Artisanal One: The Spiritual & Object-Led World Designed by Adémidé Udoma

At Artisanal One, nothing exists in isolation. Clothes bleed into interiors, interiors bleed into sound, and sound bleeds into the lived rhythm of the people who orbit the practice. For artist and designer Adémidé Udoma, Artisanal One is a living ecosystem, built from Yoruba memory, Japanese avant-garde attitude, Italian sartorial rigour, and the eternal engine of hip-hop.

“I’ve always been someone who puts things together that maybe shouldn’t be together,” he says. “But I see the beauty in them, and then that becomes a new thing in itself.” That intuitive, experimental methodology, avant-garde almost by accident, has shaped a practice that now moves seamlessly between garments, objects and creative direction.

Udoma’s influences were first formed at home: not in the fashion capitals of the world, but in the rituals of his Yoruba and Ibibio upbringing. “I’m half Yoruba, half Ibibio,” he says. “When I was three or four, we had a tailor who would make our outfits for ceremonies. So from a young age, I already saw clothes as hands-on, therapeutic, something constant.” This early contact with craft planted the seed for a lifelong understanding of garments as emotional objects. Years later, those childhood fabrics would echo through unexpected corners of his education, from the deep, sun-kissed navies of Italian tailoring to the indigos of Yoruba ceremonial dress.

He often explains this dynamic by breaking his influences into distinct emotional roles. “The Japanese influence is emotional,” he says. “The African influence is identity. The Italian influence is comfort.” Black American culture, which he cites as the foundation of his creative awakening, gave him a different kind of energy: the courage to question, to rebel, and to express himself without hesitation.

Then came streetwear, hip-hop, and Japanese avant-garde. “Hip-hop is my biggest influence in life,” he says. “That’s what truly started my creative journey.”

As a teenager, it was the rawness of hip-hop and the stark, melancholic defiance of brands such as Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, and Undercover that spoke to him. “I grew up in quite tumultuous times, misunderstood,” he says. “A lot of that Japanese avant-garde work felt intimate, layered, and vulnerable… it resonated with me.”

Growing up in London, Udoma absorbed the worlds of Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, Nas, John Coltrane, and Fela Kuti. These artists and thinkers shaped how he understood language, selfhood, and survival. He describes their impact as both intellectual and emotional. “They gave me questions,” he explains. “They gave me spirit. They gave me a wider perspective.” For him, art and literature represented access to self-expression, emotional exploration, and artistic risk. One of the most important ideas within the Artisanal One philosophy is something Udoma refers to as “the universe talks, soul listens”. These words emerged from years of private reflection and poetry writing. The idea expresses a belief that intuition is a direct form of communication between a person’s inner world and the work they are meant to create.

For Udoma, design does not begin with sketches or theory. It begins with listening to the emotions that surface in moments of inspiration, attuning to the spiritual resonance of an idea, and trusting the instincts that guide a creative decision, even when external experts disagree.

“You have to be brave enough to trust your soul,” he says. “Sometimes someone with sixty years of experience will tell you that you’re wrong. But deep down, you know you’re right. Working with specialist technicians is integral to the quality of what we do, but creative decisions have to remain as pure as possible.”

Udoma is acutely aware that different people approach design from different vantage points. A technical practitioner will prioritise structure, while a creative practitioner will prioritise feeling. His role is to merge both perspectives without compromising the integrity of the work. “People lean into their bias,” he says. “The best work happens when everyone understands their role.”

Although his creative instincts are strong, Udoma insists that the real sophistication of his work lies not in pure design but in engineering. Design, he says, is “the easy part”. What challenges him is the process of making something feel right. Comfort, for him, is a form of spiritual alignment. For this reason, he rarely uses mannequins in his studio. He prefers to test garments on real people, often himself. This approach allows him to maintain a direct physical relationship with his work and ensures that each piece speaks to the body rather than to a standardised system.

If one garment could summarise everything Artisanal One represents, it would be the AONE Inam Jacket. The concept lived in Udoma’s imagination for nearly a decade before it was brought to life. The design centres on a sharply defined asymmetry: a peak lapel on one side and a curved, sculptural lapel on the other, creating a structure that feels both timeless and entirely new.

