- 1 week ago
Oluwole ‘Wole’ Olosunde is the founder of Against Medical Advice, a label inspired by human anatomy and the many cultures of New York City. An emergency department nurse turned self-taught designer — Wole will discuss how he’s navigating an industry that has traditionally locked out those who lack the advantages of fancy fashion-school degrees or family connections. Instead, his creative vision and passion led him to begin carving his own path despite formal training.
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00:00Today I'm kind of here to talk to you about my class. So I teach a class in the garment district
00:04about pretty much making clothes and getting that access that she also mentioned. Like it's really
00:11hard to kind of break into the industry. I feel like that's the hardest part. You don't know kind
00:16of who to turn to or who to talk about it with but it's really hard for you to find your footing
00:22and I feel like that's the hardest part about it and that's kind of why I started the school that
00:26I started. I'm going to glance at my phone every so often because my notes are on here so
00:30but my name is Wole Olasunday like I said. My parents are Nigerian immigrants and I always
00:40think about I always think about how crazy it is that my dad grew up in the village in Autunekiti
00:48and for some crazy reason he found his footing in Brooklyn. You know it's like
00:55out of all places that he could have gone like Houston, Atlanta. He had a lot of family members
01:00that went to different places and he ended up on Leffert's Place in Brooklyn and that was where
01:06I was raised. Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. So when I started my brand I feel like it was just kind
01:15of me pouring the different faucets of myself into this one house that I created called Against
01:21Medical Advice. No, I'm not literally against medical advice but it's figurative based on the
01:27idea that as a nurse I see a lot of other medical professionals who tell me their stories of their
01:33past lives of them being singers or designers or dancers or whatever they did and they would see
01:40the work that I would do and they think it's really good and really strong and kind of push me forward
01:44and I always wonder like what happened to the thing that you were doing and they always say like
01:49you know I became a doctor or I became a nurse and that's just the excuse. It's like
01:54as if that kind of erased everything else that they did in their lives
01:57and that's the idea behind Against Medical Advice. It's not me literally saying that I'm against it but
02:03me being against the idea that you have to conform to this one thing or this one career or one path
02:09and that's kind of why I do so many things because I do anything that I believe I can do.
02:15Like if I want to throw a party or start a new event series which I did with my friends
02:19called Beautiful Faces and it's been really successful. Our last four parties we've had
02:24like over a thousand tickets sold. We do them in Brooklyn and it's really cool because the crowd
02:30looks like us. The crowd is very comfortable. There's no dress codes. There's no really rules.
02:35We just want people to come as they are and have fun and it's been growing and growing.
02:39And then even the class like I said I made up a class I made the class out of the idea that there
02:45was no access. I didn't have the access. No one kind of really showed me how I was supposed to do it.
02:50Even after I became a nurse I kind of had the funding to get it done but I still had no idea
02:55where to go to get it done. And that frustrated me all the time because I was around a lot of the
03:01people who know who kind of know the industry or know where I should go but for some reason they
03:07weren't pointing me in the right direction. And as I got older and older and I was doing what I was
03:13doing and it grew I wanted to make sure that the next generation after me had somebody or a place
03:20that they can go to find the answers. And that's why I started the class. I was also going to apply
03:26for like I apply for a lot of grants just to put my name out there because people look at these
03:31applications like people are looking at them. People are reading your story. They're looking at your work.
03:36So I just apply for stuff just because even if I feel like I'm not ready for it I still apply
03:41because maybe two years later I'll apply again and they'll see how the work has developed.
03:45But I was looking over the criteria for the LVMH prize two years ago and it was so ironic to me that
03:55one of the requirements was that you had to go to fashion school. And at the time rest in peace
04:01Virgil but he was the creative director of LVMH menswear and he didn't go to fashion school.
04:07So I'm just like if you know if he's reached to me in my eyes one of the largest pillars like the
04:16largest places you can be in menswear without it why is this the criteria still to this day to get to
04:23that point? It doesn't make sense. That means the system is broken and it needs to be changed.
