Meet Wizkid, Nigeria’s Best-Dressed Pop Star
First thing I notice is you’re wearing Bape—are you a big streetwear-head?
Yeah, I like me some Bape, you know. But I wear anything to be honest. Adyn, Rick Owens, Givenchy, anything. I shop from everywhere. We’re talking with BBC to make clothes for my tour.
What’s the shopping like in Lagos?
I have local tailors out there who make me traditional stuff. So I get material from Lagos, and I have them make me pieces. I mix them up with whatever I wear. I have a whole lot of tailors. The fabrics are from different parts of Nigeria. We have the tie and dye from the western part of Nigeria. We get stuff from the north. I mix it up.
Do you wear a lot of traditional Nigerian clothes?
When I’m back home, all I wear is African fabric. All I really rock is the traditional stuff. That’s the in thing right now. That’s really coming back. Back in the day, our parents used to wear it every day, and they still do, but now it’s cool for wee young ones to wear it. It’s amazing. We’re doing it differently. We’re having it a little bit more fitted. We have styles on it, embroideries and stuff, by local people, made by hand, designed on it.
How would you describe Lagos style?
Lagos style is fresh and different. Even with the tailors, they get very innovative with their stuff, with the cuts. When my parents used to make the traditional wares, it was a little bit baggy. But now the tailors are able to infuse the European style, making it slim-fit. Lagos style is different, man. Innovative.
And tailors are everything in Nigeria.
One hundred percent. The clothes I make back home are
proper—properly fitted. Proper, proper. Tailors are A1 back home.
What’s your process when you get something made for you?
I design everything myself, and I get them to make it. I do a little sketch; sometimes I just sit down with a tailor and describe what I want. Sometimes we go back and forth, like, for days, trying to get it right. Sometimes it’ll take a day to make it, sometimes three, four days. I have a lot of tailors. If I want something made in 12 hours, it will be made in 12 hours.
Photo: Courtesy of Wizkid / @wizkidayo
What kind of clothes did you love growing up?
Growing up in Lagos, I wasn’t fortunate enough to get the fresh stuff when it was new. There was this place we used to go to find stuff that had been shipped from America, like secondhand clothes. I used to rock a lot of Reebok, just a lot of sporty stuff.
