Lagos Space Programme, the Lagos-based, genderless brand created by Adeju Thompson, entitles its SS21 collection Aṣọ Lànkí, Kí Ató Ki Ènìyàn - a Yoruba saying that translates as ‘We greet dress before we greet its wearer’. It was borne out of Thompson’s 14-month long exploration of traditional West African crafts and his identity as a queer Nigerian man - bookended by the Covid-19 pandemic and socio-political unrest in Nigeria. A testament to slow fashion, every influence - whether Yoruba masquerades, workwear or local architecture – has been fully honed. The results are a striking collection of adire print shoes, scarves and dresses, bronze accessories (creating an image of the divine queer) and cropped-wide legged trousers.

Thompson, who was partly educated in England, has developed his design sensibility through a process of constant research. Once he has seized upon an idea, he doesn’t let it go until he’s exhausted. “I have no halfway interests and I take them to their extreme. I’m a man of obsessive details,” he says. The designer’s passions reach far and wide. Pre-colonial knowledge systems fascinate him, as do the lines and forms of Nigerian architecture - both pre and post-colonial – and of course art, especially the works and practices of the Zaria Art Rebels. And that’s before we even get to music and fashion - he adores the US composer Julius Eastman and Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto.

Thompson constantly travels throughout Nigeria and Benin to find and collaborate with skilled artisans. His latest collection involves bronze items, which were cast in a workshop in Benin by a seventh-generation caster and in collaboration with the artist Dunja Herzog. Thompson is not interested in presenting the past, he doesn’t work with nostalgia, he uses traditional crafts to envision what he calls a “sartorial project exploring African futures”. For example, adire, a local indigo resist-dyed textile used for centuries as a vehicle for sharing messages and meanings, is ever present in his work. But he re-imagines it into what he calls “post-adire” and gives it new life in unexpected ways. “I’m obsessed with materiality and storytelling,” he adds.

The masks in the collection, reminiscent of those that call upon the spirit during Yoruba masquerades such as Gẹlẹdẹ, are made in collaboration with artist David Gardner. Meanwhile the serene indigo knitwear was made with the help of Alexandra Weigand. “Collaboration and community are critical to Lagos Space Programme,” he asserts. “We may be separated by location but I know that because of your identity, we exist in similar spaces and that is key to creating something.”

Thompson’s designs are both playful and serious. They can be imperial with their intellectual underpinning but also warm and welcoming with his almost mischievous love of subversion. This intriguing dynamic - tradition vs modernity - is where the magic happens. Yoruba masquerades are an important reference as a way of not only understanding his heritage as a Yoruba man but also how they play with gender roles and aesthetics. As such, Aṣọ Lànkí, Kí Ató Ki Ènìyàn is Thompson delving deeply into his own sexuality and the patriarchal society he lives in. “I’m very proud of my identity as a queer man. I live in a society where you’re policed for who you are and my work is a resistance to that policing.” His interest in the state of the world around him doesn’t stop at making clothes either. He was a vocal and active participant in the recent unrest in Nigeria around the End SARS protests.

Lagos Space Programme is quietly radical. It deconstructs societal norms and champions a new African future. It’s where the past lives with us but doesn’t dominate and it’s offering a vision of possible tomorrows. Nothing is off limits for Thompson to explore and his label is the vehicle he’s chosen to channel all these disparate influences into a single continuous practice.

Creative Direction Adeju Thompson
Photography Kadara Enyeasi
Styling Seetal Solanki and Adeju Thompson
Model Seun Akinyosoye at Fuse Model Management
Words Tommy Dennis

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Published on 28/11/2020