In short
Fashion designer Adeju Thompson and his Lagos Space Programme (LSP) label, blending Yoruba motifs and Adire indigo-dyeing with rock-and-roll-inspired silhouettes for global markets, plus the challenges of being an African designer in Paris.
Guest backgrounds
Adeju Thompson is a British-Nigerian emerging designer; he previously won the 2023 Walmart Prize and designed the 2022 official Nigeria football jersey for Nike. Creative director Jenke Ahmed Taeyi is a stylist known for work with Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian. The episode also references other BBC “You’re Dead to Me” historians/comedians, but they’re not guests here.
Key claims
LSP is “African but modern,” using “post-adire” as a contemporary queer archive; Paris expectations and gatekeeping can be emotionally and structurally difficult.
Notable examples
Yoruba-leg suiting; Adire prints on trench coats/trousers/scarves; “Agbada” knitwear made in Italy; jersey text referencing “Bubu Ayayeola” and Velvet Underground lyrics; a Dolce & Gabbana meeting where a faux-fur coat was criticized as “not African.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIntroducing Adeju Thompson and Lagos Space Programme
0:57 to 4:28
Learn about designer Adeju Thompson and his innovative fashion label.
“I fell in love with his vision and his essence.”
Exploring the Fusion of Cultures in Fashion
4:28 to 6:01
Discover how Adeju blends African motifs with contemporary styles.
“culottes inspired by archival Yoruba workwear trousers over there.”
Adeju Thompson's Journey and Artistic Identity
6:01 to 7:48
Hear about Adeju's journey as a designer and his reflections on identity.
“And I think you have to sort of like do your time to really get that attention.”
The Challenges of an African Designer in Paris
7:48 to 10:40
Understand the struggles and aspirations of being an African designer abroad.
“that's more playful, that's more confident.”
Behind the Scenes at Lagos Space Programme HQ
10:40 to 14:01
Get an inside look at Adeju's workspace and upcoming collection.
“Next stop, a hot, humid Lagos that is beginning its rainy season.”
Innovative Design: The Evolution of Agbada
14:01 to 16:44
Explore how Adeju Thompson reimagines traditional Agbada using knitwear.
“What will make the LSP Agbada interesting?”
Post-Adire: A Modern Take on Traditional Techniques
16:44 to 17:54
Learn about the post-adire technique and its significance in contemporary fashion.
“It's best illustrated in his take on the traditional tie-dye technique he's just discussed.”
Balancing Cultural Identity and Global Fashion
17:54 to 18:59
Discover the tensions between African identity and global fashion expectations.
“That's really how I sort of like frame my work.”
Fusing Cultures: The Milan Experience
20:52 to 23:26
Delve into Adeju's experience presenting his collection to fashion icons in Milan.
“The setting this time was Milan and an audience with two of the industry's most recognisable names.”
Navigating the Complexities of African Fashion
23:26 to 27:52
Hear Adeju's thoughts on the challenges faced by African designers in the fashion world.
“He picks from the best of all and then makes a mix.”
Show all 11 chapters
Adeju's Resurgence: Pride in Lagos Space Programme
28:03 to 28:32
Adeju shares his renewed energy and pride in his fashion label's journey.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Adeju Thompson:This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
0:30Tayo Popoola:us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist, discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parrott. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts.
0:46Adeju Thompson:Thank you. Bye.
0:56Adeju Thompson:Hello and welcome to In The Studio. My name's Tayo Papula and in this episode I'll be following fashion designer Adeju Thompson, creator of the Lagos Space Programme label From Paris to Lagos and Back to Paris, as he prepares his exciting new line of clothing to show the world.
1:17Tayo Popoola:I fell in love with his vision and his essence. He picks from the best of all and then makes a mix. So what he presented is like received by all culture. He's very talented. He has a lot of things going on. I always look forward to what he has to offer every time.
