In brief
- Designer O’koko designs luxury streetwear collections from textile waste from the Kantamanto market in Accra.
- His artistic creations denounce waste colonialism, a system where rich countries export their overproduction of fast fashion to Ghana.
- The artist advocates an urgent transition of the fashion industry towards circularity, sustainability and a drastic reduction in production.
It is on social media that the work of artist and designer O’koko first catches the eye. Posing amidst the mountains of used textiles at the Ghanaian landfill, he sports singular creations born from this rubbish: structured tote bags made from worn-out bags, jackets recomposed in a patchwork of abandoned shoes, or trainers metamorphosed into shoulder bags. Originally from Central Africa, O’koko moved to Ghana to pursue studies in digital marketing. It was there that he was confronted with the raw reality of this giant landfill, a place that crystallises the excesses of Western overconsumption and fast fashion. Faced with these mountains of discarded clothes, many of which deserve a second life, the young designer realised he could and should use design to raise awareness.
For members of the African diaspora and contemporary design enthusiasts, O’koko’s work inspires immense pride, that of seeing a youth seize global crises to propose strong aesthetic solutions. An encounter with a talent who is redefining the boundaries of African fashion, denouncing waste colonialism and sketching the outlines of a more responsible industry.
From construction sites to the Kantamanto market
From digital awakening to committed creation
O’koko’s journey into the world of fashion began in a very concrete way. In 2023, a year after his arrival on Ghanaian soil, the young man worked on construction sites for several months. His meager salary barely covered his essential needs. Encouraged by a friend, he decided to start reselling second-hand clothes to improve his daily life. O’koko’s first visit to the Kantamanto market in Accra radically transformed his vision of fashion and creation. What he observed there, the encounters he made and the intimate story carried by each second-hand garment deeply nourished his sensitivity. This founding experience marked the starting point of his evolution as a man and as a designer.
The dynamic ecosystem of Ghanaian fashion
The choice of Ghana as a land of expression is no coincidence. For designers from Central Africa, notably the Central African Republic, the Ghanaian style scene shines through its development and accessibility. The country enjoys a solid historical reputation linked to the richness and accessibility of its local fabrics and prints. During the designer’s childhood, his mother and aunts regularly travelled to Benin, Togo and Ghana to acquire ready-to-wear pieces and precious fabrics, before reselling them in Bangui. Today, Ghana stands out as a major hub for textile creation in West Africa.
The sources of inspiration for a hybrid aesthetic
To shape his visual universe, the young designer drew on plural influences, blending digital culture and contemporary rhythms. In his early days, the video work of content creator @futurist played a decisive role in his perception of fashion, whether in terms of artistic direction, outfit staging or visual language. In parallel, the contemporary African music scene breathes raw energy into his creations. Afrobeat artists like Rema and Asake directly influence O’koko’s creative direction. This global soundtrack feeds his freedom of expression and gives his pieces a very current cultural resonance, at the crossroads of clothing and performance.
The visual and sensory shock of the Accra landfill
The ecological scourge of waste colonialism
O’koko’s environmental awareness materialised during a photoshoot for the collective project The Revival Earth. It was his very first visit to the landfill site, and the shock was total. The young man found himself facing a chaotic landscape, saturated by toxic fumes from synthetic textiles and burnt plastics. On his first day at the landfill site, the air was so saturated with chemical fumes that it was almost impossible to breathe. The very existence of such an accumulation of clothing waste, invisible from Western capitals, appeared as an unbearable reality that absolutely had to be documented.
The political concept of waste colonialism
Behind the pile of clothes lies a major geopolitical imbalance that the designer is committed to denouncing. The term “waste colonialism” describes this deeply unequal exchange system where the richest nations on the planet generate astronomical volumes of waste, mainly plastics and fast fashion clothing, before exporting them massively to low-income countries. Developing countries do not have the necessary infrastructure to process this continuous dumping of Western waste. It is to make this injustice visible that O’koko chose to stage his creations at the very heart of the disaster, using social media to challenge the international public.
Upcycling as an aesthetic and ethical manifesto
Upcycling as the new horizon of responsible luxury
O’koko’s creative approach transcends simple recycling to offer a true stylistic signature. He defines his aesthetic as a permanent dialogue between rebellion, cultural heritage, craftsmanship, provocative avant-garde and Afrocentric-inspired luxury streetwear. To design his collections, O’koko’s studio works almost exclusively with salvaged materials from Kantamanto’s second-hand clothing bales. This raw material, often damaged or deemed unusable, is entirely deconstructed and then reassembled according to an instinctive process. The designer sometimes sketches his ideas on paper, but he prefers to directly create a first 3D prototype to adjust it in real time until the perfect silhouette is achieved. His creations are also inspired by other figures on the African scene, such as Ethiopian designer Kaluputic, renowned for his ability to transform waste into pieces of high aesthetic value.
Towards a necessary redefinition of the fashion industry
The message carried by O’koko’s collections goes beyond the scope of artistic creation. His goal is to make consumers aware of the intrinsic value of textiles and to prove that waste can acquire the status of luxury pieces through the creative gesture. For the designer, the future of fashion requires a radical paradigm shift. Global brands must imperatively stop producing millions of new garments each season to focus on sustainability. According to him, circularity, repairability and transparency across the entire product life cycle must become the standards of tomorrow’s industry. By structuring his brand, O’koko aims to establish himself on the international eco-responsible fashion scene, proving that Africa is on the frontline of inventing tomorrow’s solutions.
