Yinka Ilori x The North Face: A Colourful Call to Connect
Yinka Ilori is somewhat prepared for the sudden downpour when he meets me at The Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, London. At least, more so than Kate Winslet who preceded him looking positively drenched (yet remarkably gleeful, which I can't help but take as a sign that the actor's unprecedented time spent in studio pools [see: Titanic; Avatar: The Way of Water] has left her with an idiosyncratic relationship with being wet).
Alas, the British-Nigerian artist – famous for animating austere spots of London (and beyond) via vibrant shapes, colours and words – isn't kitted out in the technical waterproofs of his cheerful collaboration with The North Face despite it being the focus of today's chat.
What he is wearing is a cosy, chunky, blue, white and brown Comme Des Garçons shirt buttoned over a tee with a pair of heavy-duty acid green Marine Serre jeans and some super sturdy black boots. A look he's accessorised with a predominantly orange baseball cap, a yellow and orange ERL puffer tote, several rings that seemingly house Thanos' infinity stones and an unfaltering grin.
Having seen him around at industry events, I can confirm this motley get-up is typical of the gentle giant (6'3, to save you Googling. For context, I'm a hearty 5'9).
Over frothy coffee, Ilori tells me he inherited his sense of style from his parents.
“They each have unique taste – they taught me that there are no rules, there is no manual, that I should be unapologetic and always wear my best clothes,” he says in his comforting, made-for-bedtime-stories tone.
“Because of them, if I like something, I will buy it and wear it.”
His mum and dad, along with his favourite aunties and uncles, are the people he's most excited to see sporting the line. “They've been waiting for something of my design that they can wear!” he exclaims before informing me that the brand's cross-generational appeal is one of the reasons he decided The North Face was the right brand to pop his sartorial cherry. Second to the fact that his affinity for the brand roots all the way back to his childhood.
The 37-year-old grew up on an estate on Essex Road, Islington, during the nineties when north London was practically sponsored by the San Franciscan label. “My neighbour wore it, his next-door neighbour wore it.... it was everywhere,” he remembers.
“It was during this time that Britain adopted the brand and it became ingrained in our national culture. And as a kid, I wanted to wear it to feel connected to my community and my nation – to feel part of something.”
Moreover, they were sensible togs for a boy who was “always outside".
"I never cared about the rain, the snow, if it was cold. I was always out in my jacket and my woolly hat, usually on my bike.”
Young Yinka would no doubt appreciate the practical, insulating properties of the collaboration, then. Each piece – from the double layer jacket to the reversible fleece – arises out of the outerwear marque's Never Stop Exploring (NSE) Mountain Archive collection which was originally crafted for North American search and rescue teams – also! – in the nineties.
Ilori's fondness for The Great Outdoors is evident in his creative output.
“My work is all about public space, about being outdoors, and here are some products you're going to wear outdoors. You're going to play, you're going to walk, you're going to hike, you're going to explore. My work is all about exploring. It's about connecting with your community. It's about joy.”
And just like the rest of his work, The North Face collaboration “promotes togetherness”. It brings new meaning to the term 'social threads'. “Whenever I've worn it, people have wanted to speak with me and ask about it.”
Those that approach him no doubt ask about the colours, the shapes and the patterns.
He explains to them and I that growing up in a Nigerian household means you're “force-fed patterns” from day dot. Since his mum's hustle involved buying printed cloth – “typically Swiss Voile Lace and Dutch Wax prints” – in Zurich which she'd bring back to sell to her friends, his childhood home was brimming was conspicious textiles.
The patterns present in his The North Face collection – many of which bear resemblance to the cloths that his mum would bring home from Switzerland – are geometrically floral.
“Flowers,” Ilori says, “are a symbol of love and a sign of kindness”. “They're given to someone as a sentiment, and this collaboration is about sharing love with any kind of community – including people you don't know.”
The colours, on the other hand, have been elected to help you discover personal joy.
“Colour makes us think differently – dream differently!” he reckons. “When I wear colours to parties, colours to church, colours at home, it's about optimism. Especially when I wear pink – my favourite colour.”
I inquire about his use of blacks in the collaboration.
“I wanted to make sure that everyone could find something for them in the collection, even if they're not confident enough to wear bright colours,” he responds. “For some people, black elicits joy – something Nigeria doesn't recognise [Laughs]. If I wore black as a teen, my mum would always ask if I was OK.”
“I also wanted to respect The North Face's audience,” he adds, “make it accessible for them in terms of design.”
It's also economically accessible. “There's so much to choose from – t-shirts, fleeces, accessories, et cetera – and there's a range of price points,” he tells me as if I haven't already seen the collection at The North Face's press day where I mentally added several pieces to cart (both Ilori and I have agreed that the two-tone puffer jackets are the highlight).
Making his work reachable irrespective of income is paramount to the self-described “cheerleader of joy”. It's why he aligned with the Art of London on an installation at Piccadilly Circus, joined forces with local community supporters Create London to breathe life into the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham's Parsloes Park, and partnered with Marks & Spencer on 60p carrier bags and £8 totes.
Prices for Yinka Ilori x The North Face begin at £48. And that's for the 100% cotton t-shirts adorned with puff-print roses you're bound to wear again and again.
That's the thing about Ilori's approach to design – it transcends seasons.
Will he lend his timeless aesthetic to further fashion brands in the future? “We've had different chats with different fashion brands about collaborations.” But he confesses he has reservations about their intentions. “A lot of the time a brand will dilute an artist's work. The North Face respects and invests in artists, but not all brands value creatives in the same way.”
He's also chatted to his team doing their own collection, but he believes he's “not really ready for that”.
For now, he's celebrating this first foray into fashion. “There's a lyric: I wear my own garms ['No Qualms' by Wiley ]. That's what I'm going to be saying. I put a lot of love and happiness into this collection so it's one I'm going to be wearing to bed, to church, to the corner shop.”
Ilori hopes others will cherish it too, and requests anyone who decides to invest in any of the pieces to start wearing them asap.
“Don't save it. Don't just wear it for a special occasion – you've got to make every day special. Put it on, get outdoors with your friends and family and make some memories.”
Truly, he is London's eternal sunshine.
Yinka Ilori x The North Face is available now on The North Face webstore and in select The North Face brick-and-mortar stores and retailers
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