by Adedapo Adeniyi
Over the last 5 years, the city of Ilorin in Kwara State has experienced its artistic renaissance in many facets: literature, visual arts, music and especially fashion, with streetwear taking the center stage to insert itself in conversations, infiltrating the youth culture in the city like wildfire, and one of those brands has elevated itself greatly in quality and aesthetics, BAZ.
I visited the home of Ibrahim Najeeb, more famously known as BAZ, the brand’s founder and lead designer who is also a doctor and we had a discussion ranging from the inception of his brand, how much it has grown over the years, and how he’s helped Ilorin find a place in the conversation of the country’s streetwear resurgence.
How long have you been BAZ? How long has the brand existed for? Talk about that.
It has existed for 4/5 years now, basically I could remember a couple years ago when there wasn’t any indigenous fashion brands my friends could get nice clothes, they’d have to order from Asos or other international brands, then I started thinking that I could do something to change that, the first piece I made were this pair of jeans that had grown too short, so I did a cut and sew, put a different material at the knees, a lot of people started asking me where I got it from so they could too.
At that point, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to start a clothing brand cause I was studying medicine and my parents wouldn’t give me money for anything outside of school, the course itself was already time and resource consuming, so I had to start with something small like tote bags, as soon as I made money from those, then I went into starting BAZ itself with the clothes.
Talking about production, 5 years ago when streetwear wasn’t a fully formed concept in Ilorin, how did you navigate getting production done in the city especially with tailors and designers?
To be honest, this is a very important question cause right now that’s the bottleneck for me, naturally I’d rather not be involved in production at all, once the designs are done, I’d prefer to just focus on promotion and directing shoots, but I realized that you have to be heavily involved in production.
Personally, my own brand is based on Nigeria, it’s made in Naija for Naija, if it wasn’t a brand with an ethos of connecting streetwear to Naija culture, I would manufacture in China as that’s what majority of people do, it’s easier and you get really good quality, but if you’re manufacturing here, you have to be a hands-on player, so what I’m trying to do now is to create my own production company where I can handle my own production as well as that of other brands in the city, if you’ve solved that, you’ve solved a lot of problems.
Let’s address the streetwear scene in Ilorin, something you’ve gotten to see grow over time, what can you tell us about the reception of it in the city itself?
Okay, what I’ve noticed about Ilorin here is that if they notice you’re doing something good, you’ll get the support from people, it’s such a community and that’s something really essential to streetwear that the city provides.
It’s not a stagnant city, there are always people moving in and out, and even though I started my brand here, this isn’t the only place I am, the second city I sell to the most is Abuja cause a lot of people come to Ilorin from there too, the waves are moving, the city will continue to support.
You talked about Abuja, at some point, PsychoYP, the rapper was heavily rocking BAZ collections, and in Lagos, you sold out at 2023’s Street Souk and that was major, the first time you had a physical sale outside Ilorin, a big moment for you as a brand, how has it made you feel seeing so many people from here and those major cities embrace BAZ like this?
Well, in Ilorin, it’s a movement right now, cause the thing about an idea is that once you have enough people carrying and believing in it, it becomes bigger than you; it becomes an individual of its own; it’s not just a brand, it’s an atmosphere, so I feel like the journey is the film, the goal was always a brand that completely engulfs Nigeria, like Corteiz in the UK, taking it step by step.
I’ve been to Lagos, and been to Abuja, this year the plan is to ship to the country’s 36 states; that’s what I’m going for.
Related: STREETWEAR IN NIGERIA IS NO LONGER A ONE-TRICK PONY
In the conversation of the streetwear scene in Ilorin, with fashion brands like BAZ and the90sbrand, more recently HAKAI Studios, Rage, WIMER, and subsequently the streetwear fest they’ve held in the city for two years now, enlighten us on your perception, as someone in that space.
I think for every movement, there’s always that period of experimentation where people just come in and try to see what really works for them and what doesn’t.
Even I, as a brand, think about how businesses need to go through certain experiences to get to the next level, and these brands are very important cause what it encourages is that one person sees what the other is doing and thinks “Okay let me see how I can make this better.”
Competition drives progress, and there isn’t just competition – there’s also collaboration, the wheels are turning, everyone is moving forward; and I love that there are a lot of brands now because everyone gets to choose what option appeals to their sensibilities the most, there’s enough space for everybody to shine.
What sets you apart from the brands around you? You’re very particular about your rollouts, with films and photos, your designs are peculiar, you made the Batman logo into a BAZ logo; what’s your process going into all this?
I like taking steps when I go into this. I start with the branding of course, the most important aspect, then the photoshoots, the video shoots, the way the models are chosen, the way the collection is released.
And when I’m thinking of the product itself, a t-shirt can only tell so much of a story, the brand itself is the story. I’m connecting streetwear, which is a universal language, with Nigerian culture, bringing it back to somewhere the people can relate to, a while ago we went to have a shoot at the Osun Grove, a very cultural place.
I also did a shoot with an elderly man as one of the models, because of the reverence and respect we have for them in Yoruba culture; a couple years ago, we went to the Dada pottery village here in Ilorin – that’s the vibe I’ve been going for, connective the narratives.
You were a medicine student, you’ve graduated now, you’re a medical doctor, it must have been especially tasking studying medicine and running BAZ, you’re successful on both ends now, how were you able to pull that off?
One of my major influences, Virgil Abloh, talked about how being multidisciplinary can open your mind up to some many different things, and you also have to put in twice as much work, there’s no work-life balance, you have to subtract something for something, and I know myself, so sometimes I’d focus on school and fashion would take the backseat and vice versa, and it wasn’t easy, I won’t say it was, but I’m here now, I’m a doctor now, and we’re still going bigger with everything.
You mentioned Virgil being your biggest influence, his work with Off White, and Louis Vuitton. He studied engineering, he was really tapped into the culture, how did you discover him and how much of an impact has he had on your life as an artist and person?
A lot of people discovered him when he became creative director at Louis Vuitton but I’d known him way back when he was just working with Kanye, when he’d just started Off White.
What was so different about him was that he wasn’t only about design, he was more about the conversation about the culture, he didn’t just think about clothing as a vain thing, he approached clothing and design as a way for the culture to have a conversation.
And you don’t think about clothes as just material, it’s a medium of communication, the story the brand is telling is very important, there was a momentum shift when he started trying to connect luxury and high fashion to streetwear, he’s such a great teacher and these are all things I like to think about when I’m stuck but also I like to think past him cause I’m not trying to be him, I’m trying to be better.
I have other influences, Heliot Emil because of the black silhouette they had, Balenciaga because of the irony their design process has, Daily Paper, Severe Nature and Corteiz because of how their marketing is and how it appeals to the masses.
What are your plans moving forward for BAZ right now?
Honestly, setting up the production company and world domination.
What is your proudest moment in the last 5 year as BAZ?
In 2023, I lost a lot of money to a bad investment, but last year when I released a new collection, I ended up having to close the website after 5 days cause we ended up having too many orders coming in and made a lot of money off that, it was a momentum shift for me to see how seriously we were being taken as a brand.
For the sake of the people reading this interview and do not know about streetwear here in Ilorin, can you name a couple brands you love that they should have their eyes on?
Definitely, Rogueboy, STR, HOB, WIL, MOB, Hakai, Lumre, Wimer, 6lae, there are a lot of them but right now, these are the ones I can remember.
Thank you for taking the time out for this BAZ.
Yessir, bless!
