IB Kamara’s Off-White™ AW26 Collection Is All About Disruption
With personal touches spread throughout the show, it’s fitting to hear the creative director’s vision in his own words…
When I sat down to write about Off-White™’s autumn winter 2026 women’s collection I was drawn to IB Kamara’s personal note on the inspiration of the collection and the decisions behind how it came to be. When Virgil Abloh launched the brand in 2013 it shifted culture. He created a realm of youth culture in a very modern way and IB carries this vision on. As guests arrived to the show, they were served coffee, tea, or matcha- a personal touch. And each seat at an Off-White™ blanket- another personal touch. As the show started and guests took their seats, they were taken on a melodic ride with background music by IB Kamara, Fabiana Palladino and Tenda, with music direction by Morell Maison. And, when guests left, they were given a purse scarf- again another personal touch.
It’s a no-no to copy paste press notes as a published piece. But alas, I’m a personal person and I’m doing it because Kamara’s personal note has meaning. His personal touches throughout the show are appreciated, felt, and seen. How opportune to hear it from the creative director himself:
"Disruption can’t happen in a vacuum. It requires a dialogue and a catalyst, someone who breaks the rules, interrogates the status quo. Miles Davis did that when he blew music and culture open with Bitches Brew, back in 1970, dissolving genres and pioneering jazz fusion by blending jazz with rock, funk, and electronic.
The album marked a cultural turning point and inspired this collection. I was particularly captured by when Miles met Betty Davis. I believe a woman can change a man’s universe completely, and both Miles’s music and his style became incredibly experimental in this era.
Standing in the Miles Davis archive last year, I was blown away not only by the musician’s legacy but by his unapologetic attitude and his incredible sense of style. Both Miles and Off-White™ trace an unstable line: a place where disruptive is not a style but a condition. Just as Miles’s music lived in improvisation, in instantaneous, never definitive gestures, Off-White™ remains dedicated to Virgil Abloh’s legacy of introducing micro-conceptual shifts capable of changing perception.
This genre-bending energy defines the season’s menswear. Statement separates – flared denim, knitted shirts, and tailored vests and jackets – reflect my obsessiveness with how fab Miles was: silhouettes move from sharp to slouchy, merging sartorial codes with a lived-in, street attitude. Materials feel worked and evolving, nothing is static. Meanwhile, Betty’s unapologetic fearlessness embodies the essence of womenswear. Betty was a pioneer because she owned her sexuality; she owned being a woman. For FW26, Womenswear becomes its own study in contrast – structure and fluidity, precision and sensuality. Elongated silhouettes, strong shoulders, sculpted waists create confident verticality. Sharp tailoring softens through lace and transparency. Polka dots echo Miles’s obsession and our Meteor code, creating rhythm and disruption. Grounded neutrals meet saturated red, acid blue, Kelly green and vibrant yellow. In the collection, lace meets nylon – nodding to Betty’s onstage lingerie looks – and dresses are very sensual. They’re dripping, like a second skin, with a little movement as they fall. There are also hot pants and deep V-line cuts. It’s all quite daring, playful and sexy.
It’s introducing a version of men and women who exist now: a woman who feels she can be whatever she wants to be. And it’s expanding on the energy that Virgil created in this universe where there’s no ‘wrong’ or ‘right’, bringing together a collective of people who define taste and push culture. It also boils down to music, which is core to our brand.
There’s a playfulness; there’s this childlike mentality of imagining things. That’s what I wanted to bring to the show, a continued childlike mentality but from an African perspective. I created a soundtrack with Fabiana Palladino and Tendai to honor and celebrate an American story that is also a global story.
This season introduces a capsule dedicated to Miles’s creative universe in collaboration with the Miles Davis Estate. More than a tribute, it translates his radical artistry into garments".
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