1:36Adeju Thompson:Adeju Thompson won the 2023 Walmart Prize, the first African designer to do so. To the excitement of this British Nigerian specifically, he gained acclaim for his unique collaboration with Nike when he designed the 2022 official jersey for Nigeria's national football team. Lagos Space Program is very much a label on the rise. Adeju is also an emerging African designer trying to make a mark creatively and commercially in the fashion world but on his terms. Not always easy in an industry which has its own ideas of what African fashion should be. I went to meet him in Paris in January. My train was alive and full of colour, enormous suitcases and immaculately dressed people as London and the rest of the world travelled to Paris for the first fashion week of the year.
2:35Adeju Thompson:I caught up with the man himself after the show.
2:39Tayo Popoola:See, this is like a presentation, really. It's like showing the clothes to Paris, you know, buyers, clients, you know, So, stopwaters. I don't need to tell you it's about rock and roll. You can see through the clothes. You can see through the styling. You can see through the music, through the vibe. This is actually something that's different. There's something going on here.
2:54Adeju Thompson:Lagos Space Program is here as part of Sphere Paris Fashion Week, an initiative run by La Fédération de Haute Couture in Paris, whose mission it is to support emerging designers selected specifically for their creativity and development potential and then invite them to be part of the official calendar. As the band Spanish horses turn the Palais de Tokyo into an underground rock club, the models showcase a brilliant fusion of cultures. Garments that combine Adeju's signature Yoruba motifs with quintessential European outerwear styles. Creative director Jenke Ahmed Taeyi, a stylist famous for his own work with Beyonce and Kim Kardashian, is hugely inspired by his African heritage.
3:44Adeju Thompson:This is something he identifies and admires about Adeju Thompson.
3:49Tayo Popoola:I fell in love with his vision and his essence and it's been great being able to use his Nigerian heritage and putting that vision into clothes that can be appealing to a global market is really vital, you know, to show that, OK, we're part of this industry in such a grand way. Many times we've been behind, you know, in writing our own story, and I think he does it in such a superb way. To have something that is so African, but is absolutely so modern, and it's just captivating to me. And Adiju is definitely one of the great hopes for African fashion.
4:27Adeju Thompson:A red bomber jacket here, culottes inspired by archival Yoruba workwear trousers over there. Another common thread is LSP's signature Adire print, an ancient indigo dyeing technique. It features on the trench coats, the trousers, the scarves. Each item nods to the past while offering a glimpse of a new African design future. Rock and roll, but LSP style. Talk to me a little bit about some of the standout pieces for you in this collection.
5:00Tayo Popoola:Some of the clothing look, there is this amazing suiting, which is made of the traditional Yoruba legs. It was able to create a pattern that is so fresh and so captivating.
5:15Adeju Thompson:It could be Japanese, it could be Korean, it could be English, but it's so African. Is rock and roll an attitude or is it something that is reflected in the clothing?
5:26Tayo Popoola:Rock and roll is definitely an attitude, but it's also an emotion. Discovering this music was really an opportunity for me to really sort of discover myself. You know, I always felt like an outsider in Lagos. And through these bands, you know, I got to realize that a lot of the feelings I had weren't unique to me. There were so many people that felt them in the past. And through the collection, through the music, it was so profound. And I went to, like, encapsulate that vibe through how the clothes looked, the cuts, the fabrics, the silhouettes, you know. I went to, like, show that feeling of vulnerability in a way that felt very right to that rock and roll aesthetic.
