“Fashion Is A Consistent Show Of You” —Ebunoluwa Mabayoje Goes All Out Explaining The Ideal Fashion Language

Fashion styles are unique identities. Your style can be a signature with which people recognise you. Today, we’ll be exploring the style of Ebunoluwa Queen-Esther Mabayoje.

Ebunoluwa is a content developer, a bibliophile, a creative writer, a coach for young females, all over the world and at the moment, a naturalista, you can read about her haircare routine here.

Fashion for me is a lifestyle, an expression of myself. A perfect fashion style for me is comfortability simplicity and class.

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What dictates your style most of the time?

Most of the time, it’s the type of event and my mood. I believe my fashion style should have a language it speaks to people, per time. So, I wouldn’t dress casually to a conference. Neither will I dress sophisticatedly to a picnic.

What’s your fashion history?

My God! I feel like this could be a series on its own. Seeing how I actually started, I’m not sure I saw myself growing to be fashionable. While growing up, my dad and I were very close, so he used to buy like 95% of my clothes, accessories, shoes literally everything. My dad is a pretty fashionable man, so I think I picked most of it from him. However, my mom passed down the “simplicity” fashion code to me. My parents did shape my style, a whole lot. It was a joint effort.

So basically, I knew right from time that I didn’t like trendy stuff, nor did I like to see myself wear common things. I knew that I wanted a unique fashion style and I went for it.

Your parents jointly shaped your style. Did anything else shape you?

Of course, I didn’t start great. Lol. I remember all the days of combining colors like it was the end of the world, but here we are, or rather, here I am.

One thing that stood out for me, and still does, is my will to be comfortable, distinct and excellent, even in fashion. So while building my style, I took note of people that had a similar taste.

My sister taught me a whole lot too, shout out to Pipe. But if we want to talk about shaping it before now, not really. I didn’t really pick from people or movies.

Does culture limit your expression as a fashionista?

I’ll say no. Let me say why. I believe so much in decency and simplicity, really. And our culture has that so much as her forte. So, there are no restrictions, for me. Really. Also, I sincerely love native clothes.

I however like to dress formally to work. My boss specifically comment me on how I’d still dress like it was Monday, on a Friday. I wouldn’t wear native on a Monday.

What’s your best look for Owanbes and Mondays. 

Let’s start with Mondays! Colourful pants, a black sleeveless top and a jacket. Court heels and my laptop bag, as usual. For an owambe. A complete killer native long dress 😌, a different color of gele (tied by myself) and mules.

What role(s) do you think fashion plays in how people view you and how you view people?

I love this question. Let me share a joke I read on Twitter. Some guy said that some Christian ladies will not dress well, smell nice and even make their hair seen. All they’ll like to do is skaboosh and skaboosh on. Now, it’s not that, praying is bad, I’m a huge sucker for God. But when you go on and on like those ladies, without paying attention to yourself, all of a sudden you can’t say you want an apostle that is fine and fashionable. Where? Hugely, being fashionable is not an extra thing.

Looking good is very godly. Periodt

ebun.mabs

I mean, we’re different people but, it’s really important to dress well! We cannot overemphasize the importance of being fashionable. “The way you dress is the exact way you’d be addressed.” Believe it or not.

I’ve been at meetings that, the only reason these people decided to give me an audience was because of how well dressed they felt I was. They didn’t know if I was smart, holy ghost filled or not. My style attracted them, they felt I was smart because I dressed well.

Is there a fashion trend that bothers you at the moment?

To be frank, a lot bothers me in this world. I just can’t help it, so I try to overlook them. For fashion, where do I start from? Okay, humans that wear bikers short out. Isn’t that thing, “tight?” Like the tight our mothers wear. Crazy jeans also. Why are you wearing jeans that are torn? Have you finished wearing the normal ones? However, nose rings are trending accessories that I love.

Who’s your favourite fashion icon and why do they stand out?

Titilope Sonuga’s one fashion icon that probably doesn’t see herself as one, per say. I like to say, she’s me, in another body. Lol. Asides from being an excellent writer, Titilope Sonuga stands out for me as natural, comfy, simple and exquisite. You can check her out @titilope on IG.

Let’s have a virtual tour of your closet

My closet isn’t a very big one, but take a tour with me. The right side of my closet is for my jackets. There’s a customized jacket on the extreme, it was gifted me two years ago but I still really love it. Then, there’s a black winter jacket (for cold days), I absolutely love how warm it makes me feel. I have other jackets here too —the purple, cream, lilac white, teal, blue, brown and yellow.

Following that are my shirt line ups. I can say this is the most important section of my closet, because I really love shirts. There’s this really beautiful red shirt here, it used to belong to my mom, but I wanted to re-package it to my type of style, so I “stole it”. There’s the polkadot shirt section, the plain shirt section, the patterned ones and so on.

It’s good to always keep your closet very organized, it helps you stay sane, really.

Let’s move on! The next here are my pants, my pants trousers. I absolutely adore this section of my closest, because I’m a sucker for classy pants. Like my shirt section, I have the plain pants section and the patterned ones. That’s it about my pants.

Next is my dress section, funnily, I don’t have so many dresses, because I’m not so huge on dresses. However, let’s go through what I have. There’s this black sequin dress was made by my very good stylist and friend, I absolutely love how it hugs my body. There’s a red dress here too, I love the style, how it’s not the conventional dress. I have quite a lot of black dresses, because black is always my go-to colour.

Lastly, there’s my skirt section. I don’t joke with my skirts and I don’t wear coloured skirts often. I never really consider playing with colours when it comes to skirts (maybe I will soon). So, there are five black, one blue and one red skirt here. That’s all about my closet, thank you for touring with me, I hope you have a good time.

We did! But before we go, is there else you’ll like to share?

Uhm yeah. A few years ago, one of my friends said something and it has stuck since then. He said, “it takes people a maximum of two weeks- fourteen days to get used to you. Don’t give up, if you really wanna be some way.”

Fashion isn’t some lifestyle you wake up to, or you cultivate in one week. It’s a consistent show of you. So, if you really wanna be a particular way, fashion wise, even if it’s weird, or uncommon, people will get used to you.

I’ll end with this, “your style is a language, your fashion is a message, pass it across distinctly. “