What started as an “open-closet policy” with Timi Komonibo’s sisters turned into a social enterprise focused on sustainable fashion, empowerment and fashion philanthropy.

Komonibo, director of recruitment and diversity at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, is a recipient of 2017 Bustle’s Upstart Award, which honors her as a young woman making strides in the business, fashion and beauty and philanthropy industries.

Komonibo founded Style Lottery in 2013, when she began setting up pop-up swaps full of clothes for women to exchange and understand the importance of sustainability. Patrons come to the pop-up swaps with clothes and then exchange with other patrons. Style Lottery donates the leftover clothing to local organizations.

On Nov. 11, Style Lottery will occupy The Infinite POP-UP SHOP’s Armory Square space, located at 201 Walton St., which hosts local artists and vendors throughout the year.

“It’s a group of different vendors who are selling from the community, so we are going to be one of the vendors there doing a pop-up swap,” Komonibo said. “It’s a really cool opportunity once again to meet members of the community and be part of the small business world.”

Style Lottery began as a simple idea of sharing clothes with her sisters and family. Expanding her clothing swaps to her friends, Komonibo realized the swaps were “like one of those ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ experiences.”

She opened the exchange to the community as a way to mix fashion with philanthropy. Komonibo said the social enterprise side of Style Lottery now funds the nonprofit side.

“Sometimes sustainability seems so big and philanthropy seems so big, but once people realize it, it’s as simple as going to a swap or donating something or donating their time,” she said.

Komonibo graduated with bachelor’s degrees from The University of Texas at Austin and continued her education at Syracuse University, graduating in 2015 with a public diplomacy dual-degree in the Newhouse School and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Courtesy of Timi Komonibo

As a graduate student, Komonibo spoke at TEDxSU in 2014 about her social enterprise. That event was the first TEDx on SU’s campus, and Komonibo had the opportunity to speak alongside leaders, including Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and empowerment speaker Arel Moodie.

Komonibo said her TEDx talk made her realize fashion philanthropy is not something people talk about often.

Alongside her role as the founder of Style Lottery, Komonibo also works as the director of recruitment and diversity at Newhouse.

“By day I am an admissions officer, and I’m recruiting, and by night, I’m doing more philanthropy and sustainability kind of work,” she said. “It kind of draws me two different directions, but it keeps me on my toes.”

Though she was a middle school teacher in her hometown before coming to SU, the philanthropist became involved with recruitment because of her passion for helping students get into college.

Komonibo works with both prospective students as well as enrolled students. SU junior Annaya English works with Komonibo through the TNH Agency, a student-run advertising agency.

English decided to get involved with account management and client relationships and was assigned the Style Lottery account without knowing much about the social enterprise beforehand.

“She will probably be the easiest client I will ever work with in my entire life,” English said.

English said she admires Komonibo for her work ethic and poise as a woman of color. With hopes to be an entrepreneur herself, English is inspired by Komonibo’s ability to balance the Style Lottery and her role as a Newhouse director.

Both English and Komonibo have experience with the Newhouse Ambassador program — English as an advertising ambassador and Komonibo as the director. Aside from working with Style Lottery, English said she appreciates Komonibo’s willingness to help students like herself further their careers.

“We can talk about the (advertising industry) and have a long, drawn-out debate about that,” English said. “When I hear her perspective, it’s just that she is so well-informed in so many different things that it’s super interesting to talk to her, not about Style Lottery but about issues in the world.”

Courtesy of Timi Komonibo

Melissa Cadwell, a Students with Sustainability adviser, connects students from the sustainability organization with Komonibo for clothing swaps she’s coordinated on campus.

Caldwell said coordinating students with Style Lottery is as simple as an introduction with the founder, who welcomes the help and organizes the clothing swaps.

“It’s a positive vibe,” she said. “I’ve been to two Style swaps, and at both of them, the kids were having so much fun. They dropped their articles of clothing off, and they would go through the racks. There was just this really fun, happy vibe going on, and they seemed to really enjoy it.”

Komonibo said she likes that students, in many ways, provide the power and brains that go into running Style Lottery, such as coordinating and managing the event and setting up closets and racks.

Cadwell remembered seeing people wear the clothes they got from one of the clothing swaps at an event and thinking how great it was to see that people were taking advantage of sustainable clothing.

With fashion styles shifting often, Cadwell said swapping clothes offers a sustainable way for people to change their look.

“Every year it’s a new trend, so being able to update your wardrobe and being able to change it without having to spend a lot of money, especially for college-aged students and for low-income students, it’s important to be able to do that,” she said.

Komonibo said that at some point in college she realized fashion makes a statement about who someone is and how they represent themselves. The things she has to do on a certain day often determines how Komonibo dresses, she said.

Whether it be bold lipstick, or a quirky look to lighten the mood on a certain day, Komonibo said she is, “very aware of the messaging that clothes give.”

Published on October 31, 2017 at 8:25 pm

Contact Connor: cbfogel@syr.edu