Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size What I knew about the extraordinary Bubu Ogisi before a few weeks ago was an embarrassing near-zilch.
The Nigerian creative was a scant credit in a short caption under a clip of a quirky little frocklet she’d assembled from loose-linked flat metal hoops (like sheets of arty earrings) that caught my scrolling eye as supermodel Naomi Campbell walked it, tinkling, through a 2023 Victoria’s Secret social media campaign shoot. I loved everything about it; the kinetic weight and sound of it against Campbell’s skin, its symbolism of divinity, spirituality and womanly power that was puffily explained in the caption. Even its Paco Rabanne-esque echo of Paris past was intriguing.
Naomi Campbell wears Bubu Ogisi’s dress of loose-linked flat metal hoops. Credit: Getty Images I Googled that frocklet and dropped down a proverbial rabbit hole. From another wondrous frocklet she’d made of watery glass gobbets (ode to Olokun, goddess of the sea) for actress Julia Fox into Ogisi’s amazing life since the early 2010s, jagging back and forth across Africa.
Her collections smack of modernity and layered meanings, mostly in off-beat materials made to ancient African formulas such as Mutuba tree bark cloth, hand made by a thrashing, laborious, multi-step process in the Congo. R.
