Young fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi has been steadily scorching the game for a minute now. Her designs are ambrosia to the most consummate dressers and fashion icons around the globe (from Solange to Megan Thee Stallion, Alton Mason, Rico Nasty, Steve Lacy, North West, Barbie and Naomi) and her signature blend of hyper-sexy, avant-goth, dark futurism and leather punk tailoring has stirred up an army of devotees. We speak Mowalola’s name and praise her boundary-pushing eye and hand, because this London-based, Nigerian-born designer is headed for greatness only.


DROPPING OUT, HEADING EAST
Ogunlesi was born into a family of fashion designers in Lagos (star sign: Aries), and after moving to England, she decided textiles and fashion textile design at the prestigious Central Saint Martins academy was her path to follow. Her 2017 CSM collection ‘Psychedelic’ was ‘unapologetically Black and pan-African’ and made fashion watchers perk up. But the school itself was not a fit, with a faculty too white and euro-centric in the designer’s experience. Speaking to SSENSE recently, Mowalola shared: “I feel like I needed to be with people who understood me, who are more on my wavelength. So I dropped out and applied to Fashion East. I met Lulu [Kennedy]. She’s such a vibrant person. [Fashion East] really helps you a lot in terms of everything. Very hands on. I’m with these people that I don’t even pay and they’re doing so much for me. Without Fashion East, there probably wouldn’t be the new designers that we get here in London. It’s really important to have that support, because brands like Burberry, and Celine, now, I find really boring. They don’t excite me at all. The only people that excite me are Asai, Charlotte Knowles, which have all come out of Fashion East. That’s where the fire’s at.” Okay, tea!

THAT DRESS
Only in her mid-twenties, Mowalola’s cv is already bulging with marquee names. She worked with Nike on Nigeria’s World Cup kit, shot with Ruth Ossai and Ib Kamara, interned with Grace Wales Bonner, designed for Yves Tumor, Skepta and Drake, created a short film and exhibition, and the list rolls on. Initially, Mowalola launched as menswear but the label has always been worn by all gender expressions and Ogunlesi formally debuted her womenswear in January 2019 via Fashion East at London Fashion Week. Perhaps her most widely-viewed celebrity moment was when Naomi Campbell stepped out in a white leather ‘Coming for Blood’ SS20 Mowalola dress with gunshot wound print. This swiftly caused a caucastic meltdown, but was promptly elaborated on by the designer herself as a representation of the lived experiences of Black people, who are constantly viewed as living targets. For a full overview and inspiration moodboard of all the people who love and wear Mowalola, there’s an entire IG account you can follow: @peoplewearingmowalola - curated by art history student, fashion researcher, stylist and creative consultant Daniel Obaweya.

WHAT’S NEXT
On June 26, Mowalola dropped her latest accessories collection online, previously teased in a faxed in, washed out, 90s-inspired campaign lensed by Aidan Zamiri. Shortly thereafter, it was announced she will be acting as the design director for Kanye West’s Yeezy collab with GAP, a partnership that could have been discerned through Mowalola’s previous work designing custom pieces for the Kardashian-West family. As she was quoted saying in December 2019: “I’m just on a journey and whatever happens, I’m with it.”

WHERE TO SHOP
You can get your Mowalola fix via SSENSE, Dover Street Market London (Basement) and LN-CC.

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Header image: (c) Vogue UK