Tolu Coker Spring 2025 Ready-to-Wear
At the tail end of one of the busier days of London Fashion Week, walking into Tolu Cokerâs show this evening felt like being welcomed home. Walls papered with poppy â70s graphics were hung with photographs of proud Black women, posing in puff-sleeved dresses and sculptural head wraps, or caught candidly dancing in fine knit vests worn over poplin shorts and pleated plaid skirts. Rather than your typical humdrum chairs, the runway was lined with mid-century furniture and home decorations that gave the room the feeling of a large-scale Michael McMillan installationâteak sofas with deep pile marigold cushions; a fully laid dinner table, decked with bowls laden with tropical fruit; bookcases with shelves lined with hand-carved ebony busts.
The intention, the designer explained post-show, was on one level an homage to Olapeju Coker, her dear mother (tributes to mothers being something of a trend this season, following on from Chet Lo on Friday). âIn Yoruba, her name means âwealth gathers,ââ Coker explained. âI really wanted to tap into our culture and how names can carry such significant meaning.â The collection was also an exploration of the significance of living room spaces in the collective psyches of Londonâs myriad immigrant communities. âI was really looking back at the emotions and feelings I felt growing up in my childhood home, but also in the pictures of living rooms that I would see in my late father, Kayode Cokerâs, archives,â the designer said. âThey were from the late â60s and early â70s, but I felt that sensitivity as a child, and it led me to look deeper into stories of immigration and how the living room has been this sort of gathering space, especially for working-class people. Itâs looking at the wealth that exists within these communities.â
These notions were poignantly fleshed out in the collection that filed down the runway, a joyfully nostalgic, though still contemporary offering sported by models in sculptural beehives and flippy hairspray-held dos. Tailoring served as a pillar, with elegant leather Harringtons and sporty oversized denim separates showcasing some impressive cutting skillsâthe jackets of the latter looks were particularly striking, featuring corsetry detailing at the waist and lace-up back, plus intricate, in-built bust constructions. Elsewhere, swinging 1960s flair was channeled with gusto by halterneck waistcoats paired with pleated ra-ra skirts, cropped vests, micro-skirts, A-line dresses and even an umbrella printed with warm, lysergic swirls.
Looking to London in the late â60s and early â70s, itâs hard not to broach the crucial role that the cityâs then-rapidly growing migrant communities had in shaping the cityâs style identity. Here that was explored through the prism of Coker’s familyâs relationship to the West London neighborhood she grew up in. âMy family has a four-generation-long relationship with the North Kensington estates, parts of which are obviously now super swanky, like Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove,â she said. âWhen they first arrived, though, there were signposts everywhere saying âNo Blacks. No dogs. No Irish.â It blew my mind how they still managed to maintain this beautiful sense of community in the midst of this racial and cultural tension, and it was incredible to see the roles that fashion played at that time.â
This was an undertaking with a sense of historical gravity to it, but that didnât translate to a sense of weightiness when it came to the show itself. In fact, it was a truly uplifting affair, particularly the finale, which saw the full cast dance their way down the runway, led by Jourdan Dunn. It was a testament to Cokerâs mission to debride fashion of its habitual stuffiness, she explained. âLuxury fashion can feel as though itâs quite detached and elitist, but for me, itâs really important to redefine that,â said Coker. âLuxury should be rooted in the craft, in the story, and in heritage, but it doesnât need to be unapproachable. With this, I wanted to bring an element of funâto make people feel the energy they would feel if they were in my mumâs living room.â