00:00I never really thought of it being even being a career or anything like that.
00:11I just genuinely just wanted to create stuff.
00:13I was inspired first by my grandparents.
00:16My grandma would be crocheting like scarves or blankets and all type of stuff.
00:20What keeps me going is the promise I gave myself to be an example of black luxury.
00:26What inspired me is just the lack of long pants.
00:56The showroom I worked with in order to get into retailers told me that it would be more difficult for me to be picked up if they knew that I was a black owned brand or if I presented myself as too urban.
01:08Safe to say I left that showroom and I think that's another part of like you know just your story like learning to find your voice and stand tall in that space.
01:20I am Nigerian which means we're never in last place so just that in itself like kind of gives you an idea of like our strength of perseverance and my dad's Austrian yeah let's not count him out.
01:40Coming up in Richmond Virginia at the time creating your own clothes you know it was considered too feminine a lot of people didn't understand.
01:55So I learned how to sew through my father.
01:59For him like he used to you know sew his work pan to fit better like it wasn't creativity that wasn't like I mean I guess like you can say it was creative but like at the same time it was like it was more just structured to tailor to fit for his job.
02:13And that's kind of where I sat and learn how to do it.
02:17Time to get too tired coming home late from work and I do it for him.
02:23This is definitely not your average button up.
02:27I mean it has different ways of tightening up around your waist or your chest.
02:32Rock kids vibes.
02:34I wanted to fit in with the cool kids.
02:37I would you know design things from out of my closet or upcycle things from out of my closet.
02:43And then over time it just kind of grew its own legs.
02:52Everything started back in my hometown in New Orleans.
02:56My grandmother we're after school she'll bring me to like thrift stores and stuff.
03:00And at first I thought it was like boring I used to stay in the car and eventually I started going in finding cool pieces of cool jeans that I thought like I could use as a base.
03:10Made some pants that I really wanted.
03:13And I pretty much started wearing the stuff that I'll make and everyone would be like where you get that?
03:17I want some.
03:18Can I buy them off for you?
03:19What size of those?
03:20And that's pretty much how like my making clothes journey started.
03:24We moved around a lot.
03:29It was literally just me and my mom.
03:31We landed in Brooklyn because that's where her sister was.
03:34I didn't really expect to be here that long and I would ask her why are we leaving because it was very hard for me to make friends.
03:39Just having you know an accent and just feeling out of place.
03:44The only way that I saw myself bridging that gap was like through my style and in the pieces that I would wear regardless of it being from like goodwill.
03:52Having like a sense of style gave me confidence especially being an only child and not being from here and not feeling like you fit in anywhere.
03:59Getting that acceptance for what you're doing or what you have on.
04:02Just really I just really wanted more of that.
04:11Stand clear of the closing doors please.
04:14Well I've always had a love for demo.
04:16Ever since even when I was like four I was wearing like Canadian tuxedos.
04:20I'm from Brooklyn, New York. New York, you're, you know, you know the vibes, you know the vibes, you know.
04:27Venom has always stuck with me.
04:29What kind of invited me into like distressing it and like making it what it is now.
04:35I just love other worldly things and I feel like in the world you normally see a lot of clothes with like, you know, perfect seams, perfect lines.
04:44And I was like, you know, everything can't be perfect.
04:47And even if it isn't perfect, it's still beautiful.
04:50The concept of curtain in peace, a lot of times it can come from chaos.
05:02It can be a lot of fabrics and a lot of different embellishments in front of me and I kind of deep dive into that.
05:08When I design, it's really just me.
05:11I let my phone die and I really don't speak to anybody because it just, it helps.
05:16When I just start grabbing fabrics, start working with one fabric, throw it to the side like, nah, it's not what I thought.
05:21You know, grab the next one, sketch something out.
05:24It's just you, the four walls and your talent.
05:27I have a cat, so it's actually me and my cat.
05:29It's not just me.
05:30It's me and my cat chicken and she watches me so for hours and just make magic.
05:36It's designing out of love, you design out of sorrow.
05:39Finding a way to express yourself when you feel like misunderstood or you feel out of place has definitely translated into me being a designer.
05:46And I find that we do that, like all artists do that.
05:48That's the reason why we create art.
05:54Hey girl, what you doing in Mexico City?
05:59I am working on samples for the next collection.
06:02We're trying to have 60 SKUs, which is definitely the biggest collection I've ever done.
06:08That's huge.
06:09The five change of fashion designers, including myself and Nia, have a group chat in which we come in there for questions, support, outrage.
06:21And the best part about it is that there's no ego and we're all hilarious.
06:25And I want to take credit for starting the group chat and naming it.
06:29Period.
06:30It's going to be exciting watching everyone grow and like tap into each other.
06:36I can't wait to see what we all accomplish in 10 years, where we're going to be at, where our companies are going to be at, how we evolve.
06:44Because I'm always rooting for all of us.
06:46It's a blessing to even meet those designers and I thank McDonald's and we are golden for the opportunity also.
06:53Because at the end of the day, like these platforms that McDonald's has enabled us to be a part of, like you have to really speak from your heart and let people understand who you are and where you came from.
07:06The fact that we are so underrepresented, especially in the fashion industry, when most of our ideas are being used right now on runways, you know, they take from us and they don't, they put it out there and they don't even give us the credits.
07:23Don't be afraid to pull out of things that aren't serving you, know your power.
07:28Your power is in your talent.
07:30Find the team and the community that's going to support you along the way because it's nearly impossible to do it by yourself.
07:36The fashion family is definitely like stylists, other designers, photographers, models.
07:41They definitely want to be involved, want to see a brand grow because if the brand grows, then everyone else around it grows.
07:48They've got a great therapist and a great accountant and a good lawyer.
08:04We are the great people.
08:18Maarja Hillo is real, love.
08:22Oroans
08:23Comparum
08:25Comparum
08:26Comparum
08:29Calum
08:33Comparum
08:34Valencia
08:36Comparum
08:39Comparum
08:41Comparum
08:44Comparum
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