Fashion’s Storytelling Connoisseur
Foday Dumbuya, the founder and creative director of LABRUM, is a force to be reckoned with in the fashion industry. His brand has gained international recognition for its bold designs, vibrant colours, and powerful messages. PAUSE’s Features Writer Bethany Berkeley recently spoke to Dumbuya, discussing the inspiration behind the name LABRUM, what community means to him and his vision for the future.
Following Foday Dumbuya’s work for several years, it’s clear that he’s an amazing storyteller with a penchant for weaving stories together in every collection that leaves his audience engaged. The LABRUM name alone has a very unique story, as Dumbuya explains. “The meaning of LABRUM is the edge of something. As I further investigated, I found out it was a Latin word that means the edge (details), so that’s why we always focus on details in our designs, to keep that edge.” It wasn’t until later that Dumbuya realised that the word Labrum was also a family surname, “They reached out and asked if it was my surname and I said no, I told them I liked the word, so I decided to build a brand around it and now every year they contact us to place orders for Christmas gifts because of the name.”
LABRUM has consistently grown since then with an emphasis on telling the story of those in its community, bringing them to the forefront and sharing it with the world. Dumbuya expresses that being part of communities such as run clubs has helped him over the years: “Community is everything to me, it’s one of the reasons why we do what we do. I’m part of a running community called ‘Rundem’ and it’s a great way to celebrate and build awareness of what you’re doing, but also to touch base with people, see how they’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we can collaborate. It’s also one of our values.”
One of the things that strikes me as we continue to discuss the community he’s built around his brand is Dumbuya’s gift of storytelling. Evident both in his shows and each collection he presents, storytelling is what makes LABRUM so unique. He tells me about the process of weaving stories into his collections each season, “It can start with a mood I’m in or something I’ve read or seen. A piece of knowledge that I want to share in my collection and then we build from there. Sometimes it can be highlighting aspects of the African heritage that I want to educate people on.” As someone whose been attending LABRUM shows for several years, I can safely say that you enter with high expectations, wondering what the story will be and eventually leave wanting more. “We did a collection in 2019 on Highlife split into two parts. Highlife Revival and Highlife Electric. A lot of people know Afrobeats, but many people don’t know it came from Highlife, so we put a focus on Highlife and mirrored it into fashion. How did it sound? What did people wear in those days? We told the story so that people could see the connection between the two genres. However, in Highlife Electric we focused more on how Highlife has impacted and transformed the music that we hear now.” Using sounds, poetry and settings to elevate each piece in a collection is something Dumbuya is renowned for. LABRUM doesn’t follow trends, which is what the brand itself is revered for. “We try to stay as authentic as possible, creating timeless pieces that have meaning.”
LABRUM’s collections are often cited as “Love Letters to Immigrants,” a slogan that has become synonymous with the brand: “The slogan means a lot because I am an immigrant, and showcasing these collections is a way of highlighting just how important immigrants are in British society.” Celebrating the lives of immigrants through fashion is something that Dumbuya is passionate about and can be seen in all of his endeavours. “I know many immigrants who are doctors, lawyers and nurses and they need to be celebrated and feel seen. LABRUM will continue to tell their stories through the designs that we create.”
Ever the one for keeping the edge, LABRUM’s recent venture into sports is no surprise. Fashion and sports have continuously crossed paths this year and LABRUM has been one of the brands at the forefront. Whether it’s designing the Sierra Leonean team’s Olympic uniform – which is also his home country – to designing Arsenal’s newest away kit, Dumbuya’s foray into the sports world has been well timed indeed. “Sport is life, football is life. When going through tough times, sports can be a form of relief, even for me. It gives you perspective in life and can also add value to it. If you think about it, you need to train for five months to run a marathon. The discipline you learn having those training restrictions in place, while still being able to live your life is something that I love.”
Dumbuya celebrates 10 years of Labrum London this year. We look back at his AW23 show in Brixton – his first show away from the BFC space – as well as his show in the Tate Museum, his most recent show in Arsenal’s Emirates stadium, a store opening in the heart of Soho, and many more accomplishments. It’s fair to say that Dumbuya has shown that LABRUM has a taste for excellence. “We did a show in Brixton and people went, “Oh, wow you took over Brixton, you’re not going to be able to top that,” then the next year when we did a show in the Four Seasons Hotel, people said the same thing. So we decided okay, next year we’re going to do a show in the Tate Museum, and we did. It’s always about surpassing people’s expectations.” As a growing brand, there will always be both good times and difficult times, especially in an industry that’s ever evolving. Surviving societal issues like COVID-19 and Brexit is no mean feat, but LABRUM has done so with prestige: “I don’t see things as bad I always see them as learning. Things happen in life you learn, and you move on.” Dumbuya tells me that the greatest lesson he’s learnt in his 10 years in the game is that “You never stop learning and you’re never too old to learn something new. Find the joy in difficult times and celebrate that.”
With a strong community behind them, LABRUM has gone on to win several awards over the years, one of the most notable of them being the Queen Elizabeth Award II award for British Design in 2023. “It had a great impact on the brand, as it’s placed me in rooms I wouldn’t have been in a few years ago and gave the brand exposure.” As the year wraps up for both LABRUM and us, I asked Dumbuya what the story for his next collection will be: “We will be focusing on sound. What the music was like when I was growing up. What it sounded like andwho the pioneers were. Taking that and mirroring it into fashion.” All I can say is bring on 2025, the year of sound.
