At the tail end of one of the busier days of London Fashion Week, walking into Tolu Coker’s show this evening felt like being welcomed home. Walls papered with poppy ’70s graphics were hung with photographs of proud Black women, posing in puff-sleeved dresses and sculptural head wraps, or caught candidly dancing in fine knit vests worn over poplin shorts and pleated plaid skirts. Rather than your typical humdrum chairs, the runway was lined with mid-century furniture and home decorations that gave the room the feeling of a large-scale Michael McMillan installation—teak sofas with deep pile marigold cushions; a fully laid dinner table, decked with bowls laden with tropical fruit; bookcases with shelves lined with hand-carved ebony busts.
The intention, the designer explained post-show, was on one level an homage to Olapeju Coker, her dear mother (tributes to mothers being something of a trend this season, following on from Chet Lo on Friday). “In Yoruba, her name means ‘wealth gathers,’” Coker explained. “I really wanted to tap into our culture and how names can carry such significant meaning.” The collection was also an exploration of the significance of living room spaces in the collective psyches of London’s myriad immigrant communities. “I was really looking back at the emotions and feelings I felt growing up in my childhood home, but also in the pictures of living rooms that I would see in my late father, Kayode Coker’s, archives,” the designer said. “They were from the late ’60s and early ’70s, but I felt that sensitivity as a child, and it led me to look deeper into stories of immigration and how the living room has been this sort of gathering space, especially for working-class people. It’s looking at the wealth that exists within these communities.”
These notions were poignantly fleshed out in the collection that filed down the runway, a joyfully nostalgic, though still contemporary offering sported by models in sculptural beehives and flippy hairspray-held dos. Tailoring served as a pillar, with elegant leather Harringtons and sporty oversized denim separates showcasing some impressive cutting skills—the jackets of the latter looks were particularly striking, featuring corsetry detailing at the waist and lace-up back, plus intricate, in-built bust constructions. Elsewhere, swinging 1960s flair was channeled with gusto by halterneck waistcoats paired with pleated ra-ra skirts, cropped vests, micro-skirts, A-line dresses and even an umbrella printed with warm, lysergic swirls.
Looking to London in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it’s hard not to broach the crucial role that the city’s then-rapidly growing migrant communities had in shaping the city’s style identity. Here that was explored through the prism of Coker’s family’s relationship to the West London neighborhood she grew up in. “My family has a four-generation-long relationship with the North Kensington estates, parts of which are obviously now super swanky, like Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove,” she said. “When they first arrived, though, there were signposts everywhere saying ‘No Blacks. No dogs. No Irish.’ It blew my mind how they still managed to maintain this beautiful sense of community in the midst of this racial and cultural tension, and it was incredible to see the roles that fashion played at that time.”
This was an undertaking with a sense of historical gravity to it, but that didn’t translate to a sense of weightiness when it came to the show itself. In fact, it was a truly uplifting affair, particularly the finale, which saw the full cast dance their way down the runway, led by Jourdan Dunn. It was a testament to Coker’s mission to debride fashion of its habitual stuffiness, she explained. “Luxury fashion can feel as though it’s quite detached and elitist, but for me, it’s really important to redefine that,” said Coker. “Luxury should be rooted in the craft, in the story, and in heritage, but it doesn’t need to be unapproachable. With this, I wanted to bring an element of fun—to make people feel the energy they would feel if they were in my mum’s living room.”