6:00Tayo Popoola:I don't know if I've always been the center of attention. I think Paris is a very big market. And I think you have to sort of like do your time to really get that attention. But I think slowly but surely people are paying attention and it's really exciting. But it's nice, you know, I think consistency is very important in Paris. We need to also understand that there aren't a lot of African designers. You know, so I think it's my job to really sort of like honing on that idea, honing on that message, really sort of like show like, you know, while there's a very there's this predominant visual of african fashion being very robust and very loud there's also like a an african that's very vulnerable and very soft and that's where i came from i grew up sort of like bullied and never feeling so like i fit in and was through rock and roll music where i sort of like found myself and i get to like celebrate that so like
6:45Adeju Thompson:this is my african identity i love the fact that you're not that bothered about football but you created this iconic jersey for a country which is absolutely crazy about football exactly exactly
6:55Tayo Popoola:and it's really beautiful. And I guess through the jerseys, a lot of people go to find out about my work and find out about my Adiré research. So here, where I'm currently holding a new jersey for the collection, it has a lot of Yoruba text. At the back, it has Bubu Ayayeola and it's like Yoruba for Altimos parties, which is the Velvet Underground song. There they are again. I know, right? I'm sure you know that Nigeria has one of the biggest least markets in the world, you know, for the Owembe parties.
7:20Adeju Thompson:An Owembe party is a traditional Nigerian affair with great music, lavish lace outfits and incredible food, with dancing to match.
7:29Tayo Popoola:So I went to Baluga Market and I remember taking them to my studio and my team being like, what are you doing? Because they're so sparkly and shiny, because that's very not me. But I think you grow up feeling like an outsider, you're dressed in all black, and now I like shiny things. So the collection is about celebrating that sort of new side of myself that's more playful, that's more confident.
7:50Adeju Thompson:I mean, looking at this particular piece, I feel like I'm eight years old again at a menu party where everyone else is wearing this, the high life is playing, and I'm asleep in my dad's car next to a crate of Nigerian Guinness.
8:02Tayo Popoola:Exactly, exactly. It's very silly. But it's like, you know, having those Nigerian codes in the work is so important to me. It's what differentiates me from my other peers in the showroom right now.
8:10Adeju Thompson:I finally have to give Adeju back to the press, the well-wishers, and importantly, the international buyers. Paris has felt successful, and Adeju is excited for his return later in the year.
8:24Tayo Popoola:It should become patient because it's seen it all. This is Paris, this is Dat, this is the city of Margiela, this is the city of Galliano, this is the city of Dior. All these people came to show here and made huge statements, so you can't sort of like get a message across in two seasons. You need to come back and hone it again and again and again. My job is to really sort of like come here, show the work, come here again, show the work again, and really sort of get to that point where people get to understand that, okay, cool, this is from Africa. It's also vulnerable, it's also quite familiar and make up their minds about it.
8:52Tayo Popoola:I do feel like I have something very special to say and I think I have in my space here and I'm excited to see where it takes me.
8:59Adeju Thompson:I leave Paris and Adeju, excited to find out what he's planning for his big return to the city later in the year. But a month goes by and I don't hear a thing from him. I try to call a few times, get no answer. I email, no response. Then one day, out of the blue, he calls me.
9:17Tayo Popoola:If there's no context for, like, an African designer succeeding in Paris, then I'm literally, like, a pioneer.
9:24Adeju Thompson:His positive outlook from Paris has dissipated, and one response from a particular buyer has been hard to shake off emotionally. She was like, that's too much, and, like, walked out. Wow. He explains that, while showing her one particular outfit from the collection, some red trousers, she snaps at him.
9:41Tayo Popoola:It also makes you feel like, am I making the right decision? Am I meant to be here? It's really tough.
9:47Adeju Thompson:He goes on to explain how it's hard for a Nigerian designer who is not getting direct support, unlike some of his contemporaries in Paris in January.
9:56Tayo Popoola:In the middle of the frustration, I feel really inspired. But now I really like to double down.
10:02Adeju Thompson:Through the call, however, Adeju rallies and mentions a new mood board and a new energy he's found to come to Paris in June.
10:09Tayo Popoola:I want to see if we can finish the collection by nay, because I'm excited that we're going to do a presentation, a moment in Paris where we can make a statement.
10:19Adeju Thompson:I really hope that you continue. You know, you need to do this, right?
