If you’ve been at WJ for a while, you’ve probably noticed some of the unique students on campus. We have artists, photographers, content creators, musicians, dancers, actors and even designers. While strolling through the halls, you may have noticed a guy wearing jeans with two waists and camo flared at the bottom. The wearer of those pants is Bolu Afolayan.
“I saw his outfit the other day and I thought it was really cool,” sophomore Kaylee Walker said.
Afolayan is a senior at WJ who illustrates clothes to post on his Instagram and TikTok accounts and resells old clothes for extra cash. Oftentimes, his illustrations catch the eye of aspiring brand owners who ask him to bring their ideas to fruition. He’s been designing clothes since last summer.
“I’ve illustrated about 50 pieces even though I don’t keep all of them,” Afolayan said.
Afolayan was born in Nigeria but moved to the United States three years ago. In his early teens, Afolayan lived in Ohio and West Virginia before settling in Maryland with his family. Afolayan’s designs are heavily inspired by other brands, including beautyispain.wav, Chukwu and NOHOL. Although Afolayan illustrates hoodies and t-shirts, he doesn’t plan on actually making any clothes and selling them in the future.
Afolayan sometimes collaborates on ideas with junior Nathan Menendez, who also experiments in fashion and design. So far, the duo has collaborated on making a pair of double-waisted baggy sweatpants – Afolayan sent Menendez the idea and Menendez sewed them together.
“Me and Bolu did this project together,” Menendez said. “We met like last year and I’m looking forward to doing some more [with him].”
The two initially clicked last year due to their similar interests. Then, they began discussing their first project. The pair expressed that people fail in this path come from a lack of creativity, originality and poor networking.
“Honestly, people never want to be themselves,” Afolayan said. “It’s cool to take inspiration for sure, but I always see people doing the same things, especially with all this vintage ‘archive’ stuff.”
The two students plan on perfecting their craft and continuing to bring more life to more garments in the future.
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