KINGSLEY GBADEGESIN
Kingsley Gbadegesin is the Nigerian-American founder and designer of the New York-based fashion brand, K.NGSLEY. Through intentional fashion design and campaign messaging, Gbadegesin centers and celebrates the Black, queer and femme communities. Since launching the company in 2020, the designer has already managed to entice buyers from retail giants like SSENSE, Nordstrom and Shopbop with his genderless fashions. Many may have discovered K.NGSLEY through the brand’s infamous tank tops that shifted the realm of elevating the underwear essential, but now the designer produces full runway collections. This year, Gbadegesin designed custom outfits for the dancers on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour and presented the brand’s second runway collection, “School For Girls,” for Spring/Summer 2024. He describes his brand a Black owned and "birthed from the vibrancy of community activism" and created for Black, Queer, Fem folks. —G.E.