For a brand that thrives on monochromatic simplicity, it often balances the scales with intricacies of designs and techniques. Nola Black manages to do this very well, and continuously pushes the boundaries as if there are none.
I’ve witnessed the progress of this brand since I spoke with Arinola–its creative director–about their mid-2018 collection. Since then, the brand has grown creatively and socially. Showcasing their SS19 collection at Capetown fashion week, and adorned by Chimamanda Adichie.
The Pendulum collection treads the fine line of the comfortable, and the risqué, tending to a spectrum of tastes. It is an effort to make clothes that are aware of its wearer’s zeitgeist, and address it. To this, Nola Black says:
This collection was inspired by the fast-paced evolution of the ideas and ideologies that govern our times. Specifically looking through the millennial experience.
The collection is stirred by the transformation/shift from a time seemingly riddled with singularity, to an era arguably suffering from a crisis of meaning.
Inspired by the many social, political and changes. The collection features quirky clothing that is true to the core of the brand and abundant in social references from the new and the old.
Drawing from the movement of a pendulum, the collection elaborates on how we establish equilibrium living through the extremes.
In conclusion, Nola Black’s brand identity gives room for innovation, and retains the tendency to astonish consumers. It is defiant in its seemingly oxymoronic statement, that there is diversity in the monochrome.
Credits
Nola Black @nolablackng
Creative Director: Arinola Olowoporoku @arin_nolablack
Photographer: Jay Olowu @jayolowu
Model: Onome @le.mien0
Makeup: Zainab_z_beauty
Projects: Ifedayo Olowoporoku @ifedayo_
