No one would ever call me timid when it comes to expressing myself with color. In fact, the impact of color, scale, and texture in my life is central to who I am. It takes me back to my days as a little girl when my hair looked as electrically charged as the patterns my mom dressed me in for our outings to museums and galleries. I have a lot of colorful memories.
I also remember receiving letters as a child from my best friend in kindergarten, who went to live in Nigeria with her family when she was young. We went from IRL primary school friends to loyal pen pals. I loved checking the mail for her letters, which always included photos of her family wearing traditional Nigerian clothing. The fabrics were bright, bold, and expressive in their color combinations — unlike anything I had ever seen before.
When my friend Lou heard I was launching i/Edit, he told me I must meet the lawyer-turned-designer Busayo, who delivers big-time on the pattern, scale, and color front. (Oh, and can we talk about a courageous 180-degree career pivot!) Her collection blew me away. A child of Nigerian immigrants, Busayo makes all of her own fabrics using Adire, a traditional Yoruba textile technique which incorporates tie dye and batik. The fabric designs weave the history and story of Nigeria into every garment and culminate in a collection that is steeped in culture, color, richness, and pattern. I’m thrilled to share her interview, which is full of the same.
Q&A
I’d love to hear more about your design process. How does the process of creating your own fabrics interact with designing the clothes?
It all goes back to the origin story. There’s a wounding that happens with immigration that people don’t talk about. I felt very disconnected from my culture. So, I said: I’m going to use my vacations to go back to Nigeria. While I was there, I wouldn’t really do much, so I found a group to learn tie-dyeing with. I became an apprentice — a really bad one. But I kept working with them and started to buy fabric from them, and then I’d make pieces and wear them in New York. And people would ask me, “Where did you get that?”
So, my introduction to design really came from the fabrication: learning how to do it myself, how this tradition of Adire, which is the Yoruba version of tie and dye, works. The fabric is always first — I think of myself primarily as a textile designer. The actual creation of the material is where I come alive.
From a silhouette perspective, we are borrowing from the lineage of Western wear, like the leg-of-mutton sleeve or the bishop collar. I’m very much a Yoruba person and a Nigerian, but I’m also very much a Californian, and Busayo sits at the intersection of my identities. Our shapes are never revolutionary, but what I hope is revolutionary is the prints that you see and the textural story that I’m telling. Wherever you are in the world, if you’re engaging with our materials, with our work, I want you to be curious and want to learn about who these people are.
When it comes to hand-dyed work, you have to let go of a bit of control over what the final product looks like. Is that hard or exciting as a designer?
It’s hard because you have to get the end consumer to understand that serendipity is part of the intention. We have some dresses that come with a disclaimer that the distribution of the color can’t be guaranteed because of the hand-crafted nature. Once the customer understands that, they love the fact that this is artisan work.
One of the design motifs we’ve been doing forever is the splash, which is kind of like my polka dot. But the difference between a splash and a polka dot is that each splash brings its own identity, which is how I think about personal style and the richness of what’s possible in personal style. We each get to tell a story every day through how we show up in the world. It’s one of the few areas where we get to make an artistic choice every day, and I love that.
How have you learned the ins and outs of the industry as a self-taught designer?
I’m constantly reading. I have more books on the history of silhouettes than is probably normal, and I loved The Fashion Designer Survival Guide by Mary Gehlhar.
In terms of the business, I have many mentors. Mercedes Gonzalez was probably my first teacher; she is just an incredible woman. I’d heard her speak in Las Vegas, and then stalked her to have her teach me stuff when we got to New York. I’m also a student of RAISEfashion, which has been an amazing organization — I have two mentors through them that I work with consistently. Jonathan Simkhai has also been an amazing mentor.
For people who are interested in entering any industry, I really do think being a constant learner and a consummate student will get you 50% of the way. I want to constantly sit in my role as a student as opposed to thinking that I’m a founder and I have it figured out.
Outside of wearing your collection, what are some of the things that you grab to show off your personal style?
Jewelry is huge for me. Free Maiden and Ariana Boussard-Reifel are some of my favorite designers.
My piercings are huge. I go to So Gold Studios in Bushwick, and a woman named Taylor does my piercings. She’s incredible.
I also have giant, beautiful coats from #VDR and then a lot of vintage Yoruba stuff that I love to wear.
What sort of environment do you like to create in your home? What are some favorite pieces that help you curate that vibe?
I bring a lot of pieces from Nigeria: Nigerian artists and natural textures, like floor mats that I hang on the walls. I have a lot of stuff from Turkey: evil eye iconography and ceramic plates featuring black cats (since I have a 16-pound black cat named Binga).
I’m obsessed with candles. There’s a beautiful store in LA called Candle Delirium that I buy a lot from. Right now I’m burning one from Flatbush Granola Company, which has all these Brooklyn-inspired scents — I have the Kings County.
Rumor has it you love to throw a party. What are your best tips for hosting a great gathering? Anything you like to have on hand that always makes hosting easier?
My model for parties is that there has to be food. It’s very tough for me to go to a party that just has finger foods. It’s a very Nigerian thing — if people are coming over to my house, they’re getting a full meal. So I typically order food from a Nigerian caterer: Jollof rice, moi moi, plantain, a stew, puff puff. I’m a recent non-drinker, but I’ll continue to have a fully-stocked bar. I’m a mezcal girl, so I have to have a really great bottle of mezcal (like a 25-year tepeztate) and a passionfruit or pineapple mixer.
I love going to parties where you find something that makes you excited: a great cocktail, a yummy bite. And I really want people to know that, when they come over, they’re going to enjoy my culture in my home.
I read you love thrifting for books — is there a favorite treasure or two you’ve found lately?
I read about four or five books at a time. I love the Housing Works Bookstore, and Big Reuse in Gowanus has such a wonderful used book section — I don’t even know if I want to share it, it’s so good. Sometimes I think about books finding you, and whenever I go there, I feel like things are finding me.
Right now, I’m on sort of a spiritual journey, so I’ve been reading a lot of Matthew Fox, Richard Rohr, Seneca, and Thomas Merton.
Paid subscribers get access to the full interview below, including Busayo’s Nigeria travel recommendations, her favorite under-the-radar creatives, and her biggest advice for anyone thinking of taking the leap into a new creative endeavor. I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work — and a huge thank you to those who already do!