Category Fashion
Published March 11, 2025
The Poet's Garden, by Vincent can Gogh
The London-based designer YAKU brought Afrofuturism to life with his A/W25 collection titled, ‘The ImPossible Family Reunion Chapter 5: Sunset on Tutorial Island’.
Yaku Stapleton’s fifth collection, under the title ‘The ImPossible Family Reunion,’ allowed the audience to continue on the adventure of joining the limitless version of the designer’s family as they navigate the fantasy world he created.
We entered the room, and it became immediately clear that we were no longer in our dimension. We had been, unbeknown to us, transported. Our body and mind were disassembled and reassembled again in the world where fantasy versions of Yaku’s family roam freely.
We got passports for our trip around the continent of the designer’s collection, with each stop adding more beauty and depth to an already overwhelmingly immersive experience.
In our passports, we found a test that determined which character we were; we were given a picture for our passports and collected stamps at each new stop.
The space was brimming with the Yaku’s unique vision for his collection. In the middle of the space stood the presentation box. The outside walls of the box were covered with a bright orange cloth, and markers hanging off the wall invited the guests to leave marks of their own. Behind those walls hid a deeper story.
YAKU AW25 - Chapter 5: Sunset on Tutorial Island, photo by Livia Vourlakidou
‘Grandad’s Workshop’ stood in the box’s far right corner, displaying each character’s history, including profiles, diary entries, sketches and audio descriptions of the creative process. Each new detail we found in the workshop revealed a new layer to the complex characters Yaku created. On the opposite side of the corner stood the ‘Gathering Nook’, providing backstory and expanding the journey of the ‘Mum’ character of the collection.
At the end of the room, the characters came alive with the use of unique shapes, surprising textures, and bright colours that emerged directly from Yaku’s mind and blended perfectly together in his designs. The actors, embodying a dream-like family, interacted with each other, moving around, playing and daring the observers to look deeper into their relationship by not just watching but truly seeing. The family’s dynamic exchanges seemed to flow so naturally that it barely felt like a show. It more closely resembled looking into a life of real beings. It felt deeply personal, almost like finding yourself suddenly standing outside a wide open window of a warm family home, watching life progress at its own pace.
After taking a trip around the room we got a couple of minutes with the designer and asked him some questions.
To the question, ‘How would you describe the collection to someone who is unfamiliar with your work?’ Yaku responded:
Expressive, colourful, moody, and sculptural.
YAKU AW25 - Chapter 5: Sunset on Tutorial Island, photo by Livia Vourlakidou
When asked if he has ever been given a piece of bad advice, Yaku shared:
I’m quite stubborn, you know. It felt bad at the time, but in the long term, it made sense.
I was begging a tutor once to give me a Nike email, so I could ask them for a sponsorship for graduation, and he was like, you don’t want it. Just do the collection yourself. Build your own thing. And I feel like that at the time hurt. I thought he was trying to withhold the information, but in the long run, it made sense. It meant that I could become me on my own and then collaborate with different people later.
We also asked Yaku what he wants to see more in the industry, to which he replied:
I feel like there’s a lot of self-expression, but I feel like people can lean into being themselves more. I love learning about who people are, where they come from and what they’re interested in. It’s like, why not have more of that? There’s loads of people that do it, but I’d love to see black designers, young black designers who are pushing through and starting things up. I know it’s tough, and sometimes it doesn’t feel believable, but I feel like we can do it and that we have something to say.
So, I’d love to see black people designing, creating, and thinking. That’s what I want to see.
Yaku Stapleton at YAKU AW25, photo by Livia Vourlakidou
Later, Yaku took us through the show himself. Proud and excited he pointed out each detail and experience that made up the full body and mind immersion that is YAKU A/W25 ‘Sunset on Tutorial Island‘.
The journey we took around the show and the full interview with the designer can now be found on our socials.
You can check out more of YAKU’s amazing designs at: yaku.uk
Or on their socials: yaku.____
Story by: Asya Mkh
Interview by: Livia Vourlakidou
