By Christy Anyanwu
Bola Obileye is one person you look at twice, thrice and many times because of her unique and interesting personality.
She is more than a box standard influencer, she is a fashion trail blazer, a TV chef and founder of a Fashion brand @totelondoner; food and drinks brand @jitterbug and culture curator in London, England, where she is based, and her followers on social media are always looking out for what next she’s up to in the fashion world.
Talking to Sunday Sun in London recently, she opened up about herself and more.
How does your husband feel about your activities on Instagram and social media?
Trust me, whatever you see on Instagram, just know it’s one per cent of my life. So, for him, it’s nothing. When people ask that, I’m always like, what did he see? It’s one per cent. I post only a very little part of my life. Sometimes, I wonder that I must be doing so much, if just one per cent is making people feel this way. Ask my husband that. Sometimes, people meet my husband and they say to him, how do you cope? That thing winds me up. Cope with what? Honestly! I’m the simplest person ever. I just enjoy fashion and enjoy all things as much as possible. But it’s like one per cent of my life, I’m telling you. It’s a very, very small part of my life that people get to see, because we don’t put it all on Insta. Meanwhile, everybody thinks I’m loud with my small options.
Have you always been like this, growing up, at home, in secondary school, have you always been like this?
I think I’ve always been comfortable with finding my own space and just being out there. Maybe it’s a little bit of rebellion. My mum has six of us, and I’m number five. So, everytime, everybody expects you to follow a path. I always wanted to do my own thing differently. Because, I’m like four people have come before me. So, everybody expects that you will follow your siblings and just be like them. I don’t want to follow that. I want to go do things my own way. My mum would just be like, why? Why can’t you be like this? So, I think I spent my whole life trying to get away from it, trying not to be like other people that came before me. Maybe that’s what caused this. If there are 10 people in a room and they are lying down in a particular direction, I would not feel like lying down that way. I would go to question them. Why is everybody lying down that way? Have you tried this way? I think that’s just me. I think there’s a little bit of rebellion. A little bit. But it’s not a negative thing. I’m more adventurous and curious about exploring more options.
How do people in the UK see your dressing?
With English people, I’ve got a group of people that are dress up like me in a classic car group I’m a part of. We’ve got a collection, there’s British Belles, and then there’s the classical movement. These people dress up similar to me, in terms of vintage loving and all that. So, I don’t feel odd there. The general public probably just think that’s an interesting character. So, we all get to celebrate one another. But I think my most interesting commentary is always from Nigerians. They’re just like, why this hair? Why do you like these 1950s look? It makes me laugh. I’m not even doing it to get the questions. I’m just doing it because that’s where I feel most comfortable. I’m most relaxed in terms of feeling more authentic. But now I see many people are going for this funny hair now. I’m also quite explorative, I love colour. I love exploring new things. I’m also a little bit traditional, but also a little bit explorative. I’m looking at what we could have when we incorporate Africanism into a cosmopolitan life. So, being a true African, I think that’s what I managed to incorporate into my life, what it means to thrive and live in a cosmopolitan world that is not only African, but also accommodates everyone’s differences, diversity, and embraces it.
Your fashion taste and dress sense are out of this world, but at a point you stopped your fashion label and have now come back, what’s up?
Fashion has always been in my DNA, it’s my first love and what I do effortlessly. It has always been that one thing that has always been my bestie, my go-to place for feeling safe. When I started out in fashion, it was not fashion to sell. It was just fashion to enjoy for me. Then when I moved to Nigeria in 2010, I started to explore making fashion because I realized that a lot of people would always ask me where I got what I was wearing, whether it was a handbag or shoes or clothing. So, I started making shoes and selling them. Then one of my friends, Isabelle, invited me to showcase some of my things at a house party, and I sold out. So, it then started to come to my mind that perhaps I could do it as a hobby. But you know, sometimes, when you do things as a hobby, you need to do some audit sometimes, like, this thing that is a hobby that we’ve been trying to make into a business, it’s not quite a business thing because you haven’t got the right connect or for whatever reason. But as you get older, your ideals start to change. You start to think about your ideals what actually makes you happy, the things that you really want to do, the impact you want to make. For me, that meant exploring the things and realities of what I wanted for my ideal life. I thought, if I looked at a picture of what happiness is to me, and having lived my life, what would that be? I think that helped me trace my path back to fashion and my love for a zestful life to fulfilling joy. When I moved to the UK, I was just 19, but it still feels like yesterday. So, for me to be at a point where I’m 50, I know that the next 20 years, the next 30 years can come so quickly that I don’t want to look back on my life and feel like I’ve missed out on anything. That’s why I’ve retraced my steps to fashion and just putting in my best work and showcasing my innate creativity.
You featured at Africa Fashion Week London, recently; what kind of designs did you showcase?
At Africa Fashion Week London where I’m the Creative Director, it was like tracing my feet back to who I am as a person, as an African, and who I am as a designer. So, if I say who I am as an African, the first African influence I had in my life was my dad. He was proud. He would dress up in Nigerian outfits, and he would walk like a king all over the place. So, I think that was my first influence. That’s why the theme of the collection was called, A-K-A-N-N-I, which is my father’s first name, Akanni.
What can we look forward to from you?
I’m looking forward to sharing more of my fashion and creativity, including my super incredible handbag collection, as well as sharing my expertise in healthy food and drinks manufacturing, production and pulling together all of these skills in a platform form that helps other people start and build their own brands through a shared community space so I’m absolutely excited about the future as a brand expert and educator.
