Sketch To Wardrobe: BLOKE’s Faith Oluwajimi Is Our Fave New Menswear Designer

In October last year, the luxury fashion retail house and concept store, ALÁRA held Emerge ALÁRA — a competition for young creatives in the fields of art, cuisine design and fashion.

The competition for the field of fashion held alongside October’s fashion week festivities, and named one of our favourite designers from Friday’s runway, Faith Oluwajimi — the brains behind BLOKE — as its winner.

On a quest for how best to express himself, Oluwajimi first embarked on designing as a medium to divulge his views on Africa and the world at large — thus was the inception of his menswear brand, BLOKE.

Incorporating a poem, written by spoken word poet, Verse Writer into his SS19 collection, Faith Oluwajimi has never veered from his brand’s ethos, with BLOKE constantly pushing out innovative designs that truly reflect the artist.

As one of the few African fashion labels daring enough to make knitwear the backbone of its production — blatantly ignoring, and thereby deconstructing, gender assumptions — BLOKE is certainly invested in conversations beyond the sartorial.

In an interview with Konbini, Oluwajimi tells us that he is inspired by the happenings in the world around him, but ultimately:

“They all draw back to my incessant urge of contributing to the ever-changing landscape of contemporary culture.”

Given that the brand is so deeply rooted in the socially conscious mind of its creator, a conversation with Faith Oluwajimi is like a conversation with BLOKE. So, we at Konbini ventured into the dynamic world of BLOKE, as its creative director took us through the brand’s most definitive pieces.