Sierra Leonean-born Foday Dumbuya moved to London when he was 12. He’d spent a few years prior in Cyprus, and London was a far cry from the serene, beachy landscape he’d grown up in.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but it felt like home the moment we landed there,” he tells Broadsheet. “I saw a lot more people that looked like me, spoke like me, and a lot more community in terms of the diaspora, the African community. I could talk forever about London and how beautiful it is, the diverse culture, the fact that there’s so many opportunities here. You can be whoever you want to be. That’s the beauty of it.”
In 2014, after working as at designer at Nike, Dumbuya launched Labrum London, a fashion brand that fuses the principles of British tailoring with West African sartorial flair. Collections often take traditional British menswear cuts and silhouettes and execute them with colourful patterned fabrics and West African motifs. Now, Dumbuya has launched a 38-piece collection with John Lewis, marking the retailer’s first menswear collaboration in 10 years.
The collection draws on the themes that have driven Labrum London for the past decade: migration, identity and multiculturalism. It centres motifs that have become the label’s signature. The cowrie shell – a West African symbol of wealth that derives from its history of use as currency – is deconstructed and formed into jacquard fabrics and cotton applique. Printed onto the back of tees and onto knits (a new category, along with the denim pieces for the brand) is a nomoli figure – a traditional stone figurine.
“We look at it as a good luck charm, people started putting it in their houses,” Dumbuya says of its significance in Sierra Leone. “My parents used to have one, and when we were going to bed, would say, ‘We’re going to turn the lights off, but don't worry, the nomoli in the room is protecting you.’”
The collection includes textured cotton shirts with Labrum London’s geometric monogram logo, cardigans and canvas overshirts embroidered with the nomoli symbol, and baseball caps also emblazoned with the logo.
The collaboration is only the latest step for the brand and Dumbuya, who has built a reputation for though-provoking shows – held at London landmarks like Abbey Road Studios and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – for London Fashion Week. He’s also collaborated with brands like Adidas, Guinness and Clarks and this year the British Fashion Council nominated him for British Menswear Designer of the Year at the Fashion Awards (it was awarded to Grace Wales Bonner).
While the John Lewis collaboration is a personal milestone for Dumbuya, he says it’s also meaningful for the wider West African community in the UK. Soon after launch, his neighbour congratulated him on the collaboration. She, who is little more than an acquaintance to Dumbuya, double checked that he was the man behind the brand before telling him how nice it was to see the collaboration in the John Lewis newsletter.
“She told me that she’s going to buy something for everyone in her family as a gift, and that’s the length to which this has gone,” he says. “Because we lived it, worked on it, we see the collection but don't understand the impact. It’s a huge impact. African people walking past Peter Jones and seeing the nomoli figure [in the window], it’s actually insane for them. They wouldn't look at John Lewis as a place that a nomoli would be … John Lewis is showcasing that when cultures collide it’s appealing to everyone.”
