Kristopher Enuke

Los Angeles is a melting pot of cultures, and designer Kristopher Enuke reflects that multicultural mix in his designs. Nigerian born, English educated and raised in Los Angeles, he brings an eclectic background to his work: he retains the Los Angeles cool in his designs while still letting a bit of English eccentricity emerge. The result is a celebration of classic elegance and ethnicity with a distinct Angeleno air. This page is his biography in this guide.

Enuke designs for his label Oligo Tissew, and pays passionate attention to detail and fit while reinventing the clothing. The label's official website is linked in the references, together with the Los Angeles runway show coverage of Oligo Tissew filed in this guide.

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not this designer's own garments.

Nigeria, England, Los Angeles

Three places made the designer. Nigeria gave him his roots and the village to which his success is now deliberately tied; England gave him his education and the eccentricity that surfaces in his clothes; Los Angeles — where he was raised and where he works — gave him the relaxed polish that keeps the other two influences wearable. Few designers carry a genuinely three-continent formation, and Enuke's clothes are the record of it: classic elegance, ethnic reference and California ease held in one line.

Before designing for Oligo Tissew, he attended Otis Parsons and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design. He gathered experience at companies from denim to knitwear, which rounded out his education in textiles and production — the practical grounding behind the attention to detail and fit his clothes are known for. Kristopher Enuke is a sought-after talent whose reputation for design often precedes him.

Oligo Tissew: Refined Cloth, Given Back

Kristopher coined the Oligo Tissew label to mean “refined cloth”. The label is held by its parent company Oliver Twist, whose philosophy — the orphan who made good — Enuke's own story reflects. The Oligo Tissew line holds his passion for design, but it is also his way of giving back: he has set up a scholarship fund in his hometown village in Nigeria so that village children can improve their future, and the success of the line enables him to help ensure the salaries of the village school teachers as well.

His main intent is to make the wearer of his clothing feel at her most confident and beautiful — design as a form of attention paid to the woman wearing it. The Oligo Tissew line is one expression of his talents, and one that many admirers wish to reflect and many women wish to wear: refined cloth, designed in Los Angeles, with its success flowing back to the village where the designer's story began.