Filippa K launches gender-neutral campaign starring Kai Isaiah Jamal

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 26, 2021

Sweden’s Filippa K has launched its AW21 collection with a new supporting campaign featuring London-born Kai Isaiah Jamal, a poet, writer, trans-visibility activist, and model who wears both the women’s and men’s pieces.

Called What Lies Within, the collection and campaign follow the uncertainty of the past year, and “return to the brand’s core values – authenticity, confidence, and simplicity – while looking forward with a renewed sense of self assurance”.

The company said that “through a less-is-more design approach, Filippa K empowers the wearer to find strength in who they are”.

It added that “Kai’s approach to life and art echoes the values of the collection”, which Kai interprets through a poem, also called What Lies Within. It features lines such as:

"I wish you a frayed hem 
if nothing more but a reminder we all have things to work on.
I wish you too a frayed hem that needs none.
For any pile of cotton can be named a mess;
A test of who is touching
or tidying”.

“The poem describes the power that clothing has to define us”, we’re told. 

The campaign and collection can be seen in all Filippa K stores and at filippa-k.com with star women's pieces including a minimal dress and sweater in cashmere, a thin turtleneck with frayed edges, and an oversized wool coat, all to “provide a canvas for self expression”. Meanwhile, an irregular mohair knit in bright red “exudes the confidence that’s found in being comfortable in one’s own skin – imperfections and all”. 

The men’s collection echoes these sentiments with a hand-stitched cashmere coat, flannel suiting, and a chunky wool fisherman’s knit.