Labrum designer Foday Dumbuya finds inspiration where cultures meet.

Information designer–turned–fashion designer Foday Dumbuya says that staging a London Fashion Week show and designing the user interface for British pharmacy Boots’ loyalty program are not all that different. “Information design taught me that all design is fundamentally about communication,” says the 45-year-old founder of Labrum. “You’re taking information and finding the clearest and most compelling way of communicating it.” That philosophy underpins his label, which Dumbuya launched after a stint at Nike to bring West African style into conversation with Savile Row tailoring. The approach earned him the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in 2023.

Portrait of Foday Dumbuya. Courtesy of Labrum.

What Dumbuya is communicating through Labrum is the story of human migration, rooted in his own experience. Dumbuya was born in Sierra Leone, where his childhood coincided with growing political upheaval; his family moved first to Cyprus before his mother put down permanent roots in London when he was 12. “I never felt like I had to choose between being Sierra Leonean and British, or African and European,” Dumbuya says. “I’m interested in the places where cultures meet, and the traditions people carry with them.”

Labrum Fall/Winter 2026. Courtesy of Labrum.

His Fall/Winter 2026 collection, titled “Threads of Osmosis,” is the second in a trilogy inspired by osmosis, the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane. The first iteration of the theme explored the concept through sound; this season follows the circulation of textiles, and the final chapter will focus on craft techniques passed down through generations. “Cloth is history you can touch,” Dumbuya says. Colorful three-piece suits evoke Dutch wax prints, the West African staple born from colonial imitations of Indonesian batik, while a denim design incorporates scans of his late mother’s passports and visas. “The passport fascinates me because this is such a small object,” says Dumbuya. “And yet it has an extraordinary amount of power over human movement.”

Labrum Explores Human Movement for Fall/Winter 2026

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Labrum Explores Human Movement for Fall/Winter 2026

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