10:22Tayo Popoola:Yeah. It's hard, you know, and I was really down for a moment. With that being said, even when I came back from Nagos, I, you know, like, I'm going to be Paris again in June. Yeah. You know, I'm awesome, as a case that I am.
10:37Adeju Thompson:Right, I think I'm in the right place. I'm looking for Adeju. Next stop, a hot, humid Lagos that is beginning its rainy season. I've come to Lagos Space Programme HQ in the district of Surulere to meet Adeju and get closer to his designs, to understand his inspiration, his working practices and to learn about his next collection, which he'll be showing soon. Hello, sir. Thank you. Took a while to find you. Oh, well. The cab driver dropped me on the other side.
11:10Tayo Popoola:So we're currently in my working space, a space where, like, my ideas get to exist. And it's where, like, I just, like, get where my books are, which are my favorite things in the world. And normal day when we're working on the collection, we have a record player going on, and some of my favorite records. You know, I have, like, some Smiths here. The Velvet Underground at the Butter Clan in Paris. The Warhol, Feather Underground, the Arrow, Paul McCartney. David Bowie, Diamond Dogs album. I really just enjoy the art so much. This mutant David Bowie of himself, like half-dog, half-David Bowie. It's such a very radical image.
11:43Tayo Popoola:I just like having things like this in my space. It just gives me life, just looking at them, marinating in that world that I'm creating, having all my favorite things around me. And here are my books, you know, books around queer theory, some Audrey Law, some 18th century fashion, pre-colonial West African Nigerian architecture. When you're growing up, you know, you meet people that really inspire you and you're like, I want to be like that. I want to be this very global Eurobarman. It's the sort of intersections of all those things. And I like that the space embodies that idea.
12:16Adeju Thompson:On another wall, the current project he's working on. Black and white photos of women in traditional dress.
12:21Tayo Popoola:And I imagine this idea of Lagos where, like, this great flood or something happens and a huge portion of Lagos is underwater. How does life evolve 20 years after the Great Calamity? People have adopted this amphibious lifestyle and also become very much connected to their indigenous history and spirituality. So we think about ideas around Oshun devotion.
Read the full transcript
12:47Adeju Thompson:Oshun is a powerful deity in Yoruba religion, particularly revered for her association with beauty, fertility, and in this instance particularly, water and rivers. In the next room, piled high with clothing, sewing machines, and barely cooled by a solitary fan, I meet some of his assistants, who all seem very calm in the heat. I'm the only person struggling here.
13:11Tayo Popoola:Adeju is my son's friend, his best friend. And when he came back from England, I saw his drawings, and I was very impressed. So I started helping him to make out whatever he draws. Very strange to me. We persisted. We did.
13:29Adeju Thompson:So at first the idea is you enjoyed them creatively, but they were quite unusual for what you were used to.
13:35Tayo Popoola:Yes. He's very talented. He has a lot of things going on. I always look forward to what he has to offer every time.
13:42Adeju Thompson:And just moving to the back of the studio, what are these long tunics? Yeah, so these are Agbada's, like... The Agbada is the traditional outfit worn particularly by the Yoruba people. A Deju's Agbada, unsurprisingly, has a modern twist on a classic design.
13:58Tayo Popoola:Contraper design, I didn't want to make a traditional one because I could easily do that anywhere. What will make the LSP Agbada interesting? So the same company in Italy that designed the sweaters made the Agbada. Agbadas essentially are very much cotton, but we're making them in knitwear. So how do we retain a lot of those design details within knitwear? But yeah, it's like really this idea of like, you know, showing that design from the continent is constantly evolving. You don't have to be in Nigeria to wear this. You can see this in a store in Japan. I just want to buy it because it looks like a large poncho.
14:32Tayo Popoola:And then also, like, you look at it in Nigeria, it's like, has graces of nostalgia. Agbada has never been made into knitwear before. So it's that kind of, like, really interesting, rigorous research and really playing around with things that really inform the work that I do. And I'm very proud of it, especially, like, you know. It's nice to have, like, say, the work that I do now being collected in at least, like, you know, eight museums around the world.
