Meet the Designer Who’s Making Sportswear Cool for the Rest of Us
Sierra Leone-born Foday Dumbuya combines classic British tailoring with West African influences to make the office—and the pitch—more stylish places.
Dumbuya at the Labrum studio in London.
Photographer: Francis Augusto for Bloomberg Pursuits
A constellation of celebrities and pop stars sat in the front row in February as fashion brand Labrum showed off its latest collection inside London’s Tate Britain museum.
But it was a rugby player who led the catwalk. Three-time player of the year nominee Maro Itoje walked in a brown collarless jacket that had been digitally embroidered with images of visa documents. The ensemble—and the choice to feature the athlete—epitomized the theme of the show, “Designed by an Immigrant: A Journey of Colours.” Itoje’s parents had migrated from Nigeria to England in the early 1990s.