EMBRACING THE UNHINGED – LOOKING INTO THE WORLD OF TEGA AKINOLA

A bright grin and smiling eyes rounded by black glasses pop up on my screen with a soft ‘Hello.’ Tega Akinola is a young, pioneering craftswoman redefining the measures of accessories and sneakers. Despite having long been on the radar, it’s only in recent years she’s been getting her flowers. 

The British-Nigerian, Northampton native warms at the opportunity to begin with expressing how pivotal her family have been to her career. “When it comes to the clothing, I’m not the greatest so I get my mom’s help for the technical side,” she said. “My mum is a seamstress, and my family’s very creative, so I’ve always been around it, and I grew up in a creative household, [where we were] encouraged to draw and make things.” From there, she’d begin experimenting more, so much so that it’d become a ‘side hustle’. “I started putting it out there, and that’s how the passion developed,” she said.

Eventually, things began to take off, and suddenly, she understood why “people say don’t make your passion your job.” She elaborates, “When it was a side hustle, it was more enjoyable in the sense that it wasn’t as serious. It’s less enjoyable in a certain aspect but it also makes me more disciplined, want to learn more, and do more with what I do now.” And there began the forming of what is now a legitimate business, all in her name.

When we talk, it’s Wimbledon season – although the weather has been slow to reflect that – and she eagerly discusses how even just keeping up with the games has already provided so much creative inspiration, alongside the confession: “I tried playing tennis. It’s so difficult. It’s very technical.” And yes, it is, but so is she.

With her success so far and near enough impeccable craftsmanship, you’d never have guessed that what she studied – and finished fairly recently – massively juxtaposed her current role. Tega studied Sport and Exercise Psychology at Loughborough University for three years, though she kept her love for fashion, both culturally and practically, close. “The core psychological part of my degree actually influenced me in a lot of ways because we learned a lot about brain and behaviour and people’s attitudes to things, so we had some modules like social psychology and consumer psychology,” she said. “We didn’t learn colour psychology in this degree, but that’s obviously something that’s linked with how people perceive colours and the personalities they assigned to them.” Alas, this is one of the ways we see more clearly how sports psychology was able to influence her career now – citing her love for sportspersons from Serena Williams to William Saliba (she’s a Gunner, thankfully) to Dina Asher-Smith.

Her eye-catching and honestly thought-provoking designs have plastered our explore pages for a while now, and each time it’s unlike the previous making. A personal favourite is the white cable tie heel, formed from exactly that – faulty white cables – and she laughs ironically at them. “It’s funny that my most successful stuff has been the conceptual stuff,” she said. “But [that’s because] you don’t have to worry about further cuts in functionality.” 

This aspect, in particular, touches on a prized part of her creative process. With functionality at her core and focus, she finds herself spurred on by the most uncanny of things when it comes to garment construction. “One of my weird influences is mechanical stuff and how things operate,” she explains. “So, for example, I’m very interested in pockets and how they’re incorporated into clothing and the different types and forms of them. I even get inspiration from different kinds of mechanical operations, like hinges.” These are features that, when combined with clothing, can require a sharp eye for detail and a careful hand to execute, and luckily, the 24-year-old designer holds both. That, in addition, to her (perhaps largely homegrown) creative intuition, provides a stable foundation for Tega to continue to build off of. 

“You have to be intuitive in a way your audience likes,” she shares. “When I made the Nike footwear concept with the pocket on the toe, I didn’t test the stash pockets before, but this was a different sort of style because it was like a ballerina flat which is trending, so people are going to recognise that silhouette but I’m going to put my spin on it with the pocket. Sometimes there is an intuition where you think something’s going to do well, and you have to trust it enough to put it out there.”

It’s no surprise, then, that her talents rightfully earned her the opportunity to collaborate with Nike earlier this year in March for their Well Festival, as well as a re-designed collection called ‘Recreation’ for their Westfield White City store. In a session provided alongside the line, she nurtured the imaginations and crafty hands of people who had given up their time to reinvent how sneakers and accessories could marry physically and become symbols of something greater. Guests were tasked with designing and creating bags for water bottles from upcycled or recycled clothes, courtesy of the sportswear conglomerate. For the actual collection, she presented both apparel and accessories, with a greater quantity of the latter, composed from old Nike garments and materials. The outcome was a masterclass in reworking and obviously went down a treat. It also highlights the desire for a more stripped-back approach from consumers while maintaining high quality – which is something Tega backs completely.

It came at the perfect time, seemingly. “Nike was a dream collaboration, and my first one, but it was so needed,” she said. I was thinking about, ‘Okay, how can I scale what I’m doing and practise on a bigger level?’ I was given a lot of responsibility and freedom to design and make what I wanted. It made me learn so much about the industry that I could take forward for my business.” 

She reminisces on her career ascension in just a few short years and how her style has changed even simply. “When you’re a teenager, you’re more interested in brands and logos. Back then, I wanted to get into superstars, I wanted to get Nike, whatever, whatever,” she said. “Now, a lot of my style takes inspiration from vintage pieces. I love going to the [thrift] shops, finding hidden gems, seeking out things and incorporating them into my outfit. It’s less about brands and more about, obviously, the quality, the longevity of the product, and even its story.” Much of this alludes directly to the work she’s creating and the stories they tell – ones that nod to her past and honour her influences but make room for more colour, whether literally or metaphorically, and a future for design with sustainability at the forefront. “Sustainability can conflict with profit, but it really should be the norm,” she said.

When asked if the opportunity arose to make her own shoe or sneaker, she disclosed: “I really like fusions of different styles of design, something futuristic with something traditional like that. So, we’ll see.” We, rather excitedly, start talking about our favourite trainer silhouettes, in which the Nike Air Adjust Force, in collaboration with Ambush’s Yoon Ahn, the Nike x Comme Des Garçons Carnivores and the Nike Air Force 1 Mid (of course) come up as the top forerunners – clearly, a young woman with great taste. “I love velcro straps,” she revealed. “My future design has to have a really fun element, like a strap or a hidden pocket or something like that, incorporated.” 

As creatives, we tend to feel like we’ve hardly achieved anything – and when introverted, even more so – but giving ourselves praise for even the ‘smallest’ of wins, as Tega mentions, matters. “I have to stop and realise that, actually, I have achieved quite a lot more than I thought I would have in my personal development journey – more than I would have a couple of years ago. So I guess, [I have to] stop, think and look at it from an objective perspective, you know? Pat myself on the back and then start thinking about the next thing. I’ve got a lot of crazy ideas, I just need to start making concrete plans.”

And what that next thing is? Well, she certainly has a few tricks and scraps up her sleeve.

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CREDITS

Talent : @tegaakinola | Creative Direction : @shenellkennedy | Art Direction : @___dalini | Photography : @shenellkennedy | Set Design : @___dalini | Gaffer : @lightingbyjoe | Styling : @diiamondheartt | Styling Assistants : @zeeuntitled @belladonnie.0f.badness | Makeup : @anushasolanki | Hair : @bywilloux | Videographer : @ibrahimkamara | Interview : @aswanrosamarie

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