Like many men their age, two friends find themselves exposed to the arrival of second-hand clothes from container ships that dump excess goods and waste from the West. The garments they rescue will go to the market on their backs, on bicycles, on canoes; if they aren\u2019t used, they will go back to the dump, to the beach.<\/p>\n
From the shores of Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, these men wear the clothes they carry to the market: they become like stores. It\u2019s show and tell, the hustle. They translate the excess of faraway places onto their bodies. Layering. Clothes everywhere. When you have limited resources, you have to be imaginative. As boys, these men take on something that isn\u2019t theirs but find a way to make it their own. How they dress, how they come up with looks, has resulted in so many subcultures born from this education: Congolese sapeurs, Botswana cowboys and more.<\/p>\n
The West tells itself a sorry story when donating to African countries. Fashion brands will convince you they\u2019re doing charity work when often they\u2019re clearing factories. Dressing the local kid? That\u2019s not what\u2019s happening. A continent that doesn\u2019t make these clothes shouldn\u2019t have all this waste dumped on it. Credits
\nPhotographer: Jebi Labembika
\nPhoto Assistants: Weimin Li, Zacharie Lewertoff
\nSet Design: Louis Gibson
\nSet Assistants: Nicole Fernandez Medina, Harry Goulding
\nCreative Director\/Stylist: KK Obi
\nStylist Assistants: Lara McGrath, Qasim Isah, Tashi
\nGrooming: Batiseol Gomis (Saint Luke)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KK Obi and Jebi Labembika craft a fashion editorial exploring how second-hand clothes have influenced local style<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":33810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-33813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n