When the jacket was finally constructed, Udoma realised its significance extended beyond aesthetics. The piece reminded him of images of his father during his most successful years working in the Nigerian oil industry in the early 1990s. His father often wore double-breasted jackets, and even after the trend faded, he continued to wear them as a reminder of the era in which he likely felt most powerful.

It was a period defined by corporate power dressing, a look immortalised in films such as Wall Street, American Psycho, and Trading Places; Armani and Valentino suits with bold proportions, wide shoulders, and assertive silhouettes. Subconsciously, Udoma had inherited his father’s visual language. The AONE Inam Jacket became a reinterpretation of those memories and a modern reconstruction of a silhouette tied to family legacy. He named the jacket after his father as an act of honour and recognition.

Udoma’s shift away from his past commercial projects required significant sacrifice. Artisanal One needed its own infrastructure to survive independently, while he required the freedom to build a vision from scratch. This meant self-funding, cultivating a new audience, and accepting that not everyone would follow the evolution. However, artistic integrity demanded it. Ideas left unexpressed eventually become burdens, and he had nearly a decade’s worth of concepts waiting to be realised. Creativity demands evolution, even though audiences often seek familiarity.

His process today resembles world-building more than traditional seasonal design. Moodboarding sets the tone but does not dictate rigid collections; instead, it informs an overarching vision that spans garments, objects, photography, film, and spatial work. Patterns are engineered with precision, beginning in calico to test proportion, balance, and, in particular, the fall of the shoulder, critical given the garments’ reliance on minimal internal structure. Fabric testing follows, considering how fibres shrink, soften, or stretch over time. Pieces are worn for days to ensure they age honestly. Once a silhouette is resolved, it becomes part of a core collection, functioning much like the house styles of a bespoke tailoring atelier, creating forms that can be endlessly reinterpreted through cloth and finishing choices rather than redesigned from scratch each season.

The same philosophy extends to objects and interiors. Sculptures and furniture are designed with the potential for commission, whether for installations, domestic spaces, or commercial environments. What began as production and costume design is set to expand into private interior projects in 2026, allowing clients to inhabit the world Udoma crafts through both material and atmosphere.

Artisanal One’s growth has been organic. Japan was the first region to deeply understand the practice's sensibility, and demand there has grown consistently. This international interest has provided the resources necessary for the practice to expand while preserving its intimacy. Made-to-order clients form the backbone of Artisanal One’s ecosystem. These clients are deeply invested in both the philosophy and the craft of the practice. They come not only for garments, but also for interior design, personal wardrobe development, and creative consultancy.

With increased production capacity in Japan, Artisanal One is entering a new chapter focused on deepening its direct relationships while exploring thoughtful collaborations. Rather than relying on traditional retail channels or fashion weeks, the brand is prioritising meaningful engagement through trunk shows in cities with established Artisanal One communities. This approach ensures that those who connect with the practice share its values and appreciation for craftsmanship.

Looking ahead, Artisanal One is exploring innovative ways to build relationships with select stockists who understand the power of storytelling, partners capable of bringing the practice's narrative to life for their customers. These collaborations will serve as gateways for understanding how different regions interpret and engage with the Artisanal One ethos. At the same time, the practice will expand its made-to-order programme, introducing more public-facing appointments and in-depth fittings to a broader audience while preserving the sense of intimacy that defines its work.

Although global influences shape the Artisanal One universe, the most fundamental influence on Udoma’s creative life is his mother. She is his moral centre, his spiritual anchor, and the first person to teach him the meaning of craft. He often says, “My mother is the common denominator in everything I have done,” and he means it both literally and symbolically.

Photography by Adémidé Udoma

Udoma also credits his mother with teaching him the true meaning of responsibility as an extension of love. “You learn that love isn’t about reciprocation,” he says. “It’s about identity. If you love someone, you do it because it is who you are.” This belief has become central to his approach to craft. He treats Artisanal One as something that must be protected, nourished, and guided into maturity. “It is my baby,” he says. “You protect it like a parent. And at some point, it grows, and you have to let people experience it.”