Fringe Futures: OBIREEN is Designing from the Edge

By Yemisi Suleiman

There’s something unapologetically radical about OBIREEN’s 30th of November, 2024 showcase—a collection that resists being boxed into any single aesthetic, era, or geography.

Instead, it floats between ancestral memory and speculative future, proving that OBIREEN is not designing for the moment, but for what comes next.

The runway opened with a rhythmic crescendo of earthy textures and vibrant prints, models gliding like mythic figures. A halter-neck black gown featuring green tie-dye inserts captured the essence of the show—fluid, rooted, and fiercely original.

It wasn’t just the visuals that provoked thought, but the motion—the way OBIREEN allows the fabric to breathe and tell its own story.

Her signature piece, the black raffia-tiered dress, was recontextualized as armor: each fringe a fiber of resistance, each layer a history untold. This is fashion in conversation with the land, the ancestors, and the global stage. There is ritual here. There is research.

OBIREEN’s brilliance lies in her refusal to dilute cultural specificity. Instead, she magnifies it. In a fashion world still struggling with tokenism, this collection was a manifesto—a declaration that African futures will not only be worn but witnessed.