Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
A Dayton native has just launched his first fashion collection, and he has hopes that his thought-provoking merchandise will make a lasting impression on the masses.
Christensen Oninku, a graduate of Stivers School for the Arts and Wright State University, is the creator and creative director of his fashion brand, Hause of Oninku. On Friday, April 30, Hause of Oninku released its first capsule collection, entitled “We Should’ve Never Met Like This.” According to Oninku, his first collection is inspired by the fact that he did not receive any formal training before setting out to create his brand.
“I think that part of it has to do with my informal introduction into fashion,” Oninku said. “I’m not technically trained and I didn’t go to school for fashion, so everything that I’m learning is all pretty much secondhand and just learning from mistakes. So, I think that ‘We Should’ve Never Met Like This’ really encapsulates that idea.”
The “We Should’ve Never Met Like This” capsule collection includes the “Please, Don’t Feed the Ducks” Trucker Hat, which comes in five different colors and is adorned with an image of a duck near a body of water, as well as shoulder totes, carrier totes, and the Sunset Collegiate Crewneck displaying the brand’s name in two different colors.
Though Oninku was not technically trained, just one scroll through his Instagram profile will tell you he takes fashion very seriously. The fashionable Columbus resident claims he has been inspired by fashionable icons in the rap music world like A$AP Rocky and Kanye West. At a certain point, Oninku finally had that “aha!” moment and began researching the work of design icons like Raf Simons and Jil Sander in order to emulate the construction and creativity that drives the making of a brand. Eventually, Oninku had the confidence to create his first fashion line.
