L’Enchanteur Welcomes You Home
The fashion set flocked to a quaint street in Flatbush on Wednesday to witness the ready-to-wear debut of emerging label L’Enchnateur.
Held salon style, the show took place inside a Victorian-era home where passersby, caught between confused and amused, stood in for street-style photographers, documenting the commotion on the wraparound porch. The unusual format was a nod to the ties that bind Flatbush natives, codesigners and identical twins Dynasty and Soull Ogun together.
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Courtesy of L'Enchanteur
L’Enchanteur first generated buzz for jewelry and soft accessories — a few even made a cameo in Beyoncé’s “Black is King” visual album. Dynasty’s background is in textiles, while Soull’s is in metalsmithing and their first runway collection, titled “Hood Breakfast,” put both skill sets to use. “We flowed like a symphony of music,” said Soull of the pair’s working process.
A tribute to their parents’ kismet love story, the duo drew upon the rich family life they experienced as the youngest of six children.
Dynasty and Soull are first-generation New Yorkers. Their father, Samson, hails from Nigeria and their mother, Josephine, comes from a line of seamstresses in Dominica, West Indies. Josephine learned how to sew from her mother. “Everyone called her Momma Serina because she was the head of design of the carnival pieces,” explained Dynasty.
Much like Momma Serina, the Oguns know how to put on a show.
Courtesy of L'Enchanteur
As models moved through the living and dining rooms to the wood-paneled library, they glanced at themselves in mirrors and teased the crowd along the way. They were dressed in pleated wrap-front skirts slung low on the hips, jaunty bowling shirts, and dapper suits inspired by the ones their father wore — one was double-breasted in jade green and another in citron came cropped with tails.
Personal narratives are woven throughout L’Enchanteur. A “pixelated” trench coat and bell-bottoms outfitted with gold fly fastenings, for example, alluded to the 1970s, the decade in which Josephine immigrated to New York and met Samson at a local movie theater. Elsewhere, denim sets were inspired by the ones they dressed in as little girls.
Though they never went to church (their father led them in prayer at home), the sisters are also influenced by their own kind of religion. Be it a fashion show or formal service, L’Enchanteur is rooted in the kinetic energy that comes with communal gathering.
“Our ready-to-wear continues the grand journey of our storytelling and spiritual awakening,” said Soull. “The further we touch into our personal debts of transformation, the more expansive our reach can become.”
Courtesy of L'Enchanteur
Courtesy of L'Enchanteur
Courtesy of L'Enchanteur
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