Dreaming Up A Revolution

about what he really likes, and about what, by his own admission, saved his life. When I ask him exactly how fashion saved his life, he looks down, contemplatively, weighing – dare I say, designing? – his answer. “Fashion is my art, and my therapy, and my life. It’s the thing I know the most about. When I’m sad, I put on fashion films to cheer me up. When I need inspiration, I look at fashion, like a Virgil Abloh show. When I want to learn about consumers, I look at fashion businesses.”

A natural introvert, he uses shoots and his self-expression to tell other people about himself, without having to speak, and thus enables them to tell themselves about themselves ‘through him.’ In high school, he wanted to be a model – didn’t we all? – because they looked cool (and hopefully got to keep the clothes. They get to keep the clothes, right??). And then when he left high school, he discovered more about fashion, and styling, and all the art forms that were available to him, and quickly changed course.

underlines what his mantra is, and how it fits into the context of an Africa that is ever changing, ever defining what it wants to look like and become. “I want to use fashion to do what it has done to me and for me: to promote the things that are good, and beautiful, in the world.” Because he admires Virgil Abloh so much, and thinks of him as a revolutionary, I ask him if he thinks of himself, and his work, like that too. “Virgil made ideas that changes the world, changed how people do things, shaped concepts. I want to be able to make the world a better place, but if I were revolutionary, you wouldn’t need to ask me that question.”

If I were revolutionary, you wouldn’t need to ask me that question.

The dream is always there, for him, in everything he touches and does; every look he completes, every collaboration to make something even better, and every concept he dreams up, leads up to the goal. He tells me that it’s important to keep dreaming. That’s the one thing he says that sticks with me: to dream big, to dream impossible. “Keep dreaming. Dream like a child.” The dream is always there, for him, in everything he touches and does; every look he completes, every collaboration to make something even better, and every concept he dreams up, leads up to the goal. He tells me that it’s important to keep dreaming. That’s the one thing he says that sticks with me: to dream big, to dream impossible. “Keep dreaming. Dream like a child.”