The African Spirit – Bestow Elan
My recent visit to Pure London was a completely different experience compared to 2 years ago. It has more diversity to the range of selected brands and designers. A group of new young talents emerging through London’s fashion scene and my feeling is, they definitely feel more prepared and matured. One of them is a true born and bred Brixton designer, Erzumah Ackerson, who draws her inspiration from both classic and vintage stimuli, as well as influences from her Ghanaian heritage. I was first drawn to her Moroccan blue head wrap scarf which strongly contrasted to her skin, then my attention stopped on her cleverly cut n’ cross n’ twisted jersey long maxi.
The looped hem detail reminds me the scarf wrapping method I learnt from Morocco. With so many maxis for this summer in flared or in tube, Bestow Elan’s looped hem ‘Toga’ maxi Dress looks fresh and new.
The way she uses African print is also very subtle, a little bit here and there which you can just feel about it, but not overly covered. Like the dress here below, print only peeping out from inside layer of sleeves.
…or like this one, print is contrasted with draped fluid silk on the waist area.
With tribal african print become more and more commercial these days, you probably find it normally in a very safe cut of summer tea dress shape. However, I always wish the vibrant print could be formed in a more modern and unique way instead of a simple tea dress. Bestow Elan is just exactly what I was looking for.
Ackerson use
