I thought I had lost it all…Designer Papa Oyeyemi of Maxivive speaks on his Battle with Depression & Suicide Attempt
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At the just concluded Mens Fashion week, one of Nigeria’s unique talents – Papa Oyeyemi of the label Maxivive hosted an exclusive viewing of his latest collection tagged Okiti . Before the show commenced , a carton brown leaflet was given to each guest as they strolled onto the sky terrace. Written on it was a short story, demystifying the whole vibe of the presentation and alas that was what caught our attention the most . It was not just another collection profile but a whole new story of how Papa Oyeyemi was a victim of depression and how he battled , seeing suicide as the only way out . Excerpts below
It took, 7 days,30-hours- return-long weekend –Accra –gateway, my sister –Tomi ,and my friends Lexy, Furgil and Shola to fully break out a very dark state that brought about this collections called Okiti. This was a depression that came with a suicide attempt. I was in a vary unforgiving state ,a state where I felt guilty for every wrong thing around me , even though I has no guilt in them, rather, I should be taking offense for all I had done but get heartbreak and negative energies back. Let’s date it back a year when I lost someone really dare to me. A case ”see you tomorrow “ the very tomorrow that never come. 6 am the day after, , brought its own share of heartbreak. Like that wasn’t enough , wait for accurately 24 hours, and everlasting news broke and that’s where my “dead and gone” hypochondriac: found it living cell again. Imagine growing in a dark room that get darker after every nightfall, imagine that for over 10 months. It was stalk dark! Like the height of darkness before dawn. I thought I had lost it all, I tried to discipline but it came back biting me real big . all my investment in human abilities disappeared and took glory forms elsewhere .i was left alone with not else but my hypochondriac: it take more strength to end it ,it absolute bravery. I definitely wasn’t brave enough. If I were, you wouldn’t be reading this note . I fought my demons and I think I won but with help from people who could pick up signals around me and reached out to render their own weapon. I made it . Now you have Okiti, a hurt of pastel mint green , tones of brown carton shade and gray that almost graded into black but it didn’t …. That’s why we are hero. Okiti is a Yoruba word that can translate into Hill or heap in English.
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