Kenneth Eise didn’t need a mood board for his Fall 2026 collection, because the collection is an entire mood in itself, and that mood is joy. This was certainly evident from the moment the clothes appeared. More chic than chic, elegantly slim tailoring, sometimes deconstructed, or a study of contrasts between front and back, as well as again a striking use of the traditional Nigerian woven fabric Aso Oke, all of the shimmering, vibrant colors that have long incorporated into her clothing.
Eze, who is showing in Berlin for the first time after taking a bit of a sabbatical (more on that later), sees the new collection as a way to bring together all the people he loves. The label may bear its name, but it’s the presence of photographer James Tennessee Brandt, NYC hat maker Rodney Patterson of Essen Shell, stylist KKOBI, leather recycling company founder Giovanni Marishi, casting director Affa Osman, model owner, GD Ankoma, and model MD Hito, along with photographer James Tennessee Brandt, NYC hat maker Rodney Patterson. These are the ones who want to name-check, not a collection of aesthetic reference points.
“I kept thinking, ‘What’s the point of doing a reunion?'” Ice said backstage before his show. “It’s all about the people, and the joy I get from working with them. There’s so much going on in the world right now,” he added, “What with the war in Sudan, Palestine… I thought if I did a collection, I’d make it about solidarity.” That’s why he had Patterson contribute crazy hatter-esque top hats that added a delightfully off-kilter vibe to the look, while the casting was done by Ankomah’s rapture management agency out of Antwerp. The entire production was a family affair.
Seeing the desire to combine the inner emotions of the creation of the clothes with their outward appearance, Eise revamped his tailoring: a pair of pants, with their pockets turned inside out so they were out, or it looked like the model was wearing shorts over regular-length pants (a weird but kind of cool thing here) in Berlin. Elsewhere, jackets could reveal the seams usually hidden within them, while the shoulders of trench coats were scored to expose their construction. There was a constant dialogue about revealing what could be hidden, and enhancing it all were the amazing aso-oak textiles, the very expression of the power of craft and community development.
What Ise had in mind was how he could express his work in a different medium: through words, and the power of detail and analysis. The reason—and the subtherapeutic reason—is that since 2014 IZ has been enrolled in a doctoral program at a school in his home, Vienna, where he is studying for a PhD in philosophy, with a particular interest in the African diaspora in Europe and America. “It’s important for a young creative person, who’s a designer, or an artist,” Eze said, “to be able to think about it and write about it, why they’re doing it. I took a little break with the brand and thought, I want to be involved.” Ice says he still has two or more years before he finishes his PhD, and one thing she can say for sure: He won’t be changing the name of his label to Dr. Kenneth Ice.
