Welcome to the 2012 Style Olympics, where our fashion all-stars are weighing in on the ways in which where they’re from have effected their personal style. Don’t forget to stay tuned for more this week!

I grew up in a small college town in the Midwest. Bloomington, IN was a little pocket of (relative) diversity and progressive thought in the heart of corn country, USA. I spent a pretty significant time around horses and haystacks for someone who didn’t grow up on a farm. This might be where my soft spot for everything cowboy developed. In the fall, especially, you can almost always find me in some combination of denim and worn in leather boots.

Bloomington is the kind of place where the county fair is the biggest event in town one summer and the next it’s a visit from the Dalai Lama. The small town had a population with people from all over the world, including my parents, who emigrated from Nigeria to study at Indiana University.

As a kid I only wore traditional Nigerian-style clothing to community or family gatherings where there would be mostly other immigrant families. But later in life, I started exploring mixing African fashion with my middle America-influenced style. These days I like to play with using waxcloth patterns in accessories.