LONDON — As temperatures plummet to finger-numbing lows in London, menswear brand Nuba is bringing the heat with its debut collection titled “Smoke,” held in a gallery space above its studio.
Drawing on co-creative directors Cameron Williams’ and Jebi Labembika’s respective Afro-Caribbean and West African identities, the collection is a story of how cultural assimilation is expressed through clothing.
“It’s about the idea of how we normalize tension within our lives — being from one place and growing up in another, where the dominant culture is different from that of your home culture,” Williams said.
“It’s those nuances of being a foreigner: not part of a culture, but having to engrave yourself in it,” Labembika added.
Founded in 2020 by designer Williams after graduating from Central Saint Martins’ MA program, in early 2023, his former classmate Labembika, who also works as an image-maker for the likes of Ferragamo, Versace and Dazed magazine, joined the label for the brand’s fall 2023 collection “Escape.”
If “Escape” looked as if the garments enveloped the wearer in a hug, “Smoke” built on that theme, encouraging the wearer to embrace themselves.
Tension appeared in fabric stretched taut around models’ shoulders and heads, in caped snoods that paid homage to traditional wear, such as hijabs. But rather than feeling constricting, clothing enveloped the body in a gentle cocoon, a call to finding peace amidst chaos.
A tank top featured a chest-high pocket, allowing the wearer to press their hands to their heart, while another was bundled in a dusky heather coat layered over a turtleneck of the same shade; a pair of black leather ultra-short shorts subverted the look’s wintery feel.
Each piece offered the opportunity for styling in warm or cool weather, a theme the co-creative directors say will be recurring.
“We’re inspired by winter clothing and trying to make it airy, breathable and more summer appropriate. It reflects this idea that if you enter a city from a hot country, you might not actually have winter clothes immediately — but you’re going to have to make it work,” Labembika said.
“When you don’t have an extensive wardrobe that is suitable for every season, you just adapt as you go along, cutting jumpers into T-shirts or trousers into shorts and layering them,” Williams added.
True to the collection’s title, the color palette consisted of inky blacks, dusty purples and smoked-out grays; a choice, Labembika says, that was inspired by his hometown Cameroon, where the color of even the most alarmingly orange boots soon become dulled by layers of dust.
Each decision has been embedded with meaning, every design an ode to who Williams and Labembika love most: their mothers.
“We are the sons of women who are from different places,” Williams began, with Labembika concluding, “[We watched] our mothers go out every day protected and ready. Now, the sons are taking those elements and making their own armor.”
The pair have been focused on building their direct-to-consumer business, offering a combination of made-to-order and see now, buy now models, due to both the brand’s small size as well as the handcrafted nature of products.
The line will soon be carried by a prominent online retailer in early 2024, the duo teased. They are aiming to present the collection during men’s fashion week in January.
