INTERVIEW #93 ADDIE KENOGBON

Name: Addie Kenogbon

Occupation: PR Account Director (and Fashion Editor for LeftLion Magazine in my spare time)

Based in: Nottingham

Instagram: @goldust_looks

Hello Addie, welcome to A Sustainable Closet, please, tell us about yourself?

My name is Addie and I run a sustainable fashion page on Instagram called Goldust_looks. I'm really passionate about inspiring people to shop preloved and to make slower fashion choices.

What’s your relationship with clothes?

The clothes I wear are a really important part of my identity as they allow me to express my own personality through each piece I wear. I've always been fascinated with clothes from a really early age and love the way something as simple as a statement jacket can transform an outfit into a work of art. Clothes have the ability to do so much and can lift even my gloomiest of moods. I'm all about finding joy in your every day clothes because if we love what we wear rather than just buying into the throwaway fashion culture, then we'll ultimately put a stop to countless endless clothes ending up in landfill.

We love your colourful outfits! How would you describe your style?

Thank you so much! That's so kind of you to say. I'd say my style doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm a real lover of bright, vibrant colours and patterns - especially if it's from the 80s or 90s. Think eye-catching jumpsuits or technicolour rainbow 80s jumpers all teamed with lashings of gold costume jewellery.

Has your style changed over the years or always been like this?

I think my sense of style has been a real journey that perhaps started in my college years from age 16 onwards. I used to go into Leeds with my friends and always loved browsing the plethora of vintage and charity shops they had there. As I saw all the amazing one-off treasures you could find in these preloved shops, I loved the fact that I could find something really special and know that no one else would have it but me. Moving to university did see me fall into the trap of serial fast fashion shopping due to my various jobs working for highstreet stores but even then, I was all about seeing how I could take these conventional highstreet pieces and make them my own. Today, my style is all preloved and, has just become even more individual over the years as I got older and started to really embrace my personality - quirks and all! Now, I love getting creative and having fun with what I'm wearing even more.

How would you describe your closet? 

An explosion of colour, bright colours and fun textures. Over the years I've curated a collection of really special preloved treasures from my many years of charity, vintage and thrift shop rummages. So, my closet is a real celebration of that.

What is a sustainable closet for you?

To me a sustainable closet is one that features preloved pieces and champions circular fashion or items bought from independent retailers that make clothing from sustainable materials such as linen and provide transparency about that garment's journey - including the fabric choice, dyes used and factory conditions. It's about clothes that are kinder to the planet through their creation or even simply the fact that they have been given a second life rather than ending up in landfill.

What do you think about the fashion industry? 

I've always been fascinated by the fashion industry and the way clothes can evoke so much emotion. But it's awful to think that an industry that has had my heart for so many years is now responsible for being the second largest polluter in the world, with many of the synthetic materials that many fast-fashion garments are made from taking up to 200 years to decompose. It just makes you think, that £5 dress that's bought for just one night out and then gets thrown away, will be sitting on our planet on a landfill site for generations to come, which is just horrendous to think about.

What do you believe needs to change?

I think somewhere along the way, the world lost its love for clothes. If you think back to the 50s, 60s and 70s, our grandparents and parents used to have a handful of special clothes that they loved and they would wear to all special occasions but now with the click of a few buttons you can get an outfit from fast fashion sites the next day for incredibly cheap that fashion has just become so disposable. I think we need to recapture that love for what we wear so we can cherish clothing more and as such become more mindful about what we buy.

How can one play with colourful clothes and still feel confident?

If you're new to wearing colour or feel a bit nervous about it, I'd say start by thinking about what colours bring you joy and then start small and work your way up. Maybe try adding a bright scarf to your outfit one day and then maybe add a bright top next, and as you get more confident you can add more and more. Ultimately, it's important to just have fun and not worry about what you think you should be wearing but instead, think about what makes you happy.