Charlotte Ryan speaks to Goodness Mphelo, co-founder of street style social account WabiSabi, about documenting Dublin's shifting fashion scene in real time and creating a community-led fashion event to spotlight 'normal' fashion lovers in the city.
When I ask Goodness Mphelo, the co-founder of Dublin street style social media account WabiSabi, if any street interview stays in his memory to this day, his response is immediate.
"One conversation was with a lad in the North who was wearing tracksuits, like Nike Tech", he recalls. "I didn't understand the divide that exists culturally in Dublin. We'd never interviewed somebody who dresses like this and in my head, I see it as fashion. It's just a different type of fashion."
"We start talking about fashion, but we end up talking about deeper things. And he's like, 'Can you guess what job I do based on what I'm wearing?' I'm like, 'Are you a coach?'
"He was like laughing, like, 'It seems like you don't understand the context of what I'm perceived as here, especially within Dublin, you don't understand how many times I get stopped by the cops because I wear it like this'. This is a White fella!
"Then in my head, as a Black man hearing him talk about this, I'm like, Oh, you're being treated like the way I've been normally treated as a Black man existing just because of where you dress. And that's when it hit me. I was like, oh, there's a different discrimination that exists in the city that I'm not used to."
Mphelo has been using fashion as a way of meeting and understanding Dubliners for over two years, with his social media videos often going viral.
WabiSabi started as an idea for a curated thrifting community, where Mphelo and Sylvia, his girlfriend at the time, would travel to Milan, scoop up the high quality, inexpensive gems from Italian charity shops and sell them on in a vibey hang-out setting in Dublin.
Worn out by a social culture that revolved around drinking, Mphelo wanted to create a space where fashion lovers could come, meet and create content together.
After a successful first run, the pair realised they didn't like the selling part of it. What they gravitated towards, however, were the street interviews they'd started doing to build their online platform. Getting Irish people to proudly take up space and talk about their outfits proved a challenge at the start:
"I remember the first day we went out was on a Sunday. We walked around for two hours and no one— we stopped a few people and all of them were like, 'No'", Mphelo recalls. "You know, Irish culture is always like, really like, 'No, thank you. Thank you, but no.'"
Two years on and people are practically flagging the WabiSabi team down for an opportunity to gush about their looks.
"Once you see somebody doing something, someone being free in their own expression of fashion, it inspires others to be more expressive with their own fashion", Mphelo says. "A lot more people are willing to express themselves because they're no longer an anomaly. You're no longer just the one that's sticking out, you're now part of a community."
Creating that community has been a priority for Mphelo since day one, so with Spotted Runway the vision has come full circle. "I'm seeing a runway just by walking around. It's a runway! Why don't I try and recreate this in a fashion show style where we actually make a runway for normal people to showcase their clothes and see if people are interested in it?"
Taking place in the Fumbally on 4 June, the show will feature 12 'normal' people with an eye and love for fashion, who will present two outfits from their own wardrobe on the runway.
"I'm not looking for models, I'm looking for normal people to showcase their own clothes", Mphelo stresses.
A team of judges will choose a winner on the night, with some prizes doled out for the best dressed guests on the night, and a 45-minute break in the middle to allow for plenty of mingling.
Creating an environment for the fabulously dressed among us to meet and chat was key for the WabiSabi team, especially one that doesn't have any ulterior motives or catches. "I wanted to create a space where we can celebrate without necessarily having a fashion show, that doesn't sell you anything", Mphelo says.
"When I see people walking around in the city with their style, now the thing that's lacking is spaces for them to express and meet other with a like mind."
Finding that space, however, was far more challenging than getting Irish people to take a compliment and talk through their looks: "There's a housing crisis, there's also a venue crisis. There's just no spaces."
The event is also completely unsponsored, pulled off through collaborations and on the team's own dime, like many of the most exciting events currently happening in the city: "There's no one who's giving me money", Mphelo says. "People will be like, oh, you're making this for money. I'm like, I wish. I've already spent so much money before the event even comes out just because I want to create the space."
While greater supports are desperately needed to keep fostering these dynamic and fun events in the city, Mphelo also clearly takes pride in being able to give something back to Dublin, having moved here from South Africa just a few years ago:
"I think there's also a big part of being somebody who came here as an immigrant. Having Wabi Sabi has made me feel at home because I'm contributing to a place that I'm calling home.
"I remember the first year when I moved here, I'd walk around in the streets on a Friday when like during summertime when it's hot and I'd sit by a bar having a pint by myself and no one would say hi because I was new. And I missed the idea of being very back home where I'm like sitting down, like you see friends from work, he's like, hey, how have you been? You see people that you went to school with.
"Now I'm like, I'm home. I'm creating my home here because I'm creating things that are also outside of me."
Get tickets for the Spotted Runway here.
