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Igee Okafor: The New Yorker With Style

By Christopher Ebuka
12 February 2018   |   2:00 pm
To Igee Okafor, seeing new places and experiencing new things is his favourite way of enjoying life. Although based in New York, the founder of eponymous lifestyle blog igeeokafor.com was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. After schooling in Paris and Spain, he moved to Hampton, Virginia to further his learning experience. In 2013, he…

To Igee Okafor, seeing new places and experiencing new things is his favourite way of enjoying life. Although based in New York, the founder of eponymous lifestyle blog igeeokafor.com was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. After schooling in Paris and Spain, he moved to Hampton, Virginia to further his learning experience. In 2013, he moved to New York City to attend St. John’s University where he studied Business and Marketing.

Where’s home?
Home is wherever I feel comfortable enough to be myself in every sense that it applies to.

What projects are you working on?
Currently, www.igeeokafor.com is my full-time job and I am working on everything I can possibly do to promote the online platform through everything else I enjoy doing outside of photography, and writing. This samples my interests in styling, curating events, contributing to other outlets, production work, and more.

Igee Okafor. Photo credit: Nick Urteaga.

What advice would you give to a tourist?
Fully immerse yourself in the culture. Don’t just stay in your hotel room all day. Talk to people, try the signature dishes and push yourself to experience life as one of the locals versus focusing on things that are more of the heavily publicised side. There’s more to every country, city, or town than its popular sites.

Why are you here?
I am in New York because I believe, at this point in my life, it’s where I am supposed to be. I am one of those people who firmly believe if you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere. The city can be as inspiring and enchanting as it is exhausting and comfortless. If one is able to tackle both aspects in such a two-faced city that can easily swallow everyone up, anything is possible. I am here doing my best to rise to the challenge.

What do you like about New York?
I enjoy the humans of New York: their work ethic, the way they may or may not see life, the fashion, the variety in culture and more. There are always layers to uncover. You’ll notice if you’ve lived here long enough.

What do you dislike about New York?
I’ll be honest; for me, there’s not a lot to dislike, but things could be less expensive and we can always put in more effort as it pertains to trying to help the homeless.

Best restaurant?
There are a variety of very fabulous restaurants, Vaucluse is one of them. The aura is very elegant considering the kind of people who dine there and the way the dining rooms are decorated. The price points at the restaurant also match the quality of the menu. So delicious!

What was the last tune you downloaded?
The last tune I downloaded was Erykah Badu’s Other Side of The Game.

What shoes are you wearing today and why?
I am wearing Paul Evan’s Chocolate Double Monkstraps.

What are you missing most?
I miss my childhood. I grew up with a lot of love, innocence and information around me. There was a lot of colour in my life in a way that highlighted doing things with without any form of calculation. I could wake up at 5:00 am only to start a marathon of Power Rangers on TV early. Don’t get me wrong, there still is a lot of colour in my life but in a more grown-up way. I cannot exactly just devote a whole day to Power Rangers!

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