Mai-Gidah

Mai-Gidah is the label of Ali Abdulrahim, who was raised in Ghana, trained in Belgium, and works from Amsterdam. The name is Hausa. It means landlord, a term of address for an elder, and it was his grandfather’s before it was his.

The work is pattern-driven in the literal sense. In an interview with Metal, Abdulrahim describes patterns as the bones of the garment and says he spends the bulk of his time drafting them, which is why the clothes read as quiet on a hanger and complicated on a body. Closures land off center. Pockets extrude from the surface instead of hiding in a seam. A jacket is cut in a bulb shape and fastens across the chest. None of this is decoration. It is the construction doing the designing.

Every piece W Department holds is made in the Netherlands, and the color names are the tell: Universal Black, Static Grey, TV-Static, Bourbon Red, Lavendoli Purple, Sulphur Yellow, Verdant Green, Bleached Carrot. Someone named those.

Mai-Gidah at W Department

W Department carries Mai-Gidah from AW24, in men’s and women’s: a black wrap coat in wool with a cupro lining, a red pullover coat, a sleeveless jacket with extruding pockets in merino, a short padded jacket in wool drill, a corduroy worker jacket and high-waisted trousers cut from the same TV-Static cloth, knitted drawstring trousers in caramel wool, a textured lambswool jumper in sulphur yellow and dove grey, a white cotton shirt printed with a self-portrait, and hoodies in cotton gabardine and jersey.

It is a small buy from a small house, and that is the point. Abdulrahim has described working to order in limited runs, often from sustainably sourced or overstock cloth, and refusing the seasonal calendar in favor of finishing a collection when it is finished. Which means what is here does not repeat.

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Continue Exploring

• All Mai-Gidah. The AW24 collection as we bought it, men’s and women’s.
• Nicholas Daley. The London designer drawing on Scottish and Jamaican traditions.
• Outerwear. Coats and jackets across the roster.
• The Library. Our writing on the houses we buy, plus the monthly playlist.
• Visit W Department. 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza, open daily, 11 to 5.

Shop Mai-Gidah