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WOMEN WHO WIN: TOLU COKER

Natalie Hughes meets the award-winning British-Nigerian designer

This article was originally published on marieclaire.co.uk

Photography by Phill Taylor


Tolu Coker is a girl after our own hearts; as we set up for our Women Who Win shoot, the British-Nigerian designer shows us a recent holy-grail fashion purchase – a pair of Maison Margiela Tabi boots, found on rare discount, the last pair in her size – and more importantly, tells us the story of how she found them. It's a tale with peaks and troughs – and a fairytale ending. We all listen, enthralled.


Because Coker is both (award-winning) designer and storyteller, interested as much in the stories fashion can tell as the intricacies of the craft itself. Community, craftspersonship and culture are central to her eponymous brand, which explores the complexities of diasporic Black identity and innovations in sustainability through beautifully – and meticulously – executed tailoring.


A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Coker set up her namesake brand in 2018 after stints at JW Anderson, Celine and Maison Margiela, and has since won a whole host of accolades, including the British Fashion Council's NEWGEN Award, and inclusions in various 30 under 30 lists (Forbes, Drapers, et al). Oh, and as it happens, she also has great taste in shoes.


Here, Coker tells Natalie Hughes about making change, rising to challenges and what success means to her.


I started my brand in 2018 after graduating from Central Saint Martins. I was working in the industry as a womenswear denim designer and realised that I didn't love the pace of fast fashion, nor the approach. I felt that fashion could hold a much more meaningful position, and have more impact on community and society, since it's so closely linked to how we identify.


People had been showing interest in my brand since my graduate collection. I finally left my job at the brand I was working for in Spain and decided to focus on building out my own brand that represented the values that I wanted to see more of in the industry. That’s how Tolu Coker came about.


The thing I love the most about being a designer is the freedom of expression. Some conversations are difficult to have with words but you can put it in your art and your work and it’s so close to home because clothes are like a second skin, so it’s a really special space to use to enact change.


I've had to pivot and change but my values have remained the same. As a designer, you have to think about how to survive and sustain and maintain, especially in ever-changing tides. My approach to business has also evolved as I have evolved, learned, made a lot of mistakes, and have had to overcome a lot of challenges. I think it's important that a business does pivot and change. It’s been an evolution, and it's still evolving.


Representing the African diaspora is really significant, especially in this day and age because one, we have technology and two, we’re much more empowered to be able to tell our own stories. Africa as a continent is rich with so many different cultures and historically it’s been very homogenised; when you strip people of their difference, you strip them of their dignity.


I think being able to represent just one of many stories across the African diaspora is really significant. We haven’t been able to document our things in the same way – a lot of our histories are oral – so being able to do it through clothes and fashion is really special to me.


My proudest moment so far is the first time I did a show and my mum came. Sometimes your parents see you working on stuff but they don’t really fully understand it. So the first time my mum saw my first fashion show, that was a really proud moment.


The biggest challenge for young designers is money. You have to be really resourceful because you don’t have a lot at your disposal. Also, as a designer, you’re both an artist and a business person so it’s difficult to know where the compromise and balance is sometimes.


It’s impossible for me to pick a favourite Tolu Coker piece. Each piece has such a significant story. It’s like asking me, "Is there a favourite story?" And the answer to that is no. I will say that there are pieces in this collection that represent a shift, an evolution. There's one top in particular that reminds me so much of my mother, my grandmothers and the matriarchs in my family. It is draped and wrapped, and it's very chic and sexy at the same time. I see so many different women who have been impactful in my life in that silhouette. It’s also a piece that has used the fewest pattern pieces I've ever used in a garment. It’s a special piece.


In terms of work/life balance, there's not much because you are consistently pouring so much of yourself into [the business]. As a young designer, it's so difficult. A lot of the time people don't realise that you are the business. There aren't multiple different departments, so you're wearing so many different hats.


One of the most significant things, especially in this time as a young designer, is to be able to maintain and to survive. Even before you're thinking about growth and profit and what's next, you're thinking about how to be able to hold and occupy space. A designer like me, coming from my sort of background, is often an anomaly in this space.


One of the best pieces of advice that I've received was from a favourite university tutor, who said to me, "Tolu, don't be so grateful. You deserve to be here." On the one hand, I think gratitude is so significant and I am so grateful for all the opportunities I have and the journey that I've been on, but it also was a reminder to value what it is that you have and value what it is that you are bringing to the table.


The bravest thing I've ever done is start a fashion business!


One of the ways I'm able to celebrate success is to be around those that have been such a significant part of contributing to it, just breaking bread with my friends. A lot of my closest friends also are people who work across so many different functions that I do in carrying out the business. It really is a communal effort.


I'm always looking for recuperation. I love to take any opportunity that I get to just slow down and be in nature. There aren't many moments like that, but that is one of my favourite things to do when I get the opportunity, even if it is in the midst of travelling for work.


My mantra this season is ‘faith over fear’. There's a lot of uncertainty. There are a lot of challenges. Sometimes you don't know if you're going to be able to pull through on things, but I think you have to have relentless – and in some instances quite insane – faith or vision, or delusion maybe, in your capabilities and just commit to it and just go through it.


My style advice is don’t follow trends. They change so quickly and I think it’s important to find what works for you. And invest in a wardrobe that is transeasonal, that you can imagine passing down to your kids or your friends’ kids. Invest in things of value that you feel a connection to.


I'd love to see many more women in positions of authority. When I say authority, I mean where they're able to really have impact and visibility. In the industry, there are very, very few women who are holding creative directorship at key maisons, and I think that's really important for people to see and for people to experience.


I really want to see women continue to be empowered, for women's stories to be reflected. It’s really important that we value all sorts of different women – women as mothers, women as wives, women as independent businesspeople, as moguls. I'd love to see that change.


I’d never compromise on my values. It's really tough because as a young brand, you rely on support, sponsorships and partnerships, so it can be difficult. Offers might seem tempting, and there is the fear of what the repercussions of saying no may be. I think it's important to have values that you really believe in and to stick to them. My ‘why’ – that's something that I never want to compromise on.


My superpower is that I'm probably somewhat delusional, and so if I envision something, I'm going to relentlessly work towards that until I can see that vision manifested.


But above everything, I think my superpower is God. Believing in a higher power, in a higher meaning, a higher reason, a higher ‘why’ is so significant to me because I think everything else is ever-changing, ever-testing, ever-challenging. Having something bigger than me that I'm rooted in really drives and motivates the ‘why’ behind what I do.


Success for me isn't all just about being commercially successful or finance. It’s important to be able to have the freedom to create but my bigger ‘why’ is really rooted in people, in equity and in the change that I really want to see.

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