04:27So if it's broken and needs to be changed why aren't we assessing ways of how we can remediate
04:33this to make it easier for people you know? The reason why he was so special was because
04:38he was a faucet of he was just many things poured into one. It was hip-hop. It was basketball. It was
04:45music. It was all of these different visions and these different perspectives put into one
04:50brand which is what made it so strong made his ideas so like different than anyone else. And
04:56that's what I feel like I always tell my students it's so important to like really really channel
05:02yourself into your brand because then it's not really replaceable like people can't just easily
05:07copy it and even when they do people will know that they did. You know my stuff me being a nurse me
05:13being Nigerian me being raised in Brooklyn um me just loving street style and loving New York City
05:20style my brand Against Medical Advice is me pouring all of these things into that so you look at the
05:27designs and it's you know I kind of try to teach a lesson through the designs and that's the mission
05:31behind the brand. I want it to be this world that kind of combines the realms of community and
05:37education and knowledge and you know still the street because that's where I'm from like I grew
05:43up with really nothing you know I my parents like I said immigrated from Nigeria to Brooklyn um for the
05:51first like 12-13 years of my life we lived in a one-bedroom apartment. I have five siblings so it's
05:56like it's a lot of us in a small space until they bought a house when I was 12-13 but um that taught me
06:04a lot the way that I was raised taught me a lot and even if my parents weren't the most like open
06:11about my dreams to become a designer they definitely instilled a lot of values that as I continue to
06:17get older I've realized that I got this from you or I got this from my dad you know I got this from my
06:21mom um even shopping vintage and thrifting and stuff like I used to go on Goodwill trips with my dad
06:27as a kid um and that like still sticks with me now I shop on eBay all the time because of my dad
06:35you know I I like am okay with my mom hates used stuff but my dad is like he's like this is just new
06:41treasure you know and it doesn't bother me like growing up I always wanted to get used stuff because
06:46it was so much cheaper and I never understood why my mom was like don't buy this it's used it's dirty
06:51with somebody else's I'm like but it's $60 less and it barely has any like scratches on it it's like
06:57still new you know um sorry I'm getting off topic but yeah I feel like I feel like it's just you need
07:06to like find who you are and through that you can pour all of that into your brand which makes it so
07:11special and unique to yourself um I skipped two grades as well and I got my bachelor's of nursing
07:18at um the university at Buffalo I ended up being the youngest man to graduate from their program
07:23um at 20 years old and being a nurse that job itself I feel like I've gone through so many phases
07:32of my life that has taught me different things um I've been a nurse for four years uh this year is the
07:39first year where I'm like kind of just completely applying myself to my brand and my class and all the
07:44initiatives that I wanted to do because um as as everything was growing it was growing quickly
07:50but then it I always in the back of my mind used to think like you know what if I just did this
07:57like how fast could it grow if I literally just like gave it my all you know and I love being a nurse
08:04I love being a nurse but I will say the pandemic definitely did change the job it made it way different
08:10way way different um sometimes unsafe it was really hard and you know people always ask me how do I
08:17balance the two I sacrifice other things like sleep and like just being normal like honestly um I work
08:25night shifts so I work the night shifts three to four days a week and after my shifts I would go to
08:30the studio drop things off pick things up make edits like work on things um it was almost like a
08:39never-ending cycle like I would leave work at seven in the morning try to get to the studio before like
08:45eight thirty nine when my manufacturer would get there we'd have a meeting I'd run around pick some
08:50stuff up go back to her then go home I wouldn't get home to like twelve one take a shower eat try to go
08:59to sleep it's already almost three I have another shift at seven so like that's how life was for a while
09:06and it was really hard it was just really hard like I try to explain it to people and it's like
09:12there's no explaining it I just like sacrificed a lot of other stuff um and looking at where I am now
09:21it's still not even close to where I know I'm gonna be but it's interesting because all that sacrifice
09:29has like led up to these moments and even me just being here sitting and speaking to you all you guys
09:35which is amazing um but I feel like sometimes people take like their ability to just do stuff
09:43for granted like your ability just be like damn I'm just gonna do this thing and I just want to see
09:49what happens even with the class like me calling myself a professor and just like creating this
09:57curriculum and teaching it to the students um it was something that I just had the idea for
10:03and I just did it I was like all right I'm gonna rent a space um I rented a conference room I just
10:10like teased it on my Instagram and a bunch of people like really really wanted this resource and
10:15that's like I just kept realizing like wow people really need this thing um I taught three classes my
