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In a fashion landscape heavily tilted towards westernisation, Desiree Iyama stands out for Their commitment to highlighting African femininity while maintaining sustainability. The fashion brand that has graced our eyes with beautiful designs since 2016 shines yet again at the 2023 Lagos Fashion Week runway.
The Desiree Iyama brand is one that has etched its name in history for its bold and feminine designs, made with fabrics that promote sustainability. The Desiree brand makes clothes that accentuate African femininity. There is a way African women love to dress, and Desiree loves to dress them that way. When she says sustainability, they use fabrics that can be repurposed in different ways to create beautiful fashion items. Exactly what they have done with these fashion pieces.
The ‘Botanical Garden’ collection displayed at the fashion week succinctly displays the vision Desiree Iyama carries. It’s a beautiful collection made of pieces that juxtapose tenderness and cultivation. There is a saying that a woman is like a garden, just like a well-watered garden displays different colours and patterns, these fashion pieces highlight outfits with colours of nature and flower petals that portray abundance, beauty, and warmth; all elements of femininity.
Now, I will show these different pieces and how they portray the brand’s vision.
Starting up strong is this beautiful, flowery dress that clearly represents the botanical garden with flowery patterns embroidered into the dress to elevate it. The base fabric, a cotton blend, is a great choice for the dress as it provides the structural support needed for the flowery embroidery to stand without looking tacky or saggy.
The designer went for a minimalist silhouette to give room for the design signature to shine through the fabric. The garment itself is tailored to perfection with clean cuts and technical precision, particularly in the upper bodice with the V-neckline and the shoulders connecting in a seamless finish.
The embroidered flowery patterns with their many colours, intricately woven into the fabric, give it an intense garden hue. For example, the lilies on the dress elevate it so much into a fashionable art. I specifically like the white embroidery detailing, shadowing the bold, green and pink flowers embroidery.
Talking about colours, the red base fabric confidently presents the pink and green embroidery, acting as a canvas for it to glow on the model’s body. In addition to that, this fashion piece clearly portrays abundance and fruitfulness through its red and green colours, carrying Desiree Iyama’s vision while creating the ‘Botanical Garden’ collections.
The designer uses slow fashion techniques shown in the embroidery detailing, which highlights the sustainability the brand is known for.
However, I think the dress would have made bolder statements if it weren’t just a simple dress. Aside from the heavy embroidery, the dress, especially the upper bodice, could use more detailing to make it a complete fashion piece. With this dress, all eyes are on the fabric, patterns and colours. A second glance will not be cast at the upper body, and I think a perfect dress has to catch the wearer’s attention from top to down.
Desiree Iyama promises to make a collection that leads with the heart. This dress successfully connects nature and detailed tailoring. While the upper silhouette is too simple, the depth of the embroidery elevates the work into a true garden art.
Here comes another dress that shines on the runway. I like this dress for a lot of reasons.
First, for a brand that prides itself on showing off the beauty of African women, this dress uses a bodycon technique to accentuate the wearer’s curves. And ‘curves’ is one of the elements of African femininity. The bodycon silhouette from the upper bodice to the lower bodice makes it a dress that truly showcases African beauty.
Secondly, I see the flower pattern attached boldly to the upper cut of the dress; the designers stayed true to their promise. The flower here could represent a wide range of things, but I see it as a representation of femininity and nature, intentionally designed to draw the viewer in with warmth.
Also, this piece is well cut and carefully thought out, ensuring the fabric maintains its shape without unnecessary exaggerated sleeves. The silver metallic fabric has a luminescent quality, making it sophisticated enough to be worn out to dinner and other important functions.
For a nearly perfect dress, it’s almost hard to find what not to like. However, in my mind’s eye, I imagine adding a little colour to the flowery pattern. I believe it would have further elevated the theme. Since it’s meant to portray nature, I doubt if there is any colour in nature that is silvery.
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This dress stays true to the brand’s commitment to dressing African women using sustainable fabrics, but adding a little colour or more floral details could have further highlighted the “garden” theme.
