LFW SS26 - YAKU - ‘A Ground To Stand On’

Thunderous bass and electric beats are pulsing so deep you can feel it in your chest. The anticipatory buzz is beginning to hush. The icy white lights fade up like a sunrise as the audience’s eyes are drawn to a naturalistic, yet other-worldly, colourful cloth island. A tall and brooding figure garbed in green staggers stumbles around the runway, settling and camouflaging against a tree-like structure on the island. This is not just a 'show'; it is an immersive and futuristic odyssey brought to us by Yaku Stapleton.

On Saturday 20th September, streetwear's best-dressed streamed into 180 Strand, home of the Yaku SS26 show, or shall we say, experience. Everything about the traditional runway show has been reworked and revolutionised by Yaku Stapleton and his team. The runway room is a fantasy, organic, ‘RPG space’ and a ‘limitless world’ as termed by the designer himself. The show pursued themes of transformation, ancestry, and survival by showcasing diverse people and elemental landscapes through the use of natural dyes and prints. YAKU has a keen eye for detail, inviting the audience to zoom in on carefully cultivated elements that represent different families within the narrative. This approach echoes the structure of a role-playing game (RPG) that YAKU played during his youth, a thread that continues to shape each of his collections and creates an immersive experience. Much like performance art, the show encourages the audience to engage with and interpret its themes in their own way.

The audience’s seats crown the central island and are unconventionally allowed to come and go as they please. The models don’t just walk; rather, they dance, slither, search and strut. When a new model comes on the runway or enters the world, the music changes to suit their RPG character’s unique demeanour. Once each character does its lap around the room, it settles on the island, some holding weapons, gently yielding them and interacting with one another. Characters also physically lean on one another and teach each other how to use the objects they’re holding.

These gentle and kindred interactions seem to signify a synergy both among the characters and the past, an element especially significant through the Afrofuturistic lens that encompasses the collection. Afrofuturism, as defined by the Tate, is a ‘cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the Black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry'. This cultural and artistic movement expresses itself in many aspects in the show, one being the collective wholeness between the characters. Collective empowerment is central to Afrofuturism, as the theoretical lens seeks to create liberatory and healing narratives for systemically marginalised Black communities. The characters' ability to maintain unique individuality while thriving in the world of this RPG world by guiding each other is representative of endurance and hope. Looking at this collection through the lens of Afrofuturism allows us to see an unsettling past reclaimed and redefined by past struggles.

Since we are still in a time when models are expected to move uniformly, it was refreshing and exciting to see how Yaku’s models stood out, each individually characterised and full of life through the intentional use, mixing, and creation of distinct personalities.

At the heart of the collection are families, expressed through layered textures and the cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism. These families evolve across three states: human, warrior, and the elemental. The narrative also invokes Télavani, an abstract guardian figure rooted in pre-colonial resistance in Jamaica and St. Vincent, further grounding the story in ancestral strength and collective memory.

For the first time, the collection included womenswear, featuring two standout designs. The first was inspired by the element of water. Its base consisted of a teal long-sleeve shirt layered beneath a stone-colored T-shirt, with the teal fabric dyed in shifting shades to suggest the movement of water. The lower half paired teal tights with loose, knee-length sweatpants, while the look was anchored by avant-garde, (perhaps) moonboot-inspired shoes crafted from plush dark grey material. However, the most captivating detail was a sculptural hat evoking mountain peaks, forming a deliberate contrast between the fluidity of the garments and the rigidity of the headpiece. The model deepened this theme through her slow strides, using her shoulders to mimic the flowing motion of water, embodying the collection’s central earthy theme.

The second design alluded to the human state of the collection, expressed through the anatomical form of the body. Its base resembled a statue, with the abdomen appearing as though carved from stone. This was contrasted by worn, knee-length sweatpants that suggested the adventures and struggles the figure had endured. A weathered hood served as a protective headpiece, reinforcing the theme of survival. The model’s ballerina-like strides (poised yet fluid) embodied the duality of structure and motion, reflecting the complexity of human nature.

The final designs of the collection embodied the theme of protection represented by the guardian figure, the Télavani. They drew on elements from each family and wove them together harmoniously, creating a sense of totality within the collection. Another closing look, layered in various shades of blue, evoked the fluidity of water with the model’s deliberate strides echoing true ebb and flow. At the same time, the design recalled the human state through its anatomical emphasis - the garments tracing and accentuating the body beneath, grounding the look in both vulnerability and resilience.

The final look brought this collection to its peak, with a commanding presence. Its layered design merged the roughness of the warrior state with the intricacies of nature. The frayed edges and protruding textures along the sleeves, and the dark, weathered tones, lent the garment an aura of resilience and age. The trousers featured scaled patterns and exaggerated folds at the hem, grounding the silhouette with elemental tones. The headpiece dominated, with a sculptural hood that protruded outward in jagged forms, conjuring both horns and branches. This detail emphasised the guardian’s role as protector and sentinel; the abstract figure rooted was in nature and survival, which beautifully wrapped up the collection.

Yaku’s show closed with a sense of regeneration and calm that left the audience feeling at ease. Once the models had left the runway, the audience was left looking upon the empty yet radiant set. The sound of ocean waves and birds chirping during this final breath of the show felt poignantly symbolic of a simultaneous renewal and reflection. It was extraordinary qualities like these that exquisitely harmonised with Yaku's collection. It was a trailblazing and transformative feat of fashion, designed by a true creative who is unquestionably one to watch.

Written by Claudia Limaverde Costa and Gioia Birt

Edited by Arielle Sam-Alao, Co-fashion Editor