Bloke

Honestly, I believe that starting a fashion brand based most especially in Nigeria has to be one of the most challenging things ever. Growing up in Nigeria and being an ambitious young creative kid raised in the countryside has to be one of the things that toughened me up for the journey ahead, which has been amazing so far. I mean, I’m here chatting with METAL Magazine!

I was raised in a town called Ijebu Ode, about an hour drive from the buzzing city of Lagos – also Skepta’s hometown and home to one of the paramount rulers of the Yoruba tribe. My dad, an art educator and photographer who has an M.A in Visual Arts, plays the piano and paints. And my mum is an accounting tutor. Growing up with them definitely introduced me to the arts, especially my dad. But the interesting part is that it was my mum who told me about a family friend who knits and asked if I would like to pay them a visit, which I did. From that moment on, I never looked back.

Actually, when I was in my second year studying Agriculture, I already knew I wanted to be a fashion designer. But there wasn’t any school in Nigeria that could offer me the knowledge I needed or could impact what I had learnt for myself over the years, so I had to just follow through with the course while I thought myself about design and fashion.
Also, agriculture and fashion can actually cross paths when it comes to materials. For example, selective breeding of sheep to produce the best wools, culturing of silkworms, planting cotton and a lot of organic materials used by the manufacturing sector of fashion. So they aren’t really parallel, I see a connection.

Exactly, that is the underlining factor of all we are about as a brand.

Nigeria is actually a country with a conservative background but I believe that the new generation of men, especially the ‘social media generation’, really do not care about boundaries and wouldn’t mind expressing themselves as they dim fit. That’s why the brand is here to keep the conversation going and be a part of the gradually shifting culture in Nigeria.

Like I said earlier, the country has a very conservative background, which allows women to be as flamboyant as they wish but boxes men into a particular image, which usually translates into a very sartorial way of dressing up (mostly in suits). Showing the collections so far on male models is a revolutionary act of showing different or alternative ways a man can look like. This might not make much of a statement in the beginning, as the brand is still young, but there are plans to mix the two in the future. It might be in the upcoming season; we just have to look out for what’s next.

Yes, I am. I believe that fashion is one of the most influential parts of our lives, and it goes a long way into seeping into the culture at large to break some of society’s preconceived notions.

A lot of things actually spurred me into making a film for this collection. It happens to be my first film, my debut runway collection, and my debut collection of footwear designed and developed in-house. As an unconventional thinker, I actually wanted to translate the mood and vision of the brand in the simplest way with as little trace of fashion as possible, with an anti-fashion-meets-still-life underlining but still with a very strong direction capturing what we are about ideally. That was what led into the film made in collaboration with my friend Robert Matuluko.

My choice of colours for each collection actually depends on the theme and mood I’m exploring for that season, so if the theme is to be translated in all red, we get an all-red collection for the season. That’s just it.

I believe knitwear has a lot of potential to offer; to be able to decide how a garment looks from just a single strand of yarn shows there are a lot of possibilities into what can be achieved in its use in garment making. Through knitting, you tend to be the master of the silhouette as well as of the texture. I believe knitting is also the backbone of streetwear as a whole because it’s the most basic item. A t-shirt is most likely made from a knit fabric but most people are clueless about this when they rush to strike out the importance of knitwear in contemporary culture and how it influences the way we dress today.

I always manipulate my own textiles. I believe that, as a designer, that’s how you really make the garment yours.

I believe that, as artists, we unconsciously or consciously reflect the times, so as a creative I just follow my instinct, which at the end of the day still finds a way to sync in with the trends of the season most of the times. You can say I am telling the future (laughs).

I believe I’m not just designing clothing; I’m designing a brand, so every process – no matter how small or who I’m working with – needs my conscious and premeditated input as a creative, which I believe is a gift that doesn’t occur usually with most designers. But I know of a few who possess this ability, like the legend Rei Kawakubo, Simon Porte Jacquemus or Samuel Ross, just to name a few.

I actually enjoy all parts of the creative process, but my favourite has to be the collection presentation because I’m a visual thinker.

Yes, I think so. As an outsider from fashion circles – being in Lagos –, I believe that my ability to get noticed by international press publications – such as Vogue, WGSN, Vice, etc. – early on for my work at Bloke really helped my acceptance as an unconventional creative who knows what he’s doing here in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
I would be lying if I said social media didn’t help. Also, I collaborated with a friend, Khanh Brice Nguyen, who made the soundtrack for my debut runway show, and poet Lanaire Aderemi; both of them were far across my continent, they live in London, so social media is the only way possible we could’ve done that.

I see a much more refined structure than it is now, and whoever is starting out by then will be lucky. My advice to young designers is to really ask themselves and know with certainty what they are about as creatives and craft their story with the most authentic voice. Anyone can make a shirt and trousers but not everyone can create a concise vision. Also, stay consistent and allow time to refine your voice.

At the moment, do better than my last collection and also get nominated for the LVMH Prize in the nearest future.