Soull Ogun and the Power of L'Enchanteur
Soull Ogun was a rapper, tennis instructor, and even a psychology and sociology double major before she found her way to the luxury design world. Today, she is half of the luxury concept brand L’Enchanteur (L’E). She and her twin sister Dynasty Ogun are conceptual artists and designers on the rise. Dynasty handles the clothing and textile department of the brand while Soull crafts the jewelry primarily handling all of L’E’s metal and crystal objects.
L’E is currently in the middle of a rebrand as the sisters “take it to the next level” Soull says in a conversation over the phone. “[We are] in the midst of finding different ways of expressing what the brand is and who we are… What we're doing right now is really focusing in on our audience and really catering to them,” she says. They are focusing on getting more global awareness and expanding their networks, using their platform to really share information and connect and grow with their audience Soull says. Carrying everything from embroidered tees, silk durags, gold finger caps, and a concoction titled “Love Thyself Potion,” L’Enchanteur serves a market that had been previously unaccommodated in the luxury world. Over the phone, Dynasty describes the brand’s unique audience as “connoisseurs… People who like to collect items and also pass down heirlooms. People who look to use tools in personal and spiritual ways as well,” she says.
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Before they became luxury designers, the young entrepreneurs grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Dynasty laughs as she recalls the business she and Soull had in middle school. “We had a business where we would write peoples papers for them and they would pay us for it,” she says. Now 34, Dynasty says she and Soull had double the knowledge growing up, collecting their individual experiences and reporting it back to the other twin. Both Dynasty and Soull credit the combination of creativity and access to information growing up to their development into designers today.
Growing up in Flatbush, Soull describes her home life as a “joint two brain operation.” Her father, who grew up in Nigeria, is a scientist, studying biochem and computer science. He kept several collections of encyclopedias around the house that Dynasty and Soull often look through as kids. Her mother grew up in Dominique, an island in the Carribean West Indies, and is an artist, seamstress, and cook. She was always encouraging and took Dynasty and Soull, who were the youngest of six, to explore different areas of the city, even sending them to an elementary school outside of their Flatbush neighborhood.
“I think… the [elementary] school [my mom] sent us to really gave us... a reach of not only Brooklyn, it took us to the world. I was just like ‘yo, there's so many people in Brooklyn but there are way more people in the world,’” Soull says. Looking back, she sees her exposure to so many different people and cultures in elementary school as a pivotal moment in her life. “That was the favor that my mom performed for us, by really making it a point to send us to another place [in the city],” she says.
Soull says growing up in the house paved the way for her to become an artist, but it also was where she found another passion: psychology and sociology. She started reading her older brother’s psychology books at 12 years old when he started taking a psychology class in college, after that she started taking sociology and psychology courses in school whenever she got the chance. Although she initially went to school for the subject, she found it wasn't the path for her. She says, “I didn't graduate college. I was just kind of like ‘ehh, academia’ but with that, it was a conscious choice.”
That doesn't mean she stopped pursuing information though, the transition actually encouraged her to buckle down even more on educating herself. “If I'm not going to be in a world that's always supplying me with information to take in, I need to be supplying myself with that… So if I'm reading 3-5 books per semester [at school] that means I have to double that… If I am lacking in information then I think it's important that I go out and research it. Something I got from my mother and father, if you want to learn something you have to go out there and learn it,” Soull says. The self-teaching didn't stop there, she and her sister are both self-taught designers and craftswomen.
———--
She still finds a way to bring in her roots of psychology and sociology into her design work, playing with color theory and symbolism amongst other things. “Symbolism to me is a level of psychology because it’s what something symbolizes and the way that someone perceives it,” she says. “So, for instance, we had been working around the watermelon and in… black America it was a symbol of something that was negative.” According to Soull, after the abolition of slavery, the newly freed black Americans were trying to sustain themselves, and would often sell watermelons due to the fruit’s abundance and ease of production. Because of this, anti-abolitionists created propaganda around the watermelon and black Americans giving even white abolitionists the perception that black Americans were scary Soull says.
L’Enchanteur features several pieces with watermelon symbolism, including variations of t-shirts with a watermelon slice embroidered over the heart, and a hand dyed longbill cap with a green visor and a watermelon pink paneled cap sporting embroidered black seeds. “When [Dynasty and I] discovered the watermelon, that wasn't in mind but the more we were putting it on clothing and people would be like ‘why did you put that?’ and it would become this conversation about ‘well, I don't eat watermelon, I don't like watermelon’ and the more you speak to people and even my psychology around watermelon, I grew up not liking watermelon and I didn't really know why and it was interesting because now I actually love watermelon and I think [my distate] actually started within that as a symbol,” Soull says.
———--
When asked what she does, Soull answers “I transform lives” with a laugh. Although she makes light of the notion, Soull really does apply transformative aspects into her art. “You have the opportunity to transform at any moment,” she says, “everybody is going through it in some shape or form and I think that's the experience… [it's about] how do we proact or react to it.” Soull sees that everyone is connected by the experience of having wounds and the potential to find joy and she is motivated to be a part of the later. “If I can choose the side of bringing the joy then I think that's fucking amazing,” she says.
Soull also found that creating these pieces was transformational in her own life saying she was able to tap into a level of love that she had been trying to find within herself through making jewelry. She recalls creating her first piece and feeling like she had produced something that was almost an extension of her soul. “It made me feel like I had produced a child...or part of me and here I am sharing it with you... I think that's the thing about the soul… it's an unseen force that drives and creates something and you look at it and you say that's beautiful because it’s created,” she says. Soull also aims to spread inspiration through the work she and her sister do and hope to do so as they enter the next chapter of their business.
Focusing on the next chapter for L’E, they have a lot of things lined up for the not too distant future. “There's a lot of great things coming up within the next 2-3 years...We have a lot of great collections instore that we’re excited to share with others,” Dynasty says. Soull sees the expanding business as an outlet of connection with L’E’s audience and people in general. “Using [my] talent or gift to make people feel happy with something that is a little more permanent and not just an instant feeling,” Soull says. She hopes to create pieces that spark longlasting transformation and meaning with her audience.
Note: L’Enchanteur products are available at their online store — www.lenchanteur.co
L’E is currently in the middle of a rebrand as the sisters “take it to the next level” Soull says in a conversation over the phone. “[We are] in the midst of finding different ways of expressing what the brand is and who we are… What we're doing right now is really focusing in on our audience and really catering to them,” she says. They are focusing on getting more global awareness and expanding their networks, using their platform to really share information and connect and grow with their audience Soull says. Carrying everything from embroