Ronan Mckenzie has just got back to her London home, fresh and rejuvenated from time spent in a tiny Italian village in the Alps. It’s where she curated a group artists residency, participating in workshops and one-to-one sessions.
“The worlds of fashion and art are a bit crazy right now, so just exploring, learning, and playing in each other’s mediums was really wholesome,” says Mckenzie, who led her own live draping workshop. The photographer, multi-disciplinary artist, and designer returns for a takeover of London’s beloved cult bookstore Tenderbooks, where she will showcase pieces from the fall 2025 collection of her brand Selasi, alongside core pieces, a curated selection of inspiring books, and the latest issue of her print publication, Selasi Stories.
Selasi is now five years old, a clothing line birthed in lockdown with a name that translates from the Ghanaian language Ewe as “god hears me.” The guiding thread across her work has been intimacy and elegance: like Home, her welcome reimagining of a contemporary art space which ran until 2023; her heartfelt personal photography; and Selasi’s sensual dresses and rakish tailoring in sumptuous, earth tones. But for Mckenzie, a creative who has propelled herself through various mediums, gallery spaces, and performances, this is the first year she’s dedicated herself to Selasi “wholeheartedly.”
“It’s always been my fun side project, but it’s also always been there for me as a creative release and a place where I can collaborate with people and share my perspective in a really tactile way,” she says. “I want Selasi to be with me for my whole life, so slow, steady, sustainable growth has worked for me.”
“I do a lot of different kinds of work that involve different levels of compromise,” she continues. “I was very community-focused when I had my gallery space. Selasi is so much about the people around me, but it’s also the space for me to have unfiltered creative freedom.”
Still, it will always be a bit of a family and community affair—her mom is traveling out of the city when we speak to pick up bookmarks for the launch event. “My intern,” she says jokingly. “But really, my mom has been with me all the way through this [wearing Selasi’s t-shirt and baggy pants all the while] and it’s been so special for Selasi to grow steadily with her behind me. I feel very focused on where I’m going now.”
Mckenzie sees Selasi as an umbrella, under which she can explore everything from design to performance to furniture. “I never intended to have a brand, so it came from a place that’s quite wholesome—not so commercial-first.” Now, Mckenzie is ready to commit to the next steps. What does that look like? The fall 2025 collection is titled “For Ronan,” and features some of Selasi’s core pieces developed with new textures and materials. Much of it is inspired by a trip to Lanzarote: both its astonishing volcanic landscape and César Manrique’s architecture at Lag O Mar, a home built into the rock and surrounded by colorful bougainvillea flowers. (You’ll also find bougainvillea everywhere in Barbados, where her mother is from.) Those hot, deep orange tones run through the collection.
Towelling is replaced with elegant boiled wool and deadstock suede fabrics. The ‘Hallie’ suit—named after her mother’s older brother—is a boxy set with back draping detail, made in a technical white nylon, which expands Mckenzie’s tailored offering. A burned orange gown named ‘Claudette’ was inspired by a previous custom look for the iconic, trailblazing British painter Claudette Johnson. There are from-the-start pieces like the baggy pants (now in an English wax cotton that ages like soft leather) and new versions of the Black Rock series—named after a neighborhood in Barbados. Elsewhere, the ‘We Love Barbados’ jacket—a name inspired by a discount store on the island—features a signature, delightfully sensual belly button curve and comes as a trench and cropped jacket. Ruching remains a key Selasi feature, for comfort and drama: “I put ruching where I might sometimes feel insecure, or where I might want to emphasize—to feel comfortable, elegant, and powerful.”
As a friend recently described to Mckenzie how they feel when they wear Selasi: “It doesn’t try to transform you, it reveals you.”
Mckenzie is also developing a bag inspired by a birthday trip to Brazil, where she found herself toting a carryall to and from the beach that held her phone, keys, and little notebook. “I’m not a very precious person,” she says. “I take care of my things, but I think things are supposed to be used. So I want a bag that can go with you everywhere.” It’s a cotton and canvas bag in the shape of Barbados with removable clips that create a handbag, belt-bag, and cross-body. She’s also developing leather driving gloves. “I just want to keep creating things that mean Selasi can be engaged with day to day in so many ways. To make things accessible sounds cheap, but I want people to have more and more ways to engage with Selasi. Like the newspaper, like a bag, a special jacket.”
Meanwhile, the fourth issue of Selasi Stories pushes the publication into longer form editorial, and Mckenzie writes a heartfelt editor’s style letter. She hopes to expand it with outside contributions and different formats, but keep it as a piece of special, printed matter—flying in the face of the doomscrolling, hyper-consumable content age. This issue, themed around ‘summer inspiration,’ features British-Nigerian architect, interior designer, and sculptor Miminat Shodeinde and Thai-British artist, ceramicist, and designer Srirat Jongsanguandi—both craftswomen who Mckenzie finds herself inspired by. (Jongsanguandi’s bag sculpture perches on Mckenzie’s shelf as we chat). Their designs both speak to the themes of the body, intimacy, and warmth which anchor Selasi.
With a celebratory event taking place at Tenderbooks, surrounded by friends, florals, and books curated by McKenzie, the designer shares her own recent reading list. It includes I’m Black, So You Don’t Have To Be by Colin Grant—her friend’s father—which is an intimate memoir about the West Indian British experience and the Windrush generation, and Rest Is Resistance by activist, poet, and theologian Tricia Hersey—about the importance of slowing down and taking space for yourself. Both speak to elements of the designer’s work.
From the newspaper to a Selasi puzzle, a staple baby tee and a powerful suit, Ronan Mckenzie is continuing to grow her unfettered vision for the brand. “I’m not trying to make clothes that look cool, but pieces that change with us, or enable us to tap into aspects of how we feel at different times—maybe it’s confidence, sexiness, or calm,” she reflects. “A paper or a bag or a garment isn’t the final stop—it’s your support system for your world.”