14:52Adeju Thompson:You brought a few bits through from storage. can you tell me a little bit about what's on display here?
14:57Tayo Popoola:We have one of the Adiruwe blouses, pinstripe plaid sort of like suits that's all done in all Adiruwe. This whole idea of like this sort of like hand-drawn pinstripe suit, it really sort of like straddles both worlds quite interestingly and I, it's all done by hand by the way. Adiruwe is an in-shed dyeing technique originating from the Yorubas. It's very much this idea of like dyeing via resist. Historically, the artists will use cassava paste and will make the drawings, different sort of figures on the fabric, and then dye in organic indigo. So when you dye, the bits that have the cassava paste don't get dyed because that's the resist.
15:37Tayo Popoola:So it's an art form that has evolved over the decades. But I think for me, like I was saying earlier in the conversation, this idea of I'm a contemporary designer, so I'm not trying to replicate what someone did in the 1950s or the 1940s. I'm very curious about seeing what I can use a lot of my sort of like global sensibilities and how that can inform good design and that's what we do here. It's sort of like British Nigerian you know aristocrat he's always well dressed in the best well cut suit but also like I guess maybe what he did was like maybe he would buy fabrics and probably send it to Nigeria to get the Adria artwork done and then send it to his tailors in Savarou to make suits for him.
16:16Tayo Popoola:Was this sort of like this way of just like really imagining and building worlds and imagining how the person would dress, you know, I think that's really what informed the thing and trying to infuse that to bed something that's very distinctive and fresh. Indigenous and historical textile techniques, we'll approach it in a very modern and interesting way.
16:33Adeju Thompson:That duality again, a theme that runs through Adeju's work and one that befits a modern designer who has grown up in the UK as well as in Nigeria with influences that reflect his global outlook. It's best illustrated in his take on the traditional tie-dye technique he's just discussed. But with an LSP twist, it becomes post-adire, a term he himself coined back in 2018.
17:00Tayo Popoola:How does someone who likes the Stone Roses or David Bowie or Joy Division and Reese's Queer Theory, what does the adiree they do look like? It can be separate from who I am. it all fuses into itself so post adiru was a way for me to think about adiru in a manner that is sort of like grounded in my reality as someone who lives in 2025 and when i traveled and i met a lot of these masadares most of them in their 80s and 90s i was very curious of like finding like you know was there really this intentionality and they were like very much so it was very important for them to tell stories around whether it was a female Masada or her role as a woman in this very hyper-patriorical society.
17:49Tayo Popoola:This idea of Adore as a record, Adore as an archive was something that was very important to people and as an artist this idea of me being a queer person and I said okay cool, if this person in their 80s felt the responsibility to tell her life as a woman, I also feel like I can sort of like express myself as a queer person and think of Adiris as sort of like queer archive, drawing parallels with like queer semiotics in the 80s, the Haki Panki Code and this idea of like storytelling and dressing their code. That's really how I sort of like frame my work. So it's really about creating work that's very global and in conversation with the wider world.
18:27Adeju Thompson:This modern take on African fashion makes perfect sense to me as I sit here with Adeju. The questions of duality are ones that have framed my own life. so I can understand entirely his position and also empathise with his frustration at how his very African, very modern outlook is viewed within the traditional fashion industry. The perception from the outside, how does that impression that people have of your work exist with your own vision of it? And tell me a little bit about some of those creative and business tensions.
19:02Tayo Popoola:I think there's always this limited view and expectation of what African design is. I think when people sort of like close their eyes, you know, they think of like, you know, African fashion being very sort of like robust and bombastic and colourful and that's it. So I think when you have a brand like Lagos Peace Programme, really sort of like pushing people's expectation and understanding of what design is, I think people just don't really know how to like respond to that.
