Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal is using fashion to challenge racial and gender stereotypes. Speaking to Dezeen, he says he wants his label Orange Culture to kickstart a global movement for diversity.
At the age of just 28, Oke-Lawal has already launched several acclaimed menswear collections. With names like School of Rejects and Quirks Invasion, each range is designed to push the boundaries of what is traditionally considered masculine.
"I feel like people are afraid to talk about toxic masculinity because it makes them question who they are," he said.
"It is embedded in our society that men are supposed to do a specific thing," he continued. "These stereotypes have affected men in so many ways, generationally. It's a conversation we need to have." Orange Culture "to be a movement"
Oke-Lawal was one of the speakers at this year's Design Indaba conference in Cape Town.
He told the audience how he had dreamed of being a fashion designer since he was a boy, but was pressured by his family into a more traditional career in finance.
Oke-Lawal describes his label Orange Culture as a movement
He managed to squeeze fashion internships in around his day job in a bank until finally he felt confident enough to take a leap of faith, launching Orange Culture in 2011. His mission for the brand from the start was to show young men not to be afraid to express themselves.
"I wanted the Orange Culture brand to be a movement that celebrated t...