Fashion, Identification, and Mental Health

Growing up outside of Fort Well worth, Tex., Abiola Agoro possesses loved manner since she was little. She was just nine, she says, when she started offering her own jewelry, which she created from polished stones she and her mom purchased at local mineral shows. They sold the charms from a retailer they rented next with their church. When she arrived at BU, Agoro’s fascination expanded into manner styling, and she introduced her own mobile boutique and styling program, Styled by Ola, that gives personal styling services, personalized jewelry, and attire. Her job has been seen in numerous runway displays, including at New York Fashion Week.

Agoro (CAS’21) is about to embark on a straight bigger venture: launching a new online clothing collection designed and created by her, to debut June 19. The range, called Ruthanne, is known as for her maternal grandmother.

“My middle brand is Ruth Anne and my grandmother’s brand was Annie Ruth. Therefore the [brand name] is like an ode to my grandmother,” Agoro says. “She was simply a badass woman, therefore I wanted to execute a manufacturer that honors her and honors the name.”

The fashion line includes a variety of 1970s-inspired gender-neutral clothing, stuff like bell-bottom jeans, shirts, and jumpsuits, furthermore to recycled and refurbished fur pieces. Prices range from $25 for add-ons to $800 for garments like gowns. Ultimately, Agoro says, she needs her apparel to press the boundaries of what’s deemed feminine and what’s thought to be masculine. For motivation, she looks to West African culture-where men dress in skirts casually-and the 1970s, when individuals both wore platform shoes.

“Some things are incredibly much gender-oriented in West African culture, but men can wear things there that are believed extremely feminine here, and that’s no problem,” Agoro says. “Hence I want release a clothing that will that, that inquiries [gendered boundaries].”

Agoro is Nigerian American: her daddy is from Nigeria and her mom is from LA. Both cultures inform her work. She as well wants Ruthanne to become a company that celebrates Blackness and invites others to join in that celebration. She was raised in rural Texas and spent a lot of her adolescence trying to blend in with the white places around her. Her brand, she explained, counters that narrative of having to assimilate. During senior high school, she commenced to embrace her skin color and the elements of Black customs she had been too timid to simply accept before.

“I think what’s framed even more of my philosophy now could be making things that look and feel truthful to me in my own Black experience, while likewise being able to draw on other people’s knowledge and give respect to those other experiences,” Agoro says. “Also to acknowledge the vastness of who we happen to be, because Black people aren't monolithic.”

Before designing sketches on her behalf new line, Agoro commenced with research. She’d experienced styles that were appropriated without credit rating from Black and African cultures and wanted to avoid producing that same mistake. Rather, she wants her fashion lines to openly acknowledge Black and African cultures.

“I think sometimes people hear something is a Black manufacturer, and think, ok, it needs to be all Black people wearing everything, and simply Black people can purchase the outfits,” Agoro says. “No, what it is is ensuring Blackness can be centralized without being commodified, without having to be taken over, but still be acknowledged in a manner that is beautiful while becoming on Black persons too.”

Agoro first tried building clothes (using drapes and security pins) when she was a kid. Nonetheless it wasn’t until her junior yr at BU that she started to be seriously interested in designing and making garments furthermore to styling. She started using her cost savings to get material and take online sewing classes.

While her venture finally converted into something she loved, it began as a way to help her deal with an anxiety disorder diagnosed sophomore year. She says that developing and sewing clothes gave her a new creative outlet.

“I think my art has always been kind of a battle with my mental wellbeing,” Agoro says. “Sewing found me at the same time when I was in changeover with my mental wellbeing, and I think it had been a beautiful matter, because it’s taught me thus much about myself.”

She started out sketching designs, and finally, started making clothes. In some cases her efforts proved beautifully, departing her awestruck, she says, other instances, the ultimate outcome looked nothing beats she had imagined.