10:21first week that I did it and it filled up super fast it filled up within the week which was like 40 seats
10:27um and you know I wanted people who were serious so the class isn't like it's now it's 750 but when I
10:35initially started it was 550 um and you know 550 I filled up 36 seats in one week and I was like wow
10:44like people really really want this resource um through the class now I teach it at Adidas they allow me to
10:51host the class there they gave me a classroom there um which is really really cool um yeah shout
10:58out to Adidas like they're really cool they welcomed me and you know they just allowed me to allowed me
11:04the platform to teach whatever I wanted to you know they just thought that it was a really good
11:09initiative and um I'm happy to be there honestly sorry give me a second um but yeah like even like
11:19going to nursing school and applying all of these things together I feel like people
11:25I don't know I just feel like people take that for granted like there's so many things that you
11:30could do in your life and a lot of the times like society wants you to do this one thing it's like
11:36you're supposed to just go to school and do this and the reason I didn't study design in school is
11:40because I just feel like honestly I didn't need to I felt like I already had the idea of what I wanted
11:46to do and what I wanted my brand to be um and I've always loved the human body growing up I wanted
11:52to be an anesthesiologist like and then I realized that being a doctor is like 12 years of your life
11:57um and I was like I didn't really have that time um because I wanted to do some other stuff too
12:02but applying myself in that realm allowed me to create what I'm doing now like if I didn't go to
12:10nursing school I don't think I would have been designing the way I do now so all of these things
12:14kind of influenced one another and led to where I am now um
12:20so speaking on the hardships like starting my brand I initially started my brand I saved a lot
12:28of money working as a nurse and I just kept saving it and saving it until I felt like I had enough and
12:32I was ready to jump into it um a few minutes left damn the time just went I didn't like looked over
12:42that time is gone okay but um before I leave because I don't have much time left I do want to
12:46just give you you said talk about my show yeah I am having a show I'm having a fashion show on
12:50Wednesday it's my first runway I'm very excited I'm very excited um that's coming up on Wednesday
12:58I do want to leave you guys with the key take like just some key takeaways that I wrote down here
13:02um I don't you want you guys to take the city for granted if you're in New York this place is full
13:07of resources like so so many resources even like restaurants museums galleries don't take those
13:14places for granted us being in New York you're in the biggest showroom in the world we get the best
13:19clothes we have the best stores we actually have all of the stores you go to if you live in Detroit
13:23there's no Rick Owens store there you can't just go touch the clothes and you know experience that
13:28so don't take that for granted um the Whitney uh the Guggenheim all of these places they're places
13:35full of immense inspiration like you should just navigate the city and use it as your own resource
13:41uh the garment district um I just want to talk about the garment district because I think it's
13:46an amazing place and it needs to continue to thrive like sometimes these business people I'm hearing
13:51like oh you guys are struggling or having issues and I'm like you make clothes for the biggest of
13:56names like I'm like how are you even having issues it surprises me sometimes I'm just like wow I
14:01would never expect you to be struggling or having a problem with your business when you're working
14:05with like some of the biggest names in fashion because a lot of the clothes that you see on the
14:09runway are created here in New York and even me working in the garment district my brand's cool but like
14:16sometimes I look at these huge brands and I'm like wow we're working in the same space you know
14:20and I'm I'm just starting but you're 20 years in the game and I'm running into you
14:25like here in the same manufacturer so you don't take for granted what's available to you
14:30read books as well because books are not the information in books unless somebody scans it and
14:35put it online it's not online read books look inside those books even textbooks I get so much
14:41inspiration from everything that I do so like you just want to continuously keep nourishing your mind
14:48with things that will keep pushing you forward I wish I had more time honestly I like didn't know
14:53that the time was going to go that fast also do research like do as much research as you can if
15:01you don't have money to make your items or like you know manufacture or whatever it is you think
15:07that the money's holding you back do research because that will put you ahead of a lot of people
15:11who haven't read but just have the money to throw it at someone else to do it for them but you know the
15:16process now because you've researched it you've studied it that's really really important research is
15:21free learn the process watch videos feel fabrics just find new techniques because even when you
15:29don't have the money to do it you doing research is preparing for when that money comes you're ready
15:34to just do whatever it is that you plan for um what else can I say to you guys before I get off of
15:41here my time is my time up no yeah it is okay um thank you guys so much against medical advice
15:47you
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