YAKU

YAKU is a London-based label founded in 2023 by designer Yaku Stapleton, a graduate of Leeds Beckett and Central Saint Martins. Rooted in Afrofuturism and fantasy world-building, the brand reimagines members of Stapleton’s family as characters in a limitless universe inspired by RPG games and natural history. Each season is a chapter in an unfolding story – The ImPossible Family Reunion in RPG Space – a narrative exploring themes of identity, hope, and time.

YAKU’s shows are known for immersive, story-driven environments, that have been described as "entering an alternate universe” and “a world so spellbinding it felt hard to leave”. For SS25, Looking Back to Look Forward to Look Back Again, audiences entered Tutorial Island – a surreal training ground where the family prepared to confront their past. The set featured multiple stages: a library, a forest, a scene of spirited swordplay, and a moment of suspended self-reflection between two versions of a single character. In AW25’s Sunset on Tutorial Island, the narrative captured the family’s final day on the island, from sunrise to sunset, before embarking on a long, uncertain journey. Both shows were performed by actors instead of models, allowing for more expressive, embodied portrayals of each character’s inner world.

These narratives come to life through in-house props and set design, made using hand-dyed, sewn, and distressed deadstock textiles. Visitors are invited to step inside the world through performance, installation, sound, and animation – supported by behind-the-scenes materials like character profiles, diaries, sketches, and dye tests, as well as digital assets including 3D landscapes, audio logs, and holograms.

For SS26, the sixth chapter – A Ground to Stand On – will follow three core characters as they journey into the wider world, only to discover it’s already full life. As the story continues, the work delves deeper into natural and prehistoric environments and our research into pre-colonial Caribbean resistance. With each season, the characters’ journeys evolve – and so does the brand’s exploration of fashion as a portal, a narrative tool, and a space for reflection and connection.