19:31Adeju Thompson:Another encounter with the fashion establishment provoked a completely opposite reaction for a Deju Thompson.
19:43Adeju Thompson:Ah, bike's sputtering on me. Nah, that's not what you want on a cross-country trip. Yeah, you're telling me. Looks like my journey ends here. Nah, mate, you ride with Geico Motorcycle Insurance and got their 24-7 emergency roadside service. They'll fix your bike right up. Where are you headed, anyways? Oh, I'm going to Chromehenge. You ever been? Nah, can't say I have.
20:02Tayo Popoola:It's like Stonehenge, but shiny. It feels good to ride with help. It feels good to GEICO. Emergency roadside service is optional coverage. Hello, Greg Jenner here. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the BBC comedy show that takes history seriously. Every episode, I pair up a top historian with a fantastic comedian, and we have a lovely, funny, fascinating chat about a different subject from world history. And in this new series, we're beginning with an epic voyage through the story of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. And that's with Kyle Smith-Bino joining us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist, discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch.
20:42Tayo Popoola:We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parrott. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts.
20:51Adeju Thompson:Thank you. Bye.
20:56Adeju Thompson:The setting this time was Milan and an audience with two of the industry's most recognisable names.
21:03Tayo Popoola:I got flown to meet Dolce & Gabbana and it was really exciting. So I took my collection that was called Invitation to Ujudeoba and the Invitation to Ujudeoba collection was formed by this British-Nigerian aristocrat person and I thought about this idea of like fusing these two worlds, this sort of like natural synthesis. And in the collection I had this beautiful sort of like faux fur coat that was made from sort of like mohair, silk and wool. It was sourced from a very esteemed Italian sort of like, you know, textile company. And I think Stefano recognized it and was like, oh, this is like Xenia Boraffa, the Sephora coat, like it's not African.
21:43Tayo Popoola:Why do you get to tell me what is African? Even though I was so inspired to be in that space, you know, I think I expected more from a hero.
21:52Adeju Thompson:So, too African and not African enough. all in one career.
21:57Tayo Popoola:As a global citizen, someone living in the modern world, don't I get to explore my creativity? And I think it's something that speaks to a larger frustration around a limited view of what African is and what African designers can be.
22:13Adeju Thompson:Another source of inspiration for Odeju involves a short day trip out to the city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, 80 or so miles and one train journey from Lagos.
22:25Tayo Popoola:I think going to that building was the first time I realised what design truly could be, because I could see two worlds fusing together, making so much sense.
22:38Adeju Thompson:After an energetic taxi ride from the train station and a stop-off for some amala and a gussi soup, we arrive at the calm of the chapel and meet our guide, Father Francis.
22:50Tayo Popoola:Dominican chapel is a unique space. It's a place where a lot of people catalyze their creative interests. The unicity of it is very important because every element here tells a story, but the chapel is the crowning of the work. It's also important that we don't begin to reduce the to a particular ethnic flavor. He is, well, we can say culturally Igbo, but this building is not Igbo building. It's neither a Yoruba building and neither a northern building. He picks from the best of all and then makes a mix. He's very enthused with the issue of picking what is from the ground. so he would not want to pick ingredients for his construction from afar, meaning that the materials were sourced within.
23:49Tayo Popoola:So one of the foreign media said it's a building from the soil, so it's actually indigenous. Sounds familiar, right? Yeah, exactly. I love it so much because it really put my practice into work. I could see it come to life, this idea of design very much rooted in context. You travel around the world and you see a lot of architecture that's inspired by where it comes from. So they come to Dominican Chapel and it's inspired by Yoruba history and southwest Nigerian history. And you can see that it's been a living, breathing thing. This idea of history and modernism in conversation, I think it's really wonderful.
24:23Tayo Popoola:We're part of this global community and we're not in a vacuum. And I think great design is always in conversation.
24:30Adeju Thompson:Local, but with a global outlook. Art with utility. And artistic work with so much real life. The perfect way to create.
