Lesley Wengembo WITH HOROCHE
Captured in a Manhattan studio by Horoche’s Creative Director, Pete, the original photograph features Kadeem, known as Deem, a Brooklyn native held in a moment of quiet precision. The image resists performance, allowing presence to surface without instruction.
From this photograph, artist Lesley Wengembo translated the work into paint. Drawn first to the richness of the mustard yellow Horoche jacket, color became the anchor. His focus then moved to detail, the handcrafted Horoche signature ring, a small yet deliberate marker of craft and intention.
Equally compelling was Deem’s gaze: intense, yet open. Direct without resistance. A balance that transforms the portrait into an encounter, allowing familiarity to emerge between subject and viewer.
Equally compelling was Deem’s gaze: intense, yet open. Direct without resistance. A balance that transforms the portrait into an encounter, allowing familiarity to emerge between subject and viewer.
Wengembo’s practice approaches portraiture as recognition rather than likeness. As a contemporary artist of
Papua New Guinean origin,
his work is shaped by cultural memory and lived experience, holding identity as something present rather than preserved.
The collaboration unfolds as dialogue, not hierarchy. Photography slows into painting. Fashion extends into object. Meaning emerges through restraint.
At Horoche, fashion is not the statement.
It is the medium.
Papua New Guinean origin,
his work is shaped by cultural memory and lived experience, holding identity as something present rather than preserved.
The collaboration unfolds as dialogue, not hierarchy. Photography slows into painting. Fashion extends into object. Meaning emerges through restraint.
At Horoche, fashion is not the statement.
It is the medium.
