For Nigerian designer Dimeji Ilori textile waste provides a veritable treasure trove for his fabulous sartorial creations.
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00:00From trash to treasure, from junk to jacket, from waste to waistband,
00:08whatever Dimeji Ilo refines, he turns into something swish.
00:13Let's check out how and why this Nigerian fights textile waste.
00:22A new creation is underway.
00:24With an imaginative mind, Dimeji is working on his next collection.
00:29Before we learn how exactly he reuses thrift and waste,
00:33we ask him if he has always seen himself as a fashion designer.
00:38The dream growing up was to finish school and become an engineer.
00:42So I studied physics in the uni.
00:44And after uni, there was this phase where you always try to figure out exactly what you want to do.
00:51And I stumbled on fashion again.
00:53Even though growing up, I grew up around lots of fashion.
00:56My grandmother used to be a weaver back there.
00:59And my mom also was interested while doing her 95 job.
01:03So I think there was this whole atmosphere of fashion going on.
01:08And I was assimilating those subconsciously.
01:11Born in northwestern Nigeria, Dimeji's childhood was no different from that of his peers.
01:17Except for the environment.
01:20On the one hand, there were artisans who told their stories through pottery, weaving, and other crafts.
01:28On the other hand, there was a polluted environment with landfills full of garbage.
01:34Not forgetting his parents.
01:36How did this shape Dimeji?
01:38Growing up, basically, I wore lots of my brother's and my uncle's.
01:43You know, it's like an African thing where it passes down from brothers to the younger ones.
01:49And obviously, my brother was bigger than me.
01:52So I had to find a way to make those clothes into my size.
01:56And there was the same machine in the house.
01:58So I basically take those clothes, put them on the same machine.
02:01Do the whole slim fit and all of those things.
02:05Mix match the designs and the fabrics together to just create my own type of clothes.
02:11Knowing that his parents would not approve of an artistic career, Dimeji studied physics.
02:17How did this help him pursue his current passion of reviving old clothes and textiles?
02:24I wouldn't say physics is really applicable in that.
02:28But there's a way I've been able to manoeuvre it and make it correlate with what I do.
02:35Which comes in the pattern drafting, working with the angles and the template.
02:40Cutting up the fabric, the way the fabric goes on the machine.
02:44We make use of the counts per seconds, watch the mechanics of the old machine.
02:48And there's this new adventure we're going on where we're trying to re-imagine and create new mechanical traditional looms.
02:57Where we take the old vintage looms that are done by hand and physical labour.
03:02And we introduce it to the new modern technique.
03:05We reduce the workload, the labour hour and all of those things.
03:10Dimeji started an experiment to develop a different view of the world.
03:15As the continent's most populous country, Nigeria is a melting pot of cultures.
03:20Where over 300 tribes and more than 500 languages are spoken.
03:26What if he could simply communicate through fashion?
03:30That's why Dimeji founded his own fashion label, Swish.
03:34Which now enjoys a good reputation on the Nigerian fashion scene.
03:39Was he surprised by its growth?
03:41Surprisingly, the acceptance of the first fashion show was amazing.
03:47And a lot of people were surprised because most people didn't know I could design clothes.
03:51So friends and family seeing all of that was really amazing.
03:55Today, Dimeji is a constant show at fashion events in Lagos, the country's commercial capital.
04:02Is his secret that he combines art with helping the environment?
04:06What makes our design really unique is because we draw inspiration from those pre-colonial African elements.
04:13The tradition, the heritage, the craftsmanship and the host, the spirituality and the community.
04:20Bringing back all of these old forgotten elements also helps in bringing back an old forgotten culture among the people.
04:27This makes us proud as Africans.
04:31In Lagos, over 13,000 tons of waste from textile and fashion industry are disposed every day.
04:38Dimeji's sustainable approach interweaves past and present.
04:43What is Dimeji's message?
04:45Does he simply want to make retro fashion?
04:48Or is it about more than making this scattered fabric presentable?
04:55Many years ago, we hoped to have changed the narrative of what the global world understands as African fashion.
05:02We hope to have bridged that gap between traditional craftsmanship, African traditional craftsmanship and what modern fashion is.
05:10And at the end of the day, we hope to bring some of our weavers out of poverty
05:16because the weavers, the local weavers and the trip market sellers that we use are down, down, down, down the food chain.
05:24So hopefully we hope to bring some of those people out of those spaces and create an amazing industry, African fashion industry out of this.
05:33To grow Swish beyond Nigeria, Dimeji will continue to focus on protecting the environment from fashion waste
05:40and providing sustainable inspiration to creatives in the fashion industry.
05:46Swish.