Celeb-loved L.A. Designer Kwame Adusei Is Popping Up In Paris
Los Angeles designer Kwame Adusi is bringing his sensual yet street-wise, African-influenced, direct-to-consumer collection to Paris for a pop-up during couture week.
The Ghanaian American creative is setting up shop from Monday to Feb. 2 in the Marais, at 23 Rue du Pont-au-Choux.
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“Paris appreciates what we’re doing in Los Angeles, which is building out our own production and our own atelier. Craftsmanship is so big here, so we’re really excited to be a part of it,” he said, adding that he saw from web sales that he has a client in Paris for his minimalist and tailored, largely dark-hued looks. “We want to build a community here as well,” he said of how he will use the Heureux Les Curieux space, where AZ Factory and other brands have popped up before.
A native of Ghana, Adusei launched his first label, ?harlotte Privé, in the early 2010s, then moved to L.A. in 2020 and created his namesake brand in 2022. He started building it with an instinct that his African heritage could inspire a modern men’s and women’s fashion brand with a focus on sustainability, size inclusivity and gender fluidity.
“I try to stay away from direct references [to Africa], because I think that can put a brand in a box,” he said. “But I start out draping from the arm, which is a very African thing to do, and also genderless, so the design process does come out of that.” He’s attracted the attention of stylists and celebrities, dressing Kylie Jenner, Ciara, Kali Uchis, Lori Harvey and Tems, among others.
The collection is constructed mostly of dead stock fabrics sourced from Rag Finders in L.A., a reaction, Adusei said, against the blight of textile waste he saw in his home country, and many pieces are draped like traditional African dress, or have minimal seams, with careful consideration of the body’s curves, and sensual cutouts or openings.
Key pieces include boxy, oversize pinstripe tailoring and sleek body-con dresses; sculptural, draped spandex gowns; corseted leather coat dresses; technical inspired leather anoraks; quilted nylon bombers and crispy nylon track pants; shrunken knits, and dark denim. Prices range from $90 to $5,000.
“We bought a factory and we make everything in house, because the sort of clothing that we make is so experimental that we want to control the way it comes out,” he said of his 15-person, full- and part-time team who work out of downtown L.A. and his store on Doheny Drive in West Hollywood. Sales have increased 150 percent in the last year through the one door and his web store, he said, adding that there is no substitute for a physical store. “You very much have to try the clothes on.”
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