Menswear Leads as Fashion East’s North Star
Review of Fashion East Spring 2025 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Subversion, Simulation, Transient Youth
An all-menswear line-up (in a city often dominated by a focus on womenswear) would have made for a refreshing change to Fashion East’s roster. Seeing that London fashion week had, until recently, lost it’s dedicated menswear week, with it not completely returning to its full-bodied self in June this year. As the revised format was akin to a celebration of the diverse communities who make London what it is, with the addition of a few shows thrown in for good measure. This partial menswear focus still gave these designers a true spotlight on the global stage that is London Fashion Week.
Fashion Easts current crop of designers did in fact still shine with co-ed collections from Olly Shinder and Loutre, but it was emerging name Nuba who became Fashion Easts North Star. Designed by Cameron Williams and Jebi Labembika their collection titled ‘SIM’ took a deep dive into the concept of having to shift our identities depending on what reality we are facing into and the emotional anguish that causes. They took to “dissecting the idea of Simulation” which their multi-layers of British, Jamaican, and Cameroonian roots would have given them first-hand experience in, cleverly using textiles with metallic finishes to mimic the glossy seduction of a big city and repetitive motifs were intended to replicate the cultural scarification rituals performed in some African regions. Their cutting techniques, deliberately made to awkwardly fit over the body, was also another way to channel the idea of trying to fit in as an alternate version of ourselves.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
The geographies of London, Jamaica and Cameroon are adjacent to our identities”
Cameron Williams & Jebi Labembike, Co-Creative Directors, Nuba
THE WRAP UP
Proving the necessity of the platform season-after-season, there are few spaces where freshly graduated designers are given the chance to express their visions fully, without feeling the need to water down their ideas. This may seem counter-intuitive in a world where creativity is being challenged as a viable revenue generator, but Fashion East continues to act as a bridge between the unbridled freedoms of being a student and the need to work within certain parameters which can often stifle those embers of brilliance.
