London Fashion Renegade: Dr NOKI is the O.G. Upcycler - Just Don't Call Him That

WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

It’s fashion month again and the big brands with the big budgets dominate our feeds. But amidst the commercial noise of the contemporary fashion circus, independent gems still exist. There are true artists who go their own way, and often set the future trend agenda (although they tend not to get the credit). Our guest this week is one of them. He’s been shaking up the London underground scene since the ‘90s. Meet Dr NOKI, the original upcycler. Just don’t call him that…

NOKI does fashion on his own terms, including the language he prefers to describe his work. He “custom-builds” his “mashups” and “landfill drops”. It’s a practice that owes at debt to dadaism, and made sense of his dyslexia when he was young. The story reaches to back into the ‘90s club scene, through the culture jamming of the No Logo years to end up at the cutting edge where art and fashion collide today.

Now, a new generation that’s interested in sustainability is discovering him for the first time. Last year, Hypebeast heralded NOKI as “a tried and true member of the sustainability movement — arguably being a founder of the word before it even really became a thing.”

But does he relate to that? How does he see his work? What inspired it all back in ‘90s London’s rave scene? And how does he see the future for fashion’s young waste warrior disruptors? Part fashion history lesson, part provocation to challenge our consumerist culture, this one’s an adventure - enjoy!

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