Photo: Luis Monteiro / Courtesy of Duro Olowu
With electric prints and attention-grabbing silhouettes, Duro Olowu paid tribute to Mother Africa with his latest collection. His Fall 2019 line was all things African, made in a rather elegant and modern way to appeal to a more mainstream audience. Though the styling was deliberately overwhelming, the pieces in of themselves seemed to have massive potential. A fitted green-and-red plaid top, for instance, would work just as well (arguably better even) when paired with simple cream trousers than its similarly-patterned midi-length skirt. The same goes for a leopard print coat, whose animalistic imagery was already ferocious enough. It didn’t need the plaid dress underneath to further catch anyone’s eye. Ultimately, our main problem with this line is that it needed further editing. We get that Olowu had a beautiful message to convey, but in all honesty, we couldn’t help but think of the 1988 rom-com “Coming to America” upon seeing this collection. And that should already tell you that it really did need some toning down!
