LONDON — The British-Nigerian-Brazilian designer Torishéju Dumi’s label has a growing fan base that so far includes Kendall Jenner, Zendaya, Naomi Campbell — and soon Dover Street Market.
She will be joining the retailer’s Paris-based brand development program, adding sleek suiting, dresses and wrap skirts that reference traditional “lappa” garments from Nigeria, to the mix.
Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons International and chief executive officer of Dover Street Market, said he discovered Dumi’s designs online and “subsequently sought her out in the far depths of East London.”
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He said the trek was “well worthwhile. She had no operation. It was just her. But her collection blew me away, as did her passion and her faith,” he said in an interview. “I think it was the beautiful tailoring that attracted me the most at the beginning.”
All seven Dover Street Market locations now carry Dumi’s collection and have had “excellent results,” according to Joffe. “She has a strong vision and works with all her heart and soul. We believe the potential is huge,” he said.
Asked how DSMP brand development will support her business, Joffe said “we always work very closely with the people we take on board.”
“We will make most of her collection and will distribute it,” he said, adding “we will offer advice about merchandising and collection structure, but leave all final decisions to her.”
Dover Street Market has also enlisted Louther, Matières Fécales, Phileo, Stephen Jones and Vaquera as part of its brand development program.
Dumi made her Paris Fashion Week debut for spring 2024 with Naomi Campbell opening her show and Paloma Elsesser closing. The fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was in charge of the styling and the big sculptural-like hairstyles were created by Charlie Le Mindu.
“I want to bring a new voice as a Black woman to fashion,” she said about the collection, pointing out that her design approach is an exercise in “obsessive study of pattern, shape and form.”
Her sophomore collection took its cues from the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “Ship of Fools,” depicting the sin of gluttony.
Dumi was drawn to the shipwrecked element of the painting, where the characters are stationed at a calm sea surrounded by utensils.
Dumi’s avant-grade designs have been making their way beyond just the runway; she’s now on red carpets, too.
Her designs caught the attention of Law Roach in 2024 and he styled Zendaya for the Mexico premiere of “Dune: Part Two” in a twisted halter-neck crop top with a red and black maxiskirt with a high slit from Dumi’s debut collection.
At the 2025 Met Gala celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” Dumi and Kendall Jenner worked together on a gray suit with pleated shoulders and a fishtail skirt. She was inspired by the 1920s Harlem Renaissance women and blues artist Gladys Bentley.
Dumi’s infusion of tailoring with Nigerian lappa and wrapper attire was presented with the Savoir-Faire Prize by actor Camille Cottin at the 12th edition of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers in September. The award is aimed at promoting the transmission of skills and comes with a grant of 200,000 euros and a one-year mentorship as well.
“We were all moved by her emotion,” Cottin said at the ceremony, remarking that the emerging designer must have felt “overwhelmed” after the star-studded affair that was attended by Nicolas Ghesquière, Sarah Burton, Jonathan Anderson, Phoebe Philo, Silvia Venturini Fendi and Pharrell Williams.
The London-born Dumi graduated in 2021 from the MA menswear program at Central Saint Martins, where she was an Alexander McQueen-Sarabande Foundation scholar.
She was also an intern at the Celine studios under then-creative director Phoebe Philo.