24:44Adeju Thompson:I'm about to ask how the designs for the new clothes are looking when Adeju drops a bombshell. After some serious thought, he won't be showing in Paris this June after all. Through my conversations with him over the last few months, it's perhaps not a complete surprise, but I can tell it's a decision he's not taken lightly. Paris is a place he loves and an important part of the fashion calendar, but it's also important for him to develop his label in his own way. On my final day in Lagos, we sat down again back in his studio to discuss his reasoning.
25:22Tayo Popoola:It's been a very tough decision because I love what I do and I felt like being in Paris was the best way I sort of like free myself within where I felt like my world could take me to. And like, you know, you're in Paris, you know, in January, I met the president of Chanel, met the minister of culture, and you meet all these interesting people. And, you know, in those moments, these first connections, it's sort of like a seed in someone's mind. That's how networking goes. So, like, not being part of that sort of like makes me feel like I'm denying myself something. But the reality is that it just sort of like seemed to me like it's just a very hard system to operate.
25:56Tayo Popoola:It's just not designed for African designers. But I want to really take on a more Nigerian-focused creative practice. If I'm an independent designer and I'm showing in Lagos and I'm presenting my work from here to the wider world, no one can tell me it's still African. I'm in Africa. And I can still be as radical and as interesting as I want to be, but I can control that. And I can navigate that because I can see in Africa that it is possible to succeed. And I think it speaks to a larger issue. around what we are sort of like black creatives face, whether it's around how we create. I want to be able to explore what I want to explore, how I want to explore it.
26:37Tayo Popoola:Because I think what I've realized in the world is that I think the world understands power and money. And I think if you don't operate from a place of power, it's very hard for you to convince people. And I think what I want to do now is sort of like go back home and come from a place of power and success so I've got to show that this narrative that I'm building can be successful and we have a real chance to thrive. Bringing back into the continent, back into Nigeria, fostering the huge robust market we have here, selling the work from Nigeria to the wider world, selling that story to the wider world and growing from there.
27:11Tayo Popoola:And then when we get to the point where we're coming from a place of strength, we can go back to navigate that space. It's a great space, brought so much great design, but I just think that there's so much that was working against me And I think it speaks a lot to the fact that you don't see a lot of African designers showing in Paris. I want to go back to where I am and I want to fix, make do with what I have and grow my business in a very organic way. And sort of like work with what I have and take it out to the wider world.
27:39Adeju Thompson:Adeju Thompson has shone a light on the difficulties that emerging designers from a non-traditional background face. there doesn't seem to be an issue with the clothes which are dynamic daring brilliant utilitarian celebrated so why is there a question mark in some quarters because of who it's coming from or where it comes from especially when that doesn't add up to preconceived ideas Adeju seems to have found his energy and enthusiasm again as his recent flurry of social media posts confirm showing just how proud he is of his label and how far it's come and one thing is for sure the creativity won't stop and lagos space program one way or another will take its work from africa to the world lagos space program was written and produced by me tayo papula for spirit land creative our executive producer was joe haddo
28:49Tayo Popoola:The End
29:09Tayo Popoola:discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parrott. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts.
29:22Adeju Thompson:Thank you. Bye.
From the publisher
Adeju Thompson, the founder and creative director behind the Nigerian fashion label Lagos Space Programme, attempts to establish the label on the global fashion scene. Lagos Space Programme blends Yoruba heritage (notably Adire dyeing) with queer and futurist aesthetics, taking inspiration from Lou Reed, traditional Ife sculptures, and the photography of Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Robert Mapplethorpe. Thompson talks about his dedication to slow fashion, gender-fluid creations, and detailed artisan craftsmanship, blending traditional techniques with contemporary designs. Tayo Popoola follows Thompson to Paris where he unveils his collection, based on the idea of "rock'n'roll consciousness". We then join him at his studio in Surulere, Lagos where he discusses his new designs for 25/26.
