Designer Profile 2023: Darasimi Adeyemo

I really enjoyed interviewing Simi especially since we are already friends. I learned a lot more about what inspires and drives him as an artist. Really looking forward to seeing his and all of the designs this Friday!

What are your experiences with being a new designer for the fashion show?

It's interesting. Usually, if I'm doing something I would draw from my past experiences, but this time I can't draw from my past experiences. I am making it up as I go and how to make things. A lot of it is drawing from experiences from things that I was already interested in and familiar with and that is the only thing I have to really fall back on.

How was the designer boot camp?

Bootcamp was great! It was the basics of how to bring an article of clothing together using patterns, sewing machines, and different tools.

What was your favorite part of the design process?

I wouldn't even say what was it because I am still deep in it right now, but the way I went about everything was through the roots of where I first saw clothes being made, so in the context of my parent's traditional clothing.

Anything that I do usually goes along with the idea of a story. I like to build stories and shit. So the next step is taking these inspirations and building a new world around that.

The biggest thing around my designs are the story and the characters surrounding them, and the idea is to present these designs as characters. It makes it more palatable to me.

Since you're really into world-building and making characters, would you say that's where your biggest design inspiration comes from?

Yea, I would say the inspiration for these designs come from traditional Nigerian clothing, but with elevated and different versions of them. Like I draw from Western influences and different stylistic influences that build into that story.

How so?

So I sent the picture of my parents getting married because I think that's where it all starts. I wanted to start my design career, journey, or whatever you can call it with things that are most familiar. Like I said I started with a story, but I also started with images of home.

My parent's wedding is really important to me (because you know it's my parents getting married haha). But it's also the fact that my parents introduced me to expression when it comes to clothes. As you can see in the picture they dressed very western, but when I grew up, there was a lot of focus on how you can express yourself through native wear and how that was a form of identity and a form of individualism.

When I look at this picture it's beautiful and opulent, but it's not essentially the same, and in a lot of ways what I'm doing with these designs is almost reviving that and reclaiming this picture and reclaiming the foundation of what I view design as.

And then it kinda became a lot more than that like I said it starts with a story and then is very involved in images of colonialism mainly through the groom and the exploitation of the bride. And these all things come together In a way that allowed me to tap into something I normally couldn’t express.

As I said, it's a wedding but you get ideas of how Western images of opulence and oppressing the feminine and the natural are parts of the Nigerian culture I grew up watching.

What are you looking forward to most about the show?

I want to see my friend's faces when they see the designs. I feel like it's going to be something that I fuck with, meaning they'll fuck with it too. And I’m looking forward to matching that.

What advice would you give to someone who was interested in designing next year, especially since you did DBC?

I would tell them that realistically you can start thinking about it even if you do not plan on doing DBC because anything like this appears a lot harder than it seems especially since you do not have a lot of information on what to do, and as soon as you start taking those steps to start it just becomes a matter of self-expression and being able to determine what you wear and what other people are wearing, and it's exciting to push out your own narrative and story and that's what I find cool about it. 

Just do it. (Nike).