MII LA 2023 LOOKBOOK
An extension and evolution of his collection revealed in March last year, creative director, designer and stylist Kusi Kubi debuts his inaugural runway show this December 2022. Comprising more than twenty-five looks, the fifty piece collection Mii La will see his innovative designs showcased through stills and video imagery, culminating in a runway show located in an unfinished skeleton of a building. Where his last collection Kuku Hill Crescent offered a subversion to archetypal men's fashion with
clothes adorned with gaping segments, captivating us with trademark gold accents: cut-out tailoring and patched-together leather pants, to chainmail tops and pelmet skirts, Mii La sees Kusi Kubi take a more considered approach to his self-proclaimed ‘fantastical’ creations. Featuring full looks from textured thigh-high boots, animal hide pants and the emblematic chainmail dress to intricate accessories and sculpted leather outerwear, pants and shorts, this seminal runway show weaves brilliant whimsicality with both indulgent and purposeful design. The ready-to-wear collection observes PALMWINE IceCREAM’s movement into commercial viability. Founder of fashion brand PALMWINE IceCREAM, Kusi Kubi is persistently honing his craft and interrogating the way in which fashion can be made more sustainable and eco-friendly. For Kubi,
“PWIC stands for all the things that we are told or made to believe should not co-exist with one another”, whilst abiding by an ethical ethos to “Reconstruct, Re-use and Reduce”. This collection thus marks an expansion of Kubi’s distinct structural vocabulary into inimitable territory fusing tradition, art, fashion and sustainability. Mii La heeds inspiration from Tamale, the capital city of the Northern Region of Ghana, and the distinctively resourceful re-use and re-working of animal hides of sheep (who were slaughtered for Eid festivities) for a number of uses: praying mats, bags, wallets, drums, sandals, wall arts and even for a hunters bow and arrow and as a talisman for protection. Kubi’s personal experiences and observations in a visit to the region inform a manifold of the collection’s development and creative process. Using deadstock fabrics, denims, upcycled leathers, sandals made from old car tyres and animal hide, Kubi looks to safeguard his environment and ecosystem with PWIC’s production, working with local artisans from Tamale who dye dry the hide in the sun for a number of days, where it is then treated with natural colouring and even tie-dyed. All the leathers and skins used in the collection are unprocessed, except for dying and remarkably nearly all of the garments made have no lining - maintaining the hide in its rawest
state ensures the ability of optimum re-use of these materials. Delivered in the Ga dialect, the show is a candidly intimate homage to Kubi’s late mother, Joan, and the values she bestowed upon him. Mii La is a call to DREAM, to breathe new life into the tired, the heavy, the wasteland - to transform derelict beauty. As Kubi often underscores PWIC’s manifesto, “why not find a way to create new from the old, to bring life to clothes that have died, as a conscious effort to reduce waste.” The collection is the antithesis to expiration, it is delicately dramatic, “embodying a celebration of life” and a celebration of the far from homogeneous, vast array of traditions within Ghana and its complex history - the runway show utilises the desolate landscape (sourced by the architecture infused spatial design studio, Limbo Accra) as a raw canvas to portray the fluidity and movement of the diverse region and the flourishing fresh ideas exuding from it. Kubi’s creations, akin to truly understanding the heritage and history of the
individual and the collective, is a labour of love, and epitomises the beautiful humanity that comes with investing deliberate love and care into the personal and structural environment of Ghana.
PHOTO CREDIT JUDE LARTEY