Off-White™ FW24 Champions "Playful Luxury" on a Giant Ludo Game Board
In a co-ed showcase, designer Ib Kamara presented “powerful” feminine silhouettes alongside “softer” menswear.
Ib Kamara’s Off-White™ Fall/Winter 2024 manifesto began with a trip to Japan, where the designer found himself struck by the country’s local traditions and the “big influence Americana has had on the country’s culture,” per his show notes. Cross-pollination bubbled in his mind: he reflected on how Black culture’s musical and style tropes have similarly informed America’s melting-pot identity. Therein laid the groundwork for his collection: “Black By Popular Demand,” which playfully celebrated those traveling influences on a colossal Ludo board runway mounted with crystal dice.
“This is a collection charged with energy and movement, bursting with vibrancy,” Kamara said. “In my vision, Off-White™ stands on its own, in a niche of luxury that is not quiet, and not even loud, but playful.” He toys with the Virgil Abloh-founded brand’s distinctive identifiers, like the arrows, which find new life as straps and cross collars; he sends fabrics on a joyride with an array of vivid faux furs, glistening metallics and bombastic prints. “We are certainly not holding back in imagining fashion with a capital F, as in FUN,” he said.
Kamara’s Off-White™ woman is “fierce and powerful,” donning a mix of contemporary, form-flattering drapery and dramatic long coats. Lime faux-fur elevates her moody outerwear pieces, while stars, butterflies, flowers and dice motifs add a punchy personality to her fashion identity. Multi-colored stripes ground dresses, skirts, turtlenecks and small tops with a geometric reliability, while tightly-wrapped tops boast sheer confidence.
The designer’s masculine archetype is softer, in contrast. His “clean and roomy” silhouettes offer a subdued taken on ’90s style. Cute buttons adorn innocent, striped cardigans, while faux-fur creations, like scarves and trapper hats, build on the brand’s warm character. Nodding to Americana, Kamara collaborated with Wilson to produce basketball-holder bags, and he deconstructed basketballs to create the padded “Baller” sneaker. Meanwhile, the same stars, butterflies, flowers and dice illustrations made the Off-White™ man that much more inviting.
“We are back! Black by popular demand,” exclaimed Kamara.
See Off-White™’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week coverage.
