Just Icon Finds Creativity Under Pressure

Just Icon, a budding Nigerian streetwear label has recently released a new collection titled PRESSURE 20-20.

Like most creatives, Emmanuel Goodnews, the creative director of Just Icon, found himself in the tragic mix of the crisis that came with the Covid-19 pandemic. Fighting the clock and using that pressure as a management technique, spurred great leaps of insights for him to stay safe, calm and productive.

According to him,

“It’s been a scary time these past few months and I am driven by the desire to create. Creativity is such a superpower. Every single one of us is creative – to some degree and being able to transcend traditional ideas, come up with new rules, interpretations, and ways of doing things is enliving!”

From start to finish, the 6-piece capsule collection focuses on fabric construction; delivering key street-style inspired looks, without the styling and theatrics of a show. It is more than an assemblage of aesthetically pleasing, hyper-pigmented, pervasive shots.

In the words of the creative director,

“The relationship between stress and creativity is not entirely a toxic one. I like to think of pressure as a pathway which allows for creativity to flow. It solely depends on how you perceive it. Oftentimes, pressure comes because there’s not enough time but that can be a blessing in disguise. When there’s no time, you can’t over think things, you can’t procrastinate or allow for others to meddle and water it down. With this collection, I’m communicating the message that it is okay to feel burnt out, overwhelmed and pressured. The primary thing is that you find the inspiration to get out of your comfort zone, discover your purpose and score points.”

Beyond inspiration culled from his challenges as a creative, a consciousness is paid to the role of his environment, Lagos, as is germane to the core of the brand –previous collections Sabí and Awâlá are testament to this.

Butttessing this, Emmanuel says,

“Lagos is a paradise for Nigerian hustlers. It is a land of business and job opportunities -a profitable and lucrative chaos which highlights the paradox of living in the city. It was built from blood and sweat, and raw ambition. That is the Lagos I grew up to see and that is the Lagos that inspires Just Icon.”

Emmanuel offers a tasty color palette of yellow, green, blue with his choice of fabrics being raw cotton, crepe, squadron, and adire which serve as a reference to his stance on building Just Icon into a socially conscious brand in Nigeria. With this collection, he bears credence to the fact that while creatives need to be artistically stimulated, stimulus is not one dimensional and can be birthed from the unlikeliest of places.

The foundations for Just Icon are of urban, interchangeably versatile, sartorial pieces that fall in line with a sporty, yet high-end element.

Check out the lookbook below: