Radicalism is at the base of the cuts, fabrication, and silhouettes. Radicalism, here, is used as a way of challenging social and cultural standards around beauty, femininity and the female body. To achieve this, Og Okonkwo went soul-searching, for what really matters to her as a woman today, as well as what she would wear in a world free of patriarchy, unrealistic expectations for women and double standards.
The collection is greatly profound in the sense that it questions and challenges notions around femininity and beauty. The collection subversively breaks typical sartorial order here in Nigeria where there is an expectation of women to dress a certain way or stay covered in spite of their personal choices.
Also key to this collection is the idea of beauty in today’s world. Og Okonkwo draws from her personal experiences of being a Nigerian woman, having to live up to certain societal expectations and being held to a singular standard of beauty, when there are over a billion kinds of beauty. Especially when beauty should, in fact, be personal and should not be subjected to external approval or questioned or even compared.
Soft pastel hues were used to indicate a delicate femininity, while sheer fabric and deep décolletages were used for an added emphasis on the idea of protest. A lot of construction and deconstruction run across the collection, again, to lay emphasis on the theme of radicalism.
