Jawara Alleyne steps into Carnival weekend with Converse

In comparison to last year’s never-ending Brat summer, this summer has been and gone in the blink of an eye. Just as we were getting into the swing of festival season, the school gates are getting ready to reopen, and we’re shivering by 6pm. 

That said, London knows how to throw a party. And there’s no better way to close out the summer months than with Notting Hill Carnival, which erupts onto the capital this weekend. To celebrate the occasion, Jamaican-Caymanian fashion designer Jawara Alleyne has worked with Converse on a pair of very special custom kicks.  

Known for his use of torn, draped fabrics, often held together with his staple safety pins, the Converse follow the classic Jawara codes, decorated with long strands of brightly coloured fabric shooting from the eyelets and ankles. Like many of his creations, the starting point for the shoes was Pierrot Grenade, a traditional masquerade character in Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival celebrations.

 “He’s a figure who uses his wit to deliver social commentary and who appears in garments made from rags and scraps of fabric,” Jawara tells Dazed exclusively. "That cut-work comes directly from Carnival, so I wanted to ground the shoes in a character that not only connects authentically to Carnival, but also stands as a symbol of the circularity within my practice.”

As someone born and raised in the Caribbean, now living and working in London, Notting Hill Carnival is especially important to Jawara. “It’s one of the few spaces outside of the Caribbean where our traditions, music, food, dance and spirit can truly thrive and live,” he explains. “It feels like a living archive of our history and creativity, carried forward by the people who keep showing up for it year after year.” 

To really get us in the mood for the bank holiday weekend, the designer has even shared his favourite Carnival warm-up track: Mr Killa’s ‘Run Wid It (Planet Jab Riddim)’. Elsewhere in fashion this week, Jeremy Scott and Central Cee landed a hot new shoe gig with UGG, we rounded up all the best AW25 campaigns so far, and dropped the line-up for season two of Dazed’s How I Became online series. Here’s everything else to catch up on…