THIS IS US x IAMISIGO CENTER THE MAKERS WITH “RITUALS OF LABOUR”

In a fashion landscape where craftsmanship is often concealed behind glossy campaigns and faultless finishes, THIS IS US and IAMISIGO have chosen a more radical route. Their continued collaboration, titled RITUALS OF LABOUR, pulls the curtain back, not to expose flaws, but to spotlight the beauty, intention, and cultural weight of making. It honours what fashion so often forgets: clothing is built first by human hands, by materials with memory, and by traditions older than any runway.

The collection draws from the pulse of bustling West African markets and the spiritual theatricality of masquerade, treating labour as something communal rather than mechanical. Instead of hiding the process, the garments emphasize it. Patchworked textiles appear like moving mosaics, indigo panels stacked in geometric shapes, turmeric and rust blocks stitched into crisp silhouettes, and plaid pieced alongside hand-dyed cottons. In this universe, seams aren’t merely functional; they are visible evidence of the many hands that worked to transform fabric into form.

In the campaign imagery, models stand within what looks like a real marketplace: sewing machines pushed to the edge of dusty walkways, vendors selling denim scraps, and the architecture of Lagos buzzing in the background. The garments feel alive among the environment they reference, blurring the line between performance and daily ritual. One look features a pair draped in expansive denim sets, loose, long-paneled coats and wide-brim hats that shade the face, almost like modern masquerade masks. Another set presents a vibrant pairing in bright blocks of yellow and burnt orange. Oversized hats droop with exaggerated, sculptural drama; skirts, jackets, and totes echo the same square-cut patchwork, making the body itself a walking grid of labour and colour.

The result is not just fashion, but documentation. In many African cultures, making is storytelling. Every cut is intention, every fold holds history, every finished garment contains the presence of the hands that shaped it. RITUALS OF LABOUR refuses to separate clothes from this reality. Instead, it positions clothing as a record of community, the dyers, stitchers, weavers, markets, traditions, and unseen workers who keep fashion alive long before it reaches a runway or editorial page.

By letting the process remain visible, THIS IS US and IAMISIGO offer a quiet rebellion against the erasure of labour. The collection is not asking to be consumed and forgotten; it is asking to be acknowledged. It reminds us that culture is not just worn, it is built, one stitch at a time.