There are very few designers who can get the fashion crowd to travel from the Island into the depths of mainland Lagos, Nigeria. Not least to sit in a humid plastic factory on a sunny day, with temperatures hitting 31-degrees-celsius. “You just never know what to expect with Bubu [Ogisi],” one guest laughed as we took our seats on stools, which were unused rolls of plastic. Would it be one model? Would it be three looks? Or would it be an experiential presentation? Ogisi has used all of those formats in the past for her collections.
“We wanted to explore the ideologies of space by using plastic as well as glass as a core material,” Ogisi said. Featuring recycled plastic yarn, plastic beading and recycled glass beads, the resulting collection, which was titled, Heaven, Earth and Below and styled by Nigerian stylist and filmmaker Daniel Obasi, was a real conversation starter.
Last year marked an exciting time for the Nigerian designer, who was among a cohort of creatives chosen to create unique, custom pieces for the American lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret. Ogisi made a hand-cut brass dress, which was worn by Naomi Campbell on the runway. The designer, who has been working with brass for many years, was keen to bring it into her spring 2025 collection. “This was sort of an expansion. We wanted to go into much more hardcore materials that are not supposed to be on the body and put them on the body.” Every brass look was hand cut by the designer herself.
Ogisi is trying to rediscover her craft and her creativity. “I’m trying to understand myself,” she added. “If I dabbled with a material a few years ago, I’m going to go back to that same material and expand on that idea. Why? Because at that point in time my body and my mind was in a different space. So I guess we evolve into different aspects of creativity.”
