Orange Culture’s Adebayo Oke-Lawal brings his vision of Nigeria to NYFW.
show, Orange Culture’s Adebayo Oke-Lawal walks into the lobby of the Moxy Times Square hotel. He’s wearing a dangling earring in one lobe, a hoodie, and a cross-body micro-size Jacquemus bag. His brand consultant and advisor, New York–based Derin Masha, smiles and says, “He’s so extra.” Oke-Lawal, deeply humble and big-hearted by nature, lets out a laugh and adds: “I know.
“We had, and still have, some problems. The way society is in Lagos…we’re used to very specific ways of seeing things. Gender is an exact way of thinking back home and has been for a very long time. Things have been written in the press that say Orange Culture is ‘feminizing our men’ and that we’re going to hell because of it. Now it’s just, like, I don’t care, you can write it. I’ve been doing this for years, and it is working, and it is still growing.
“The brand is raw,” he continues. “It’s not perfect. We don’t have one million machines. We’re building. We still make everything in Nigeria. And we have a story to tell. This is my own Lagos, my own take of what Africa can bring to the table nowadays. And this is coming from someone who has been in the community and designed based on the community. It is to show what we really are.”Which brings him to New York.
“Things are changing. Nigerians are becoming more self-aware,” says Oke-Lawal. “Our generation is so much more liberated. We just want to be ourselves. I’m here to show this new reality to the world.”
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