Akinola Davies travels light. Really light. “My friends joke about it because whenever I travel I literally take a bag, like a backpack, even if I’m going for a week or two,” he says. “It’s really liberating. It kind of enables the mind to focus on being present.”
That focus is important because Davies, 35, is a renaissance man. Born in London and raised in Nigeria, he’s a tastemaker with an uncanny ability to harness community and predict the zeitgeist.
His work as a film-maker, photographer and DJ touches on multiple facets of culture, including fashion, music and fine art, regularly provoking conversations about social and political issues. He has made a film for Kenzo, celebrating his Nigerian heritage and the country’s youth, and has directed a documentary series for the BBC.
Last year, his film Boot/Leg became the subject of a solo exhibition at Art Basel in Switzerland, and his first US solo exhibition opened in Washington DC in April. Now he’s got a couple of “long form” projects in the pipeline, but doesn’t want to jinx them by discussing them prematurely.
“I’m very interested in trying to see how my work, or the way I look at things, would be interpreted in a different field,” he says. “Everyone’s clamouring for video at the moment, but there’s always been a symbiotic relationship with fashion and music and theatre and dance and performance.”
While some creatives use fashion as a means of expression, Davies expects his clothes to work as hard as he does, hence the lean approach to packing. They need to be classic, multifunctional and to transcend occasions and cultures. “I like things that can cross over between formal and non-formal. Things that feel like they can exist in dual spaces, dual environments,” he explains.
Over the past year or so, he’s streamlined his wardrobe too, driven by a growing awareness of waste and consumer consumption, as well as a need to not be distracted from his work. “I’m trying to simplify everything and buy fewer things, in more classic silhouettes – things that are multifunctional.”
So what he does buy needs to simultaneously deliver on style, quality, comfort and versatility. “I’ve got a pair of desert boots and I’ve got a pair of Wallabees, both brown,” he says of his favoured footwear. “They’re a thing you can wear to the office and a thing you can wear to the dance and a thing you can wear to the theatre.”
Davies is referring to the Clarks classics that have been a part of literary and music culture since the 1950s. The desert boot, originally inspired by footwear worn by British army officers stationed in north Africa during the second world war, became a favourite of the beatnik generation in the 1950s, then were picked up by the mods in the 1960s – the desert boot, along with Wallabees and the Desert Trek, had become central to Jamaican culture, and in the 1990s they became synonymous with both hip-hop in the US (courtesy of Ghostface Killah and the Wu-Tang-Clan) and Britpop in the UK (thanks to Noel Gallagher’s love of the shoe).
Davies says that his desert boots and Wallabees almost serve as an unspoken language among music lovers. “It’s kind of like a coded community,” he says. “But I think that code always makes things feel a lot more stylish.”
These cultural reference points in seemingly understated clothing represent a quiet kind of cool – one that comes from a perspective on culture typically associated with style innovators, not followers.
That’s certainly true of Davies, whose creative output takes significant priority over fashion. “I don’t like being bogged down with having to think about what I’m wearing or what I have to do,” he says. “I just want to throw things on, and that be it.”
My cultural niche
What are you currently reading?
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, and Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson.
Which account should we be following on Instagram?
@tshirtparty_tsp
Who inspires you?
Yousra Elbagir, the foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News.
Which film do you think everyone needs to see?
Moolaadé by Ousmane Sembène.
Box set or series recommendation?
Last Chance U on Netflix.
Which up-and-coming artist do we need to know about?
Shygirl. Her new track is called Uckers.
Whether you’re looking for rugged outdoor styles, casual dress, or tailored workwear, Clarks has the right styles, with comfort built in that you can rely on. Shop in-store or online at clarks.co.uk
