Off-White Got Futuristic for Fall 2023 – WWD

If hungry people ever colonize another planet, will Uber Eats and Deliveroo still be able to get to your door within an hour?

The question comes to you after watching Off-White’s fall collection with Ib Kamara, who spoke about delivery uniforms, his childhood memories of Sierra Leone and life on the moon. His nimble brain spins distant, seemingly alienated references—and then it dawns on you as he speaks that the padded foil interior of a grocery delivery bag isn’t that far removed from what you imagine the inside of a space suit to be.

For his second runway show as art and image director of the Virgil Abloh-built brand, Kamara crafted a unique narrative that also included Abloh’s circular cutouts, or “meteor holes” – expressed here by the giant silver sphere stuck in the middle of an expanse Set of red earth and stones and eyelets galore on the clothes.

The collection was a huge improvement on its debut, falling somewhere between a futuristic Alaïa and a luxe streetwear take on District 9.

The show was impressive and full of ideas, maybe a few too many, and there were captivating scenes: Naomi Campbell in a jersey dress hanging around her neck by a beaded rubber hoop, and male models wearing light-colored down jackets and sunglasses strolling out in a foursome to Lenses .

Kamara’s memories of rust and moss mingling on the corrugated zinc sheets of houses in Sierra Leone were faithfully recreated as a mottled print on outerwear, while other ‘components’ were just the starting point. For example, car or bicycle wheels became circular motifs on custom-made lace; Delivery bag zippers, the piping on tailored blazers, while the orange taillights of motorcycles became the toe caps of square-heeled boots.

“Off-White is a very innovative brand in the way it thinks,” said Kamara. “We’re experimenting, we’re still developing our own codes.”

With this accomplished collection, the brand seems poised for another start.