Style in The Stuy: Ixele

There is nothing better than a Brooklyn girl. She is creative, thinking just ahead and slightly to the left of a, well, ‘regular’ girl. She possesses a self-assuredness that you can only find here – an attitude that’s evident from her swag, to her shoes, with a metropolitan perspective to match.

It starts early.

When Ixele Akinmowo-Simon or Ixe (ee-shay), age 9, walked down her Brownstone steps in a hot pink bubble vest, a black eyelet skirt with crinoline peaking out and silver ballet slippers, she was confident and she was not alone.

She brought a prop, her doll Trichelle, who was rocking big curly hair and an Ixele original. Ixe figured that if we were going to be talking style in Bed-Stuy, surely she should bring an example of one of her own creations:

‘This is my design,” she said, pointing to the doll’s clothing. “It’s a floral wrap skirt and a wrap top that’s tan with sparkles in the fabric.”

Perhaps her penchant for design came from her experience as a model on Lifetime’s Project Runway, season seven, where the competing designers had to create a look for little girls and then paired the look with a pretend mom/model.

Although her designer didn’t win that night, Ixe says, “I had fun, and I really liked my designer and the model; we were able to get to know each other.” 

Ixe credits her mom, yoga guru Ola Akinmowo, for the shopping part of her artistry, of course. But when asked who chose what she wore everyday, Ixe turned directly toward me, pointed at herself and said, with all due respect, “I do. I choose my look everyday.” 

Home-schooled, Ixe’s curriculum includes focused trips to places like the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Arts, The Romare Bearden exhibit opening, the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum, drawing classes and lots of plays and musicals-- all experiences that are sure to push the ingenuity of her look forward.

And like any good Brooklyn girl, Ixe has a philosophy: “If you don’t have style, then you don’t have a special way of showing yourself. Your sense of fashion shows your personality.”