Embroidered Overlap Skirt

The check that runs through Archive I — rust, brown, amber, the warm tones of an African studio portrait where two cloths were worn together with full knowledge of what the combination communicated — here meets a second layer: the wrap construction, and the embroidery that interrupts the geometry of the print. The plaid stripe clash governs the surface. The overlap governs the silhouette. Both work simultaneously.

The wrap skirt as a construction has its own history in the collection's reference material. The archive photograph of a white cable-knit cropped over a draped plaid skirt on a museum mannequin points toward this: the overlap, the layering, two things coexisting without one subordinating the other. The Egungun masquerade costumes in Archive I's reference material take the same principle to an extreme — each additional element added to something already complete, the layering itself the argument. The embroidered marks on this skirt are a contained version of that instinct: placed rather than accumulated, precise rather than total.

Fully lined in silk. Adjustable overlap closure with bespoke engraved button fastening, commissioned from a Parisian artisan button maker.

Edition of 16.