Bubu Ogisi’s SS26 collection for IAMISIGO reclaims ancestral craft and colonial language, turning the runway into a ceremony of duality, spirit, and self
IAMISIGO’s spring/summer '26 collection began with a question, posed by designer Bubu Ogisi : “What does it mean to protect yourself and still remain open?” Dubbed Dual Mandate, the collection explores Lord Lugard’s colonial text of the same name (British Lugard’s titular mandate, in short, was to colonise Africa). Ogisi, however, who is known for exploring historical and traditional texts and ideas in unexpected ways, took this notion and flipped it on its head. “Instead of using it to talk about empire, we turned it inward,” she says. “What if duality could be sacred, not violent?”
On that note, IAMISIGO’s latest offering, presented at CPHFW for the first time as the recipient of Zalando Visionary Award, is pure, unfettered celebration of the conflicting and collaborating elements that make up the self. “The collection explores body, mind, spirit and emotion as intertwined terrains,” says Ogisi. “Each piece is an instrument – meant to ground, to tune, to expand. It’s not about spectacle. It’s about energetic alignment.” Ogisi describes the show itself as more “ceremony than fashion presentation”, with the raw, industrial space echoing the pulsing music (it’s percussion, layered with filed recordings) as a diverse cast of models, each encouraged to bring their own stories and experiences to the moment, come down the runway.
The collection may not have been about spectacle, but it was certainly about beauty and craft. Drawing on the brand’s roots in Lagos, Nairobi, and Accra, the garments are a symphony of material: cotton from Uganda and Kenya, raffia and jute from Nigeria, sisal from Tanzania. But, as Ogisi puts it, these materials are only “half the story”. “The real magic is in how they’re transformed,” she says, listing off hand-weaving, chainmail forging, fibre knotting and glass blowing as four techniques on view on the runway. IAMISIGO collaborated with artisans from across Africa (Kenya and Nigeria in particular) to “reclaim pre-colonial and indigenous techniques as ancestral technologies”. “These aren’t decorative,” Ogisi adds. “They’re functional, spiritual, encoded with memory.”
Take, for instance, a show-stopping sculptural raffia piece that took weeks to come together (“It vibrates,” says Ogisi, proudly, a descriptor that could be applied to many of the swaying, living pieces). “It reminds me that the body is its own terrain, and that adornment can hold that,” says the designer. Another standout: a barkcloth and glass-embedded coat that refracts and reflects the gleaming show lights as it comes down the runway. “It holds shadow and reflection in the same breath,” says Ogisi. “Both pieces speak to the duality at the heart of the collection: presence and prayer.” Models held glass bags that doubled as sculpture (in fact, they were filled with water) and vibrant woven bags doubled as hats.
For those experiencing IAMISIGO for the first time, it’s a stunning entry point into the brand and proof why Ogisi is such a thrilling talent, using fashion to compose entire narratives, enrich culture, preserve and question history. All of that to say, though the clothes are something to behold, it’s more than that. “Dual Mandate offers an entry point into how we think about the body – not just as a canvas for clothes, but as a living field for spiritual technology,” she says. “If you come open, the collection will speak to you.”
See all the looks from IAMISIGO's SS26 collection below.
