Afrofuturist storyteller Yasmin Idris premieres New Age Matrix fashion film

Yasmin Idris is a Nigerian-British artist and founder of the platform MaybeArt. Her multidisciplinary practice is centred around using art, culture fashion and sci-fi to express her cultural identity and imagine what the African Renaissance will look like in the future.

The first project from Yasmin is New Age Matrix, an Afrofuturistic fashion film inspired by the original Matrix Trilogy that tells the story of a protagonist who is given the chance to take back their power by choosing between a pink or purple pill. One will take her back in history to uncover ancestral secrets whilst the other will unlock a new level of consciousness.

Interested in using using afrofuturistic storytelling to decompose colonial nuances embedded in Nigerian Culture, the fashion film is Phase one of a six-part series that will explore this at length.

The elaborate costumes you see in the fashion film were created in collaboration with Nigerian designer Arewa Signature, who designed and sewed, by hand the pieces featured. The masks, jewellery, and props were crafted by Yasmin Idris.

The fashion film stars Yasmin’s circle of friends as the main characters and is a testament to the power of collaborating horizontally. Originally set to be presented as an exhibition, the pandemic caused Yasmin Idris to pivot in her approach, using social media as the primary space to creatively showcase the New Age Matrix series.

Explore Phase 0 and 1 of New Age Matrix on MaybeArt

Watch the fashion film below:

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