Off-White Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear: Africanness, Americanness, Sports and Showbiz

Booth Moore
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Just weeks ago, Off-White scored one of the biggest pop culture platforms in the world, dressing Usher in an electric blue biker suit with 394,000 crystals as well as his 60 rolling skating backup dancers at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

In Paris on Thursday, Off-White creative director Ib Kamara kept the momentum going with a collection reflecting Africanness, Americanness, sports and showbiz glitz titled “Black by Popular Demand.”

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“Off-White is Black and was founded by an African American genius, and African American culture and American culture is so loud and has such a big presence globally. For us, to come back and show it’s important that legacy lives on,” said Kamara, who is from Sierra Leone, pointing to references high and low, sophisticated and street during a collection preview.

The runway set was modeled after his favorite game, Ludo, with giant, bedazzled dice at the center offering photos ops for guests, who included Serena Williams, Willow Smith and Coco Rocha.

The multi-hyphenate editor-stylist-designer said he wanted to incorporate styling into the making of the collection, which led to inside-out tailoring and workwear with lots of exposed lime green seams, faux fur trim, utility straps, zips and bedazzled buttons, all of which could have used a lighter touch.

Knitwear was a standout, notably halter tops, minidresses and skirts that mashed up elements of traditional African dress and beading with American varsity stripes.

Menswear was even more colorful and maximalist than women’s, with motocross and athletic-inspired looks featuring neon hued Americana stars and stripes, beaded track pants, crystalline rugbys and mesh shirts, and varsity jackets covered in a swarm of 3D butterfly embroideries that most certainly was not for wallflowers.

The brand also launched a collaboration with Wilson on basketballs that came down the runway in crystal mesh totes, and created some high-top sneakers made of grainy basketball rubber (some styles completely bedazzled) that will probably be heading for a tunnel walk any day now.

Reviving the clever tire-bodice dress from his debut collection, this time in black with red star and bead embellishments, and adding spiral cut body con dresses with crystal buttons, he stepped up evening wear offerings, at least for women. That should help feed the brand’s growing presence on the Hollywood red carpet in recent months, worn by Colman Domingo and Issa Rae in looks playing off the house’s crossed-arrow designs at the SAG Awards; Halle Bailey in a red satin gown at “The Color Purple” premiere, and more. “That support is so important, it’s good the culture is giving back to Off-White, V[irgil] would have been so proud to see Off-White live on,” Kamara said of the brand’s late founder Virgil Abloh.

“It’s a very optimistic collection that shows the joy of Off-White in a very minimal time. It’s supposed to live up to its true identity speaking to the real people on the street and I think real people are optimistic and hopeful,” the designer said.

Three years after Abloh’s death, the brand’s mission lives on, he said.

“It’s a sense of inclusion. Wherever I travel I see Off-White graphics, whether it’s counterfeit or not, and I’m inspired by the counterfeit, too, it’s flattering,” Kamara said. “For a brand at 10 years to have so much impact, it shows the power of culture. Culture moves capitalism moves the world.”

For more Paris Fashion Week reviews, click here.

Launch Gallery: Off-White Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear Collection

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