Some clothes are imbued with culture and tradition, and some clothes are just cute and they're just beautiful, even for the people that live in that culture.
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That’s so often the argument: if you know where this comes from that means that you don't get to wear it because all clothes are imbued with culture and tradition. It's not to make it less accessible to them.
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The videos and the storytelling is a critical piece of the brand because I really want people to understand that these clothes come from a lineage and a tradition. Through your clothing, you share the customs and traditions of your Yoruba culture - has that changed over the years since you started the company? Storytelling is a central part of Busayo Olupona's eponymous fashion label. So I think the biggest gift it has given me is a sense that I belonged in Nigeria, because the work I'm doing has allowed me to really build connections with people and places that have kind of repaired some of the fissures and repaired some of the alienation that comes from immigration.
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Because oftentimes, when you immigrate you kind of don't belong there, you don't belong here, and so you kind of often wonder where you fit. So for a very long time when I would go back to Nigeria, it was like I didn’t really belong, and so doing the work in clothes and commerce has given me deep connections with all levels of society really, not just in terms of people, but in feeling comfortable moving around in the country, feeling like it belongs to me as much as it belongs to everybody. Now, what came from it – and I think what’s been the most powerful part of the experience for me thus far – is that when you immigrate there's a huge loss that we don't really think about relationships, culture, connections that you don't have. And we have such a rich textile tradition that really allowed me to do that, so the beginning and the genesis of the business was to just make clothes for myself. At that time, I worked at a law firm and I knew that I wanted clothes that were a little bit brighter, a little bit more African in their presentation, a little bit more kind of funky. Then I started making clothes for myself. So for a few years, I would just go back and stay at my aunt's house, and not really do much. I wanted to reconnect to Nigeria in a deeper, richer way. When we came here I was 12 years old, and in 2002, I was in my early 20s, and I just knew that I wanted to go back to Nigeria. I always thought about coming back to Nigeria. I don't think there's actually a better way to put it, and it's not something that you could have planned for in the beginning. Would you say clothing has helped you straddle your two lives – in Nigeria and in the US – and it’s the way you found to exist in both of these spaces? Interview has been edited for length and clarity.īusayo Olupona says much of her success today is influenced by the things she was teased at school for wearing. Olupona spoke to OkayAfrica about making it from a small town in Nigeria to the big streets of New York City. And the best part? Her clothing remains crafted in Nigeria, using the Adire technique to come up with the colorful tie-dye signature look of Busayo NYC. “As someone the journey of entrepreneurship was not the easiest, it feels like you have to have all your ducks in a row before you make a leap,” she says.Olupona may not feel ready to leap, but there’s no denying her label has taken off in the best way, with collections available at Saks 5th Avenue and online platforms like Shopbop, and more recently, at Neiman Marcus, Bergdorfs, Intermix and Moda Operandi as well. Olupona built her fashion label, which she started in 2011, on the side of her career as a lawyer, and she still practices today. “It's fascinating that so much of the success, and, really, my life's work, is now deeply influenced by, and is a deep cultivation of, these things – the very things that kids were mocking me for,” she says.