Richard Wagner determined Callum Kamara’s fate

“Seeing the underlying processes and how designers sometimes struggle for the design to eventually be put on the body and live in other people’s narratives is what always fascinated me about fashion.”

Callum Kamara experienced graduation during lockdown as a surreal event. “It’s somebody feeding me information and telling me graduation has happened,” he tells, “but I also haven’t really thought too much about it. I feel like I had to jump straight into life and figure out what I was going to do.” Unlike many others, Kamara considers the institution’s reactions to the pandemic – having to leave the studios at uni – a good thing. Forced to be around his collection 24/7, it created a new bond between the graduate and his work, a relationship he otherwise would not have had. Besides, being taken out of the academic schedule, the students’ were granted some agency over their development. “I really found this peace and patience within, waiting to decide what I wanted to show,” Kamara explains. Still today, the designer hasn’t published his actual collection and is waiting for the moment he feels ready to show his creations to the public. The slowing down of the academic calendar poses the opportunity to make the schedule more humane. “At university, understanding people’s thought processes and how long those might take should definitely be taken into consideration. But maybe this will be the case now, with deadlines being extended and thus, made more personal to the students.”

“I love to research. I think about an idea four times rather than sampling that idea four times.”

Kamara describes himself as somebody whose body functions slower. “I love to research. I think about an idea four times rather than sampling that idea four times.” As such, his collection is characterised by a thorough concept, which incidentally was derived from an image he randomly stumbled across while browsing the library for inspiration. Its source was the book ‘Retrospective’ by Marcel Broodthaers. Feeling intrigued by the visual artist’s work, Kamara did more research on one installation, in particular, that is Décor. Therefore, Broodthaers would juxtapose comfort and conflict, installing furniture and elements of war in a film set manner. As he was also a filmmaker, Broodthaers shot a supporting video of the Décor installation, which opened with the prelude from Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. “That was it!” confesses Kamara. “It took me back to my first year. I did my White Show project based on this piece of music. At that moment, I decided it was fate and the right direction.”

Kamara decided to dedicate his final collection to the last work Broodthaers would present before his death, and thus, titled it of the same name, Décor. The designer did not reference weapons like Broodthaers but he is generally interested in theories related to the uniformed body, in particular with the idea of heroism. Hence, Kamara took the most heroic item, the cape, and combined it with military cavalry trousers. Further, coming back to Broodthaers’ idea of domestic culture and the interior, the designer reworked printed textiles, which stem from a friend’s chair, and used a flocking process to create a waxy feeling. For another print, due to no access to print facilities, Kamara even resorted to Sharpie pens to finish the wool suit and cotton shirt. When it came to presenting the final collection on the BA online platform, the graduate admits that he would have also been happy with just posting the video. “I feel like I really did express what I wanted out of the whole concept of this project.” The way the designer shot the video came full circle with Broodthaers and his military imagery, which had been expressed through domestic environments. “The whole video was actually filmed within one room,” Kamara says. “It is where I started all of this work, and it became the entire centre of it, really.”

Surprisingly, Callum Kamara had almost decided to turn away from fashion. After finishing four collection pieces, he found himself mentally exhausted and at a loss of his passion. Despite the reduced pace, the academic schedule still took its toll. “At the time, mentally I was exhausted and did lose some sort of passion for going on,” Kamara shares. Luckily, he recovered. And although he admits to still not knowing how to articulate himself and what he wants to get out of his work, the graduate revived his fascination for fashion. “I still feel like I’m not 100%, in terms with what I want to express. But I guess that’s fine because you’ll always have another question. You’ll always find another element within your work that doesn’t express exactly what you want it to.”

“If anyone is interested in this project, I’m happy, but if not, so be it.”

For now, Callum Kamara has returned to working within the four walls that are his room. He uses the developments he has made during his final collection and, with time on his hands, centres his attention on one specific object: luxury neckties. “It is fulfilling. There is so much in terms of prints and the artworks.” It appears the past months have not only granted Kamara a calmness but also ease, as he adds, “If anyone is interested in this project, I’m happy, but if not, so be it.” Ultimately, the biggest lesson learned from the past year is that one cannot take the space given to you for granted. What does this imply for a striving designer with a second lockdown in sight? “We always want to do ‘big’. Of course, I would love to have a collection one day but it’s just not realistic right now. So the future for me as a designer is to focus on a specific object that can be made within the environment that is available to me. If your work can be taken away, you can utilise it in any space.”