Ledger · “Office Attitude”

— no reflection written —

This outfit makes me smile because it's the encapsulation of a lot of hard work on my part trying to figure out how to express myself. The green jacket is from a Ghanaian brand and it's made of mud cloth. I'm Nigerian, and Ghana is a whole different country, but the West African heritage in it is really nice. I love the weight of the material and the way the stitching and the composition are so deliberate. It feels like a physical manifestation of craft and of reality, not just a piece, and I love that. Though it's something very bold, it's something that I can wear in a way that fits very seamlessly and I can kind of rock it normally, so it means a lot to me. The jeans that I have on are my workhorse Levi's. I picked them up randomly while walking one day, but I get so many compliments on them and they just fit really well. I actually had a patch in the butt area (I guess I'm too thick), but I went and got it patched and I keep wearing them. They just get everywhere and everything done. The shoes were also a random pickup. I walked into Doc Martens and looked through a bunch of shoes and ended up going with these. I can just wear them so many ways, and they just added a nice bit of character to the fit. Got to go with the no socks, obviously, so people got to see the ankles. Lastly, the jewelry means a lot to me. I think I remember there's a phase in my journey where I felt like I looked good but it didn't feel complete. That's when I realized that jewelry, especially gold-colored jewelry, really signals to me that I look good and it helps me feel like, "Okay, people, when they see me, know this outfit is complete, it's not still in progress." I feel like this fit just captured a lot of what I've learned so far, and I'm excited to see how I grow from here because, in some ways, I've been stuck at this level. I'm still happy and proud of this fit because it captures where I've come and I'm excited to see where I go. This fit also means a lot to me because it's the same fit I wore on a day when I got a lot of really positive compliments from people telling me that this fit just encapsulates me. This even came from strangers I barely knew. It also happened to be the fit that I was wearing the day that I met one of the foundational designers in the company, Uko, and had a really deep conversation with him about what he's passionate about. Wearing this fit that day helped me feel very deeply everything that God was calling me to work on, even before I necessarily had all the words for it.

Lucero@lucerito

Bright and yellow is the color of my raincoat, together with my umbrella shaped like a little sun, make me feel like I carry my own little sunshine on gray, rainy days. Then I look at the handle of the umbrella, shaped like a little duck and I remember that on days like this, ducks are happy to bask in the rain, and so, it makes me feel like perhaps I could too bask in the rain on a cloudy day 🌞

Uko@uko

i have a brown longsleeve white shirt and cream hat. i love the way natural earth colors looks on me and makes me feel confident in my appearance. My hat is special to me as it symbolizes my drive to want to make something better for my self and i always feel that when i put it on. I feel like i can achieve anything that i put mind to and i have clothing as a sign of that.