One garment, six lives: How Ile Sosan is redefining sustainable fashion

Debut brand’s six-in-one blazer dress offers a smart solution to overconsumption

Many of us have been there: half of our clothes sprawled across the floor, standing in front of a wardrobe still bursting with options, yet we feel we have nothing to wear. It’s a cycle of overconsumption and confusion that shapes our relationship with fashion today. For designer Star Sosan, that familiar dilemma sparked a vision. Her brand, Ile Sosan, launched in September 2025, redefines what a single garment can do. 

Ile Sosan means ‘House of Sosan’ or ‘Sosan’s home’ in Yoruba. Sosan says, “It’s a tribute to my late father’s surname and a reflection of my roots. It reminds me that home is where my heart – and my creativity -truly live.”

Sosan has been immersed in fashion since the beginning: “Growing up, my mum owned several boutiques, so creativity and style were part of my world from the start,” she says. Her fashion entrepreneurship first began in 2019, but something felt missing. “It did well but didn’t feel purposeful enough to me,” Sosan says. “I then spent the next five years researching the real challenges women face: like having plenty of clothes but nothing to wear, the pressure to constantly post new looks online, and the struggle to pack light when travelling.” She also says she wanted to counter fast fashion with quality pieces that last.

These insights shaped Ile Sosan’s core mission: creating transformable garments that allow women to express different sides of themselves while consuming less.   

This philosophy then led to the Duo Reversible Blazer Dress, Ile Sosan’s debut piece, a garment that transforms to create six different looks. One side features a sleek black, while the reverse reveals a playful pink, reflecting a balance between practicality and personality. It can also be worn with a belt styled with a bow at the front or back, and can also work without the bow, as either a soft, tailored jacket or buttoned-up dress.

The point is to offer wearers multiple ways to style this one garment. As stylist Kaddi Ceesay explains, when building a capsule wardrobe, “The most important things are versatility and colour.”

Sosan’s design delivers both; its adaptability allows it to fit any occasion, while the contrasting colours allow the wearer to choose what mood they want to portray. 

In an industry that fosters overconsumption and constant newness, this blazer offers a solution: “When one piece can serve multiple functions, it naturally reduces waste and overconsumption,” Sosan says. 

The volume of apparel produced worldwide in 2024 was 186.42 billion pieces, and it is projected to grow a further 12.02 billion by 2029, according to Statista, showing a clear upward trend. Much of this responsibility lies with companies; overproduction fuels overconsumption.

Sosan’s approach counters this at a structural level. “We do limited edition runs and avoid multiple restocks to reduce waste,” she says. By producing less and designing transformable garments, it encourages customers to wear items multiple times, tackling the fast fashion cycle. “Fast fashion thrives on one-time wear, but transformable design gives clothes new life again and again,” she says.

For consumers, transformable fashion offers a tangible way to make more mindful shopping choices. A Mintel survey found that 59% of consumers say that how sustainable a company is influences their fashion purchases. Sosan has picked up on this demand: “Consumers are tired of buying new outfits for every occasion and then reselling or discarding them. As sustainability becomes a bigger priority, the appeal of versatile, long-lasting clothing is growing. It just needs a few leaders and the right visibility to push it forward,” she says.

Ceesay adds: “Transformable fashion is safer for the environment, and retailers are currently moving towards more sustainable products and designs.”

Conclusively, transformable fashion represents more than a passing trend; it reflects a shift in how consumers value more conscious consumption.

Although the demand for sustainable brands is there, creating clothes that transform can come with its own set of challenges: “Each piece must adapt and transform while keeping its shape and comfort,” Sosan said. When it comes to the manufacturing of these garments, it can be difficult, as “Most production systems are built for static garments, so many manufacturers refuse to produce it unless I place huge orders.” As well as this, “Sampling takes a lot of time and costs more because the concept is unfamiliar,” Sosan says.

When thinking about the creativity of the garments, Sosan says she follows this rule of thumb: ”If a piece can’t transform beautifully or intuitively, I won’t release it.” 

Looking ahead, she plans to expand her collection with convertible jeans and new modular systems that allow women to adapt outfits to their moods and occasions. “I’m more interested in creating wearable, everyday pieces than extreme statement looks,” she says. “Transformability should feel natural, not niche.”

While Sosan is still at the beginning of this venture, her work shows that innovation doesn’t always mean creating something new; sometimes, it means reimagining what already exists. Ultimately, she says, “If my work sparks curiosity or inspires someone to rethink what a garment can do, then I’ve achieved my goal.”