ITOHAN

ITOHAN
Omoregbee

Howdy, my name is Ito which is short for Itohan - and means sympathy or mercy in Edo. I’m a professional dilettante/slumlord, lapsed tomboy, ridgy didge wildflower AKA, just an old gal in the last throws of finishing her masters in clinical psych (Inshallah!).

I grew up in St Marys via way of Nigeria and now live in what was once described to me as the ‘Bhagdahd end” of Potts Point. Vale the Cross.

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I’m a maximalist with the heart of a hoardeR

I think of style as the telegraphing of internal / sociocultural / emotional / financial / historical / gendered beliefs about oneself that are both conscious and subconscious, externally.

a history of quality

My grandmother made most of my clothes as a child and they were wild! Butterick/McCall’s/Knitwitt patterns that were altered to suit her whims, made out of fabrics that were always a little OTT.

Every Christmas, my dad would take us to pick out a “fancy” outfit as our specific Christmas present from him. He would also bring back traditional Nigerian outfits in the same matching wax print or Adire fabric (traditional Nigerian batik/tie dye) that the whole family would be decked out in. My dad would pay my brother and I 50c to wear them!

All this to say that I am pro small and independent labels, clothing that is sustainably made, built to last decades, not seasons; in styles and cuts that are sometimes odd, but also timeless. I love getting dressed up, and I no longer have to be paid to do so!

clothing as a uniform

I do dig “a man in uniform”. I have a real sense of intrigue concerning men who have a “look” which they stick to, and wear like a uniform. Like a cartoon character or say a tech CEO, which is a wonderful way to signify “uniqueness”.

Anecdotally, I do think more men than women engage in this type of behaviour - something something . . . the patriarchy . . . internalised misogyny - think Karl on Sunrise wearing the same suit for a year. I don’t think women would get away with this in the same way a man would. For myself though, I could never wear a “uniform” cause I like to dress “according to my mood” - although a “mood” might last a couple of weeks sometimes. So that would be the closest I could get to wearing a personal uniform.

For me, I feel like I make decisions on what I wear mostly based on how I feel inside that day. We all contain multitudes, so sometimes I like to dress in a more masculine or feminine way; playing dress ups with myself that relate to things that I’m interested in culturally or sub-culturally.

It is especially interesting to me what happens when I don’t care what I am wearing in the sense that I’m dressed like a “slob” i.e in trackie dax or my pjs (which I am obsessed with) braless with unkempt hair to go down the street to get some groceries etc. I am often trailed by security guards. I have also been stopped by police when out and about dressed in a clothing that some authoritarian types might more typically associate with drug dealers and lad culture (shoutout to Air Max 95s which were the shoe de jour to have when I was a teen in St Marys alongside a pair of purple Oakley Frogskins).

the psychology of style

From a psychological perspective, it is well known that initial impressions upon meeting a person for the first time are made within about 8 seconds and that small changes in clothing choice can communicate different information to a perceiver.

Which basically means WE all judge people on the way that they dress to make inferences about them as people, the “tribe” they belong to and what their choice of clothing might telegraph about the wearers identity.

There is this other process or phenomenon called enclothed cognition, which basically means how the clothes we wear influence our way of thinking and feeling, both symbolically and physically. Interestingly or commonsensically (n.b. there is a reason why some research seems stupid to pursue even when most people know certain things to be universally true) research has demonstrated a clear relationship between between mood, personality and aesthetic preferences and that wearing certain clothing can change the way we think to generating increased productivity in the workplace.