to

His collection ‘After Migration’ was more than just a collection, it was a fully immersive audio-visual project that chronicled and celebrated the impact of African migrants, artisans and artists on classical European art and culture. He did this by creating prints and patterns that reference artist Kehinde Wiley and put Africans in mid century European art scenarios, showing how in the hands of an artist that isn’t prejudiced, there are no racial boundaries. Ikire Jone is woke as fuck, and finding unconventional ways to start conversations around race, privilege and fashion and doing with the swankiest clothes.

His FW 17 collection ‘Awake and at Home in America’ continues the discussion around race and migration, this time focusing his lens on America, where he has worked in light of it’s current socio-political climate. Being African American or even African in America right now is hard, and Ikire Jones explores the complexity of surviving in the land of the Free and the home of the Brave without betraying your own identity, through the clothes, photography and gorgeous prosaic poetry, in the style of the great bards.

As with the After Migration collection, Ikire splices traditional African print making techniques (Adire and wax dyeing) with classical art motifs, papal paintings and religious iconography, into jarring pastiche that forces you to examine what is classical and what is primitive. This season, there are a lot more clothes for women, gorgeous damask jackets and expertly tailored dresses and pants. 

I wish I had the coins, I’d buy every single piece I could. Ikire Jones is the designer your favorite designer wishes they could be, a true artist.

See the rest of the collection here.

Read our interview with BFYNE designer, Buki Ade on her “Sahara Collection”