On Sunday afternoon, Virgil Abloh-founded label Off-White™ transformed Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 into a massive pick-up basketball court for its debut New York Fashion Week show. Titled “DUTY FREE,” the Spring/Summer 2025 collection that dribbled, jumped and dunked through the venue represented a mixture of America and Africa through the lens of sportswear.
“This collection was triggered by a trip to Ghana, the place where Virgil came from and the roots he cherished and constantly referred to in his work. I was born in Sierra Leone, and eventually grew up in London, but our experiences were similar,” said designer Ib Kamara. “I have vivid memories of what America, and New York in particular, represented in the collective imagination of Africans: a dreamland of utopias made real, a place of opportunities.”
From moodboard to mode, Off-White™’s menswear formed a modular metropolitan uniform, with utilitarian zippers, distorted denim, asymmetrical layers, iconographic embroidery and beaming crystals. Sleeveless hoodies were manipulated with zippered sections down the torso; varsity jackets were coated in glistening depictions of the brand’s signage, redone in collaboration with Ghanaian artist Nan Danso; many tops referenced athletic gear with “00” numbers on their backs, and one hearty denim coat featured the collection’s name in big, bold text.
Women’s silhouettes, meanwhile, were architecturally informed, shaping the body with razor-tailored formals, seductive cuts and hand-painted decorations. Dresses employed the deepest of V’s, plunging down to below the belly button; fishnet skirts were finished with creme-colored sequins and white feathers; zip-up jackets incorporated strong corsetry on the waist, and playful star-shaped motifs appeared all across the line.
In New York for the first time, Kamara’s Off-White™ aimed for a three-pointer with his “most autobiographical outing in every respect” — and from where we were seated, it was nothing but net.
See Off-White™’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection in the gallery above.
