LABRUM’s spring/summer 2022 collection, The Sound of Movement, included a contribution that deserves to remain explicit in its history. The label’s official collection statement identifies the Madam Wokie Skills Development Initiative in Sierra Leone as a collaborator on its tie-dye designs. “Labrum London worked with the Madam Wokie Skills Development Initiative in Sierra Leone to create these designs,” the statement reads. Contemporary reporting in Drapers also identifies the collaboration. This is more specific than saying the collection drew inspiration from Sierra Leone. It names an organisation involved in developing part of its visual expression.
LABRUM’s SS22 collection notes credit a tie-dye collaboration with Sierra Leone’s Madam Wokie initiative, separately from Yinka Ilori’s graphics.
Separate Contributions Within One Collection
LABRUM’s account distinguishes the tie-dye collaboration from complementary graphics supplied by Yinka Ilori. Ilori also receives the set-design credit, while Foday Dumbuya is credited with creative direction and Ib Kamara with art direction and styling. Those credits describe different contributions to the same presentation. Retaining the distinctions allows the collection to be understood as work involving several participants, rather than attributing every visual element to its most prominent names. The published reception is not entirely consistent. 10 Magazine refers to Ilori’s “tie-dye prints,” whereas LABRUM’s statement associates the tie-dye designs with the Madam Wokie collaboration and describes Ilori’s graphics separately.
That difference requires clarification before making a definitive claim about misattribution. For an account of the collection today, LABRUM’s own stated credit structure provides the clearest available basis: acknowledge the initiative’s tie-dye collaboration and identify Ilori’s separately credited work.
An Existing Textile Practice
Madam Wokie’s involvement did not emerge without earlier tie-dye engagement. Its archive documents a teaching initiative undertaken for International Women’s Day in 2017. A post published the following year describes participants learning techniques, sharing knowledge and producing textiles subsequently used in garments for a photoshoot. That record establishes earlier practice, not the identities of the people who worked on LABRUM’s collection. The SS22 statement credits the initiative collectively; it does not provide an individual maker list or a complete division of textile-production responsibilities. The distinction leaves further reporting to do, but it does not diminish the organisational credit already on record.
The Omiren Argument
The significant word here is contribution. LABRUM did not describe Sierra Leone only as a source of cultural references. It named a Sierra Leone-based initiative as a collaborator on particular designs. That is a substantive place within the collection’s history. Describing the clothes only through “West African inspiration” would lose the working relationship the label itself acknowledged. For Omiren, preserving that credit is the starting point. The fuller story should identify the people, decisions and processes behind it. Until then, the published record supports a precise statement: the Madam Wokie Skills Development Initiative belongs in the account of LABRUM’s SS22 tie-dye, alongside, not absorbed into, the collection’s other creative credits.
Also Read:
- The Future of Fashion in Sierra Leone: Creativity, Culture, and Growth
- Fabrics and Craftsmanship in Sierra Leonean Fashion
- Sierra Leonean Designers Shaping the Future of African Fashion
- African and Diaspora Fashion in London: Designers, Institutions and Community Style
Frequently Asked Questions
What did LABRUM credit Madam Wokie with in SS22?
LABRUM’s official statement for its spring/summer 2022 collection says the label worked with the Madam Wokie Skills Development Initiative in Sierra Leone to create its tie-dye designs. The statement credits the initiative collectively and does not provide an individual maker list or a complete division of textile-production responsibilities.
Who else is credited on the collection?
Yinka Ilori is credited with the complementary graphics and with the set design. Foday Dumbuya is credited with creative direction and Ib Kamara with art direction and styling. LABRUM’s account treats these as different contributions to the same presentation, separate from the tie-dye collaboration with the Madam Wokie initiative.
Did Yinka Ilori design the tie-dye prints?
The published reception is not consistent. 10 Magazine refers to Ilori’s “tie-dye prints”, whereas LABRUM’s statement associates the tie-dye designs with the Madam Wokie collaboration and describes Ilori’s graphics separately. That difference needs clarification before any definitive claim of misattribution, so LABRUM’s stated credit structure is the clearest available basis.
Had Madam Wokie worked with tie-dye before?
Yes. Its archive documents a teaching initiative undertaken for International Women’s Day in 2017. A post published the following year describes participants learning techniques, sharing knowledge and producing textiles later used in garments for a photoshoot. That record establishes earlier practice, not the identities of the people who worked on LABRUM’s collection.
