A Vogue cover, styling A-listers and having an iconic supermodel walk the runway in her collection. It’s been quite the six months for Torishéju Dumi.
The 31-year-old London-based designer burst on to the scene last year with Naomi Campbell walking in her debut Paris Fashion Week show.
By January she was on the cover of British Vogue and a month later Zendaya was wearing one of her looks on the Dune: Part Two red carpet.
“I was like, wow, sweet baby Jesus. This is crazy,” she tells BBC Newsbeat.
Zendaya’s outfits while promoting her new film alongside Timothée Chalamet have been talked about around the world, and Torishéju says she couldn’t believe it when she was approached for a design.
“It’s quite overwhelming,” she says.
Torishéju describes her style as bold with “a lot of tailoring”.
“It’s a lot of different shapes and different orientations of shapes and quite abstract – almost like a painter.”
The look she designed for Zendaya at the film’s premiere in Mexico City was in line with the actress’ other warrior-themed outfits, with draped fabrics and an extreme skirt split.
“When I was making the collection, I had in mind this essence, this being, that was a warrior,” says Torishéju.
“And they were hardcore and also sexy at the same time,” she says, adding she also wanted the outfit to have a “regal feeling”.
“It looked absolutely phenomenal on Zendaya,” she says.
“If I was to have a muse that was a celebrity, I think it would be her.
“Growing up with her and seeing her evolve into this strong woman of substance, it’s unreal.”
You might think it would feel intimidating designing for someone so famous, but Torishéju says it was more straightforward.
She sent some ideas to Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, and then chatted through the designs with the Euphoria star herself on Instagram.
“It was simple and I loved how it was just so effortless,” she says. “It felt fun doing it.”
But Zendaya wasn’t Torishéju’s first brush with star power.
She says she was “humbled to meet” Naomi Campbell when the supermodel walked Paris Fashion Week in October.
“Not only because she’s Naomi Campbell but because of how hard she’s worked to get where she [is], being a black woman.
“She’s a woman of substance. I really admire her and I respect her.”
Torishéju has Nigerian and Brazilian heritage and says it’s important for her that she celebrates black communities.
“To teach and show the younger generation that you can get to be in these places.”
And she’s particularly excited that another woman of colour, Chioma Nnadi, has been announced as Edward Enninful’s replacement as the editor of British Vogue.
“It’s a time in the industry, in the world, where things are changing, moving, shaking up.
“I think that she [Chioma] is going to take it in her stride and just carry on what Edward did, but in a different way,” she says.
British Vogue has been an important part of Torishéju’s career so far.
In January, she became an unsuspecting cover star when the magazine chose to highlight her work on sustainability.
She was featured alongside fellow designers Tolu Coker and Priya Ahluwalia but says “we never knew it was going to be the front cover until they came to us the day before it was gonna go out”.
“It was quite surreal,” she says. “I thought they were joking.”
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The fashion magazine said Torishéju was “leading the charge” for sustainable design from her studio in Dalston, east London.
Sustainability is a key part of her work, Torishéju says, and all of the fabrics she uses are off-cuts – including what she styled Zendaya in.
“I love living and working with what we have,” she says.
“Sustainability isn’t just about the fabric, it goes deeper than that. It’s about the people you work with, it’s about how you produce, where you produce.
“You shouldn’t just create something because you’re trying to make it sustainable, it should just be in the process from start to finish.”
After a whirlwind six months, Torishéju says she can’t give much away yet about what’s next.
“There’s so many exciting things happening,” she teases.
“I feel like it’s going to really inspire women and women of colour that anything’s possible.”
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