With the news that the much-anticipated first drop from Yeezy Gap sold out almost immediately, despite not being physically available until the autumn, Kanye West's $1 billion deal with the high street giant looks set to be a huge success.
It's been more than a year since West announced his lucrative 10-year deal with Gap, yet in that time little outwardly has happened. Global pandemic aside, rumours have come and gone of an impending launch date, and there has been no word about what the pieces might actually look like. So when the first drop arrived a few days ago, offering a single, bright blue bomber jacket, the world was finally given a glimpse of the direction to come.
A huge image of the jacket was projected onto prominent buildings in New York City. It was only available to pre-order for an undisclosed date in the autumn, and it sold out within hours.
However, while it might be West's name on the collaboration, he didn’t actually design it. The inaugural Yeezy Gap jacket was instead the work of Nigerian-born fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi.
Hand-picked by West to be design director of Yeezy Gap, Mowalola, as she prefers to be known, was plucked from outside-of-fashion-circles obscurity for the role.
Born in Nigeria in 1995, Ogunlesi comes from a creative family, with both parents working as fashion designers. She moved to the UK to attend school at the age of 12, before going on to study fashion at the storied Central Saint Martins college, where she graduated from in 2017. She remained in the UK, where her eponymous label is headquartered.
In summer 2019, Ogunlesi, 26, showed a collection as part of Fashion East, the branch of London Fashion Week dedicated to emerging names, and in September the same year hit headlines when model Naomi Campbell stepped out in a Mowalola dress made with a single, bloody bullet hole. Facing strong criticism for glamourising gun violence, Ogunlesi released a statement clarifying the dress was instead about her "lived experience as a black person".
“I make clothes to challenge people’s minds," she explained. "This gown is from my collection Coming For Blood – a delving into the horrific feeling of falling in love.”
Her work draws on the dual influence of Nigerian culture and London street fashion, which is translated into bold, primary colours and playful, clubwear-esque tops, jackets and dresses.
The label began attracting wider attention, and was soon picked up by the likes of American musicians Drake, Kelela, Solange and Kanye West, as well as British artist Skepta, for whom Ogunlesi created the looks for his Pure Water video.
A vibrant new voice in fashion who is unafraid to push boundaries, Ogunlesi was also one of six designers chosen by British Vogue to create outfits for Barbie's 60th anniversary. In October 2020, the young designer was also named by Elle magazine as one of the 10 "trailblazing women" changing the future.
So when West signed the deal to create Yeezy Gap in June 2020, he decided that Ogunlesi was the best person to work alongside him, as design director.
With Gap hoping the deal will turn around its ailing fortune (the group is closing 19 branches across the UK alone this year), it is banking on revenue in the region of more than $150 million in the first year, and hitting the billion-dollar-a-year mark by 2023. While this may seem like a tall order, judging by this first taster, Gap's ambitions might not be so wildly optimistic.
With a first snippet of a collection that will be seemingly born of a designer who speaks to the youth, and with West, a man who knows a thing or two about creating hype, at the helm, perhaps we can expect some extraordinary things from Yeezy Gap over the next decade.
The biog
Full name: Aisha Abdulqader Saeed
Age: 34
Emirate: Dubai
Favourite quote: "No one has ever become poor by giving"
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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SPEC SHEET
Display: 6.8" edge quad-HD dynamic Amoled 2X, Infinity-O, 3088 x 1440, 500ppi, HDR10 , 120Hz
Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
Memory: 8/12GB RAM
Storage: 128/256/512GB/1TB
Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 40MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
Colours: burgundy, green, phantom black, phantom white, graphite, sky blue, red
Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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