For Nigerian-American, Brooklyn-based sisters Darlene and Lizzy Okpo of fashion line William Okpo, it was their many trips to Nigeria that inspired them to start their brand.
Darlene: Our dad came from Nigeria to New York in 1976, and our mom in 1980. They married here. They lived in the Bronx and then moved to Staten Island, where we grew up.
Lizzy: Every few years we visit Nigeria with our parents. Our dad's father had 44 kids, and five wives. Everyone's our uncle. During a trip there in 2008, we spent two weeks going from house to house, eating, drinking, eating, drinking.
When we visited my dad's family's house, there was a goat tied to a tree. And I was like, "Ohhh this must be the family goat," I thought it was our family pet. A week later, that goat was no longer there. In the back of the house, I saw our cousins burning this animal, burning this skin, and I asked, "Is that the same family goat?!" And they just laughed, and told me I couldn't be taking this goat seriously. And then we were in the living room and my dad was eating soup. And in Nigeria, everyone sits around the table and eats out of one bowl. He told me to come and eat with him... and it turns out he was eating the goat. I was so heartbroken.
When we went this past March, we were there for a fashion show, for work. Darlene and I said, "Mom and Dad, if you ever tell our family we are traveling there again, we're going to cry." All our cousins were knocking at the door of our hotel. Our cousins were sleeping in our room and it was fine, but after a while we had to run and do our show!
Darlene: When we visit Lagos, a city in Nigeria, our cousins are always taking us to the clubs. The clubs over there are better than American clubs; they actually dance and take it seriously. The dancing over there is insane. They make up moves. When we were there the last time, apparently Bobby Brown was in a club. The clubs are in houses--It's so dope. For shopping, I always go to this market, it's called Lekki and it is the best thing.
Lizzy: It's like Chinatown, but you're getting real leather stuff, real reptile-skin wallets, cool gold and brass things, everything, everything.
Darlene: I love handbags, and on my last trip I bought two, a book bag and a weekend bag. Anytime I wear the book bag people go crazy. As designers, Nigeria is very inspiring, especially the craftsmanship over there. We got inspired to start our line after our trip in 2008.
Lizzy: We'd been talking about starting a line forever. And on the way home, we were on the plane for hours, and I was sketching things, and I told Darlene, "It's time. What's stopping us?" It was really seeing the people there, and their style. It would be 95 degrees, humid, and guys were wearing bubble fur vests just to look fashionable. Everyone there had to be posted. Everyone thinks, oh, Nigeria, they're third world, they don't have any fashion sense. But no, they do, and then they come here. We named the line after our father. We looked back at these photos of him when he first came to America, and he was so fly. His outfits were on point. Our dad to this day spends two hours ironing his clothes. He's very stern with his outfits. Everyone who's inspired by African fashion tends to do those same triangles and crazy prints. If you see our parents dress up, they're not wearing that. They're wearing different embroidered fabrics. The fashion there goes beyond that. There are so many different cloths and textures.
Darlene: We don't use "typical" African prints; being Nigerian-American designers, we don't need to design that stuff. I love how the men there wear these '70s-style fitted jeans and simple polo shirts. The style there is natural and effortless.
Photographs by the Okpos
