Bloke’s AW21 “Sticks & Bones” Collection is Reflective of the Sombre Times of 2020

Bloke’s AW21 “Sticks & Bones” collection tells a heavy story of the events of 2020 which hit Nigeria, the home country of the creative director.

“Something happened in October, sticks and bones were shattered.
Something happened in October, dreams and bones were shattered.
Something happened in October, this time nothing was sacred.
I saw things,
I felt things.
My dreams were filled with nightmares, haunted by stories of folks emblazoned in tombstones.
Haunted by folks robbed of tomorrow’s sunshine by bullets drizzling like raindrops. Something happened in October, yet it looks like no one else remembers.“

Faith Oluwajimi, Creative Director of BLOKE, writes to MC! Magazine on the sombre inspiration behind the Nigerian fashion pow erhouse’s Autumn/Winter 2021 collection, “Sticks & Bones”.

For Bloke’s AW21 collection, Oluwajimi draws inspiration from, “a series of downhill events”, which occurred in Nigeria, “from the COVID-19 pandemic to END SARS and all the blues in between.”

The colour palette utilized in this collection was dark spanning oxblood red, dark green, brown, black and metallic inspired by the gloomy mood of the past year.

Closing his artist statement, he quotes Nina Simone beautifully, “You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times”, and that quote finds true expression in Bloke’s AW21 collection, arguably.