Yaku makes video game clothes for the real world

Yaku Stapleton’s Farringdon studio is a technicolour fever dream. The walls are alive with sketches, fabrics and the kind of energy that makes you want to invent a new sport just so you can design the uniform for it. It’s like someone took a PlayStation controller, dipped it in neon paint and let it loose in a cartoon universe.

Since launching his namesake brand, Yaku, in 2023, the St. Albans-born, London-based designer has made a name for himself with innovative designs and immersive storytelling. His work is deeply personal, drawing as much inspiration from his Jamaican-Vincentian family as it does Afrofuturism and his love for chaotic video game characters. In fact, when I ask the 27-year-old how he’d describe his brand to an alien, he doesn’t miss a beat.

​“I’d tell the alien to imagine them and the people around them without limits. I’d ask who their family is. Everyone understands family.” He pauses, then adds, ​“But if I start using big words, they might not get it. Aliens probably don’t know what ​‘chaotic neutral’ means.”

Yaku’s design process is as unpredictable as his sense of humour. ​“It starts with thinking about what’s missing from our wardrobes and what we could stylise,” the Leeds Beckett and Central Saint Martins grad says, gesturing towards a rail featuring tracksuits, trousers, jackets and shoes twisted into his signature aesthetic. He’s recently begun riding a bike to the studio from his home in Crouch End, ​“so my needs are completely warped. I’ve got new friction zones. I don’t want my keys grinding on my leg while I’m cycling, so I’m rethinking pockets and zips.”

Yaku’s mind is a kaleidoscope of random, brilliant thoughts. When the conversation veers into religion – because, for reasons that are not easily explainable, it veers into religion – he drops this gem: ​“Jesus was definitely a chaos baller. I’m not religious, but I’m open to ideas. JME’s got a lyric about it.” (​“Not a believer/​Not no atheist either” from 2020’s Brothers & Sisters.)

He then reminisces about his church days, which were apparently all about the post-service doughnuts. ​“One time, my mum made us go to the whitest church ever. They had rock and guitars. The doughnuts after were sick, though. But eventually, you get enough bread that you can buy doughnuts whenever you want.”

For all the humour and chaos, Yaku is thoughtful about his work. ​“It’s really tricky to translate [emotions] completely into clothes,” he says. ​“I get bits of it in, but when you’re also trying to make sure the clothes are wearable, you only really get a single bit of the emotion. How do you make clothes that feel like the desire to create heroes, because there are no heroes that really look like you yet? I don’t think we’re there, but we’re getting there.”

He’s passionate, too, about sustainability and transparency in fashion. ​“In the fashion game, people don’t want to share anything, and that has a bad effect on sustainability. I’d like to see more sharing of information on processes, especially sustainable ones.”

More than anything, though, Yaku is quick to credit his team for the success of his self-titled brand. ​“It’s a team effort. Don’t let anyone confuse you or tell you it’s not,” he says. ​“I could only do 10 per cent of this on my own.”

Dream collaboration?

​“Louise Bourgeois. I think our worlds are different enough that we could have created something you wouldn’t be able to imagine. Both our worlds are quite personal, so it would have been interesting to have seen her perspective on how we might have worked together.”

Soundtrack?

​“Seems 2 Fade. Pretty V is something else. You can’t characterise his sound. He’s more uncharacterisable than most other artists. Sometimes he’s singing, sometimes he’s playing guitar, sometimes it’s just meme sounds. He’s cold.”

Dinosaur he’d fight if he had to fight a dinosaur?

​“A velociraptor. I’d take a shield bag and [my brother] Amir’s sledgehammer from [Fortnite] Season 1. Hit it on the head until it’s done, and it’s the same size as a turkey, so you might as well cook that. KFV: Kentucky Fried Velociraptor.”