The first detail that piqued my interest when I first saw this piece was the colour. The pinkish colour highlights its femininity and commands great attention to the dress. It also employs the simple silhouette pattern, but I see a little ruche on the waistline that enhances the garment and gives it more of that feminine look.
The neckline is creatively cut into a unique pattern, with a shoulder exposure that gives it a more elegant look. This aims to shift the viewer’s attention from the lack of embellishments on the dress; it would have just been a plain, simple dress.
However, I could not help but notice the botanical garden theme is subtle on this one. Compared to other designs that had some flowery embellishments to highlight the theme, this particular dress had nothing of such. Maybe the designers relied primarily on the colour as a representative of the garden rather than a more visible embellishment, but I think it could do with some bold designs to show off the theme.
Even with a lack of much detailing or embellishment, the colour and clean tailoring speak for themselves. The fabric drapes along the body, creating that elongated silhouette. But some floral detailing similar to the other dresses would have made it more connected to the theme.
Still, this piece stands out as one that showcases femininity with confidence.
Unlike some of the restrained silhouettes in some other pieces, this design is more dramatic, making it more eye-catching to the viewer. The exaggerated tulle at the bottom, combined with the simple upper bodice, gives it the ‘flower in the garden’ look.
The play on colour works, because in a garden there is definitely more play on colour than one can imagine. The fitted grey upper bodice and turquoise layering of fabric at the hem give it more energy. The transition between the two mimics the growth of a flower in bloom.
The movement it will create when moving with this dress fits perfectly with the idea of abundance, which aligns with the garden theme.
However, for the upper part, I find it somewhat contrasting. The bottom hem is expressive and leaves a lot to the imagination, but the upper portion is just there. I think it could fare better with some creativity, like an extra hand detailing or some ‘busyness’ created by a floral embellishment.
I would say the designer’s creativity shines in this dress. It captures the abundance of a garden using the volume and movement the bottom dress creates, and adds a feminine touch with the play on colours.
The next dress is this white lace ensemble with unique patterns that serves as a canvas to allow Desiree’s theme to flourish through the design.
For the design signature, I like the flower appliques placed on the upper bodice, which connect to the theme and symbolise abundance, peace, nature, and the warmth it brings. The sophisticated off-shoulder silhouette is designed to highlight the wearer’s natural curves, synonymous with the African woman’s way of dressing. This dress yet again shows that the designers loves hand-detailed embroidery and clean cuts, thereby enforcing the sustainability associated with the brand.
However, while the upper bodice is a well-constructed peplum top, the lower construction on the skirt lacks technical precision, making it loose on the model’s body. I recommend more precision on the tailoring, so the skirt sits perfectly on the lower body.
Still, this piece strongly portrays the theme of a well-watered garden. Each piece showcases nature, beauty, and femininity and tells the story of harmony and nobility.
One look at this collection, and I noticed that these looks are reminiscent of Oscar de la Renta, an international brand known for making pieces that celebrate femininity with floral embellishments and detailing. Like these global fashion brands, Desiree Iyama’s collections interpret femininity as something soft and elegant through dresses crafted with flowery embroidery and elegant silhouettes.
However, the brand’s desire to showcase African femininity through the theme of nature sets it apart from the competitive industry. Rather than replicate Western trends of luxury fashion, the brand infuses its collection with cultural elements tailored to proudly showcase the African feminine beauty rooted in nature and abundance.
In a fashion industry that keeps dominating with trend-driven fashion, the Botanical Garden collection contributes intentional craftsmanship with emphasis on embroidery and slow fashion. Positioning the collection to contribute to the global conversation around sustainability in the fashion world.
There are areas the collection could benefit from a few improvements, especially in balancing out the outfits and ensuring tailoring is more precise across all parts of the dress. Desiree Iyama successfully delivers a body of work that is visually expressive, culturally grounded, and commercially appealing. More importantly, through its collection, the brand demonstrates that African brands can participate in global fashion conversations without sacrificing identity or authenticity.
By Seun Emmanuel
