A leafy paradise hidden within the Barbican set the stage for Ahluwalia’s SS23 collection, as the designer leaned further into her Indian-Nigerian heritage than ever before for a dynamic co-ed runway.

Africa Is Limitless deviates from pigeonholing a vast and sprawling continent, rich with untold stories and countless cultural trademarks that have been distorted and often misrepresented through the white gaze. Ahluwalia looked beyond flag prints and national colours, and instead developed her own authentic web of visual culture, blending vigorously researched textile processes such as weaving with album artworks from the Ivory Coast and the fancy and audacious get-ups of African men-about-town (also known as Sapeurs). 

From Algeria to Tunisia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Kenya and Somalia, the designer took immense care to translate a host of unsuspecting materials into cutting-edge looks, hybridising watercolour paintings and intricate blanket patterns into tapered track pants, party dresses with asymmetric drapes, slinky jumpers with crop-ribbed finishes and utilitarian denimwear, the latter organically grown and lasered with traditional print designs, overlayed with her own brand monogram.

Shapes wrapped tightly around the body like visceral tidal waves in wrap coats spliced in half by baby blue plaid, or pannelled waistcoats and ruched skirts, segmented by thick blocks of warm-hued fabric in dusty reds and scorching bronze. A fiery night sky becomes a motif on signature ¼ zip polo tees and trousers in spellbinding vintage prints, broken up by patches of electric blue fur as sleeve linings, stoles and killer headpieces. Of course, each culture possesses its own unique beauty, but under Ahluwalia’s innovative spell, these dreamy amalgamations cast African style through the most powerful lens of all, an authentic one.