Torishéju Dumi: Reclaiming Power Through Form and Folklore

19/08/2025

by NOCTURA Magazine

London’s fashion scene has a new force: Torishéju Dumi, a British-Nigerian-Brazilian designer whose work weaves ancestral memory with sculptural modernity. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Dumi is already being hailed as one of the most important new voices in fashion—not just for her aesthetic, but for the power it reclaims.

Her SS24 collection Fire on the Mountain stunned Paris Fashion Week. Opened by Naomi Campbell and closed by Paloma Elsesser, the show featured flowing, distressed layers, asymmetrical tailoring, and draped silhouettes that echoed both West African ritual garments and Brazilian spiritual symbolism. The pieces were bold yet grounded—charged with emotion and history.

“I don’t separate identity and fashion,” she said. “My work is a ceremony. A continuation.” Dumi’s visual language is deeply symbolic: layered textiles, twisted fabrics, and elongated silhouettes create a feeling of procession, of spiritual motion. She draws heavily on her Yoruba heritage, while resisting the exoticization often imposed on Black fashion.

Her influences range from Nollywood cinema to Catholic iconography, but the materiality is always central. Each piece is hand-finished, purposefully imperfect, resisting overproduction. Dumi isn’t interested in spectacle for spectacle’s sake. She is creating ritual objects—clothing meant to be worn like memory.

As one of the few Black women to present at Paris Fashion Week 2024, Torishéju Dumi’s ascent is a reckoning. Her voice, her vision, and her insistence on narrative depth are challenging the foundations of fashion. In her hands, garments are not just wearable—they are ancestral echoes made real.