Lagos-Based Creative Consultant Baingor Joiner’s Wardrobe Is as Exciting as the City Around Him
Lagos-Based Creative Consultant Baingor Joiner’s Wardrobe Is as Exciting as the City Around Him
Lagos, Nigeria, is known as a place of hustle and bustle, and Baingor Joiner seems to live this wholeheartedly: He doesn’t have just one job but about 10. “I don’t do everything,” he says, modestly. “But I do a lot.” The 24-year-old describes himself with the umbrella term of “creative consultant” to keep it easy, but really, he runs the gamut: Joiner deejays, graphic designs, photographs, styles, produces musical scores and beats, organizes with a social action campaign to raise money for charity, directs videos, and, finally, writes. “I think it just happened naturally,” he says. “People who inspire me seem to also have their fingers in many pies. I don’t know. I’ve always had a very open approach to doing things.”
Joiner, who grew up in the city’s quiet Surulere neighborhood, is part of a network of young creatives who are working overtime to embolden a vibrant art and fashion scene. “There are new spaces opening up. Brands [are] doing powerful, powerful work, creating crazy collections with amazing imagery, telling stories that haven’t been told,” he says. He points to the uber-cool skate and streetwear collective Wafflesncream, whose founders he considers “fam” and whose shop for beloved graphic tees has become a focal point for the young and creative. “It gives the kids an outlet to express themselves,” he says. “Wafflesncream is basically like a sandbox for the kids, a sandbox for expression.”
This sense of freedom applies to Joiner’s own wardrobe, which he says is now a mix of traditional fabrics with contemporary styles. As is common in Nigeria, he spends a lot of time having custom clothes made with his tailor—Mr. Molab, who he has worked with since he was about 10 and who he half-jokingly says he’s in a rough patch with because of a tardy order—from special prints. “I feel like Nigerians have a more personal relationship with their clothes because most have a tailor,” Joiner says. He gravitates towards prints in purple and green ”with a touch of gold.” Many of these textiles are gifts: “It’s just a thing that your aunties will do for you—if they’re out in the market, and they see a fabric that makes them think of you, they’ll buy it for you.”
In the past couple of years, Joiner has transitioned from wearing sneakers to “more African slippers,” leather affairs that cover the front of the foot and leave the back open, or Birkenstocks. “My accessories are gonna be very African,” he says. “A gold ring from Ghana; silver from Nigeria and Dakar; Zambia on my wrist.” No matter what he’s wearing though, most importantly, Joiner says he dresses with a sense of freedom inspired by the ever-changing, always-expanding city around him. “People are coming to understand the different as something that can be accepted,” he says. “Stylish, fashionable, and eccentric. We’re flourishing.”
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