OZY’s new TV show, Breaking Big, explores the secrets to success.OZY’s new TV show, Breaking Big, explores the secrets to success. Click to find out more.
Neither of the co-founders of the luxury African e-commerce company OXOSI came at it from a fashion background. They started the online retailer out of a shared appreciation for safeguarding culture — African culture. Defining “African fashion” is close to impossible, but Kolade Adeyemo and Akin Adebowale (both from Nigeria) are taking on the challenge with an almost manic conviction, so that the “art and design of Afromodernism can live forever,” according to the website. They both understand OXOSI is their opportunity to rewrite the African narrative — and they’re not holding back.
With a company name that means “God of Justice and Wilderness,” they are hoping to tame the wilds of fashion. Walk into their simply designed office in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood and you’ll see a team of millennials dedicated to the goal of showing the world that Africa is a force to be reckoned with — from art and music to design, literature and, especially, fashion.
