{"title":"Becoming SS26\/27","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCOMPLEX DEPARTMENT SS26\/27 — BECOMING\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCollection Statement\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is a moment after the renaissance — quieter, heavier, more honest — when the work of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003etransformation stops being theory and starts being lived. That moment is Becoming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSS26\/27 is Complex Department's most personal collection to date. It does not announce\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003earrival. It documents the road. The years of building without permission, the trips taken on\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003einstinct rather than budget, the risks absorbed slowly into the body until they became a kind of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003elanguage. Becoming is the collection we could not have made five years ago. It required living\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003efirst.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTHE STORY WE ARE TELLING\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eComplex Department was born with two commitments: to celebrate local craftsmanship, and to\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebe a symbol of empowerment and self-expression rooted in African identity. Those commitments\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehave never changed. What has changed is our capacity to honour them at the level they\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003edeserve.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGrowth is not just scale — it is depth. It is returning to the same resources with more refined\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eeyes. It is finally being able to walk into a room and build what you originally imagined, not what\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe budget allowed. Becoming is the collection that reflects that arrival point — the point at\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewhich our convictions and our capabilities finally met.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTHE HANDS BEHIND THE WORK\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEvery look in this collection carries a geography. The textiles were sourced and produced in\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGhana — Kasoa — where our roots in the local textile economy run deep. Tailoring was\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eexecuted in-house at Complex Haus, our atelier in Winneba, where every stitch carries the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eweight of everything we have built on this land.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe collection also reaches outward, because Becoming is also the story of the relationships\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eforged through risk. Select looks were developed in collaboration with artisans from Lagos —\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eamong them Ayinke, whose craft brought a new texture to the collection's silhouette language.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is not borrowing. It is pan-African creative exchange — the natural result of years spent\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003etraveling, building trust, and investing in the continent's creative ecosystem with genuine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eintention.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTHE WORLD ON CAMERAThe models are our friends. The photographers are our people. The set is our home. Becoming\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewas shot entirely within the world Complex Department has spent years quietly constructing —\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003enot a stylised recreation of that world, but the real thing. Every face in this campaign is a face\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethat has sat in this building, believed in this project, and grown alongside it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis was always the plan. The community was never a backdrop. It was always the point.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you move through Becoming, you are moving through time as much as fabric. You are\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eseeing what cultural rootedness looks like when it is not performed but practiced. You are\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eseeing tailoring that began in a room in Winneba and passed through hands in Kasoa and\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLagos before becoming something neither place could have made alone. You are seeing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eself-expression not as a brand message, but as a lived practice — the same one that has\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eguided Complex Department since the beginning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe are not who we were. We are not yet who we will be.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut in this collection — in this moment — we are Becoming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eComplex Department SS26\/27 — BECOMING\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTextiles: Kasoa, Ghana. Tailoring: Complex Haus Atelier, Winneba. Collaboration: Ayinke, Lagos\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/0496\/7702\/collections\/E856F703-E2AA-495A-82F2-D88170F1BDF2.jpg?v=1782353769","url":"https:\/\/www.complexdepartment.com\/collections\/becoming-ss26-27.oembed","provider":"Complex Department ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}