NKILI

N K I L I, seeing beautiful things is a luxury shirt-making brand focused on bringing light to the traditionally neglected yet single most important garment in a wardrobe, the shirt. N K I L I designs beautiful prints, aiming to make garments for people who value seasonless, quality pieces and attention to detail. Each piece goes on a journey, from design and print to production, nurtured by the highly skilled production team in Scotland. The process of combining tonal hand drawings with traditional silk-screen printing and hand painting techniques on pure silk makes each garment unique.

Raised in England, Tolani Nkili Onajide is a qualified Architect and studied Architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London and The University of Dundee School of Architecture, Scotland. She won awards and support from the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust and Cultural Enterprise Office for NKILI. She created NKILI aiming to create a women's luxury shirt-making brand that focused on producing the most beautifully crafted silk shirts that people would treasure. Her collection is influenced by one of the protagonists of modern Architecture, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe’s minimalist approach - ‘less is more’. To achieve the essential quality of a building, he striped everything down to a minimum to create extreme clarity and simplicity. By highlighting the garment in its pure form, without distraction, the craft and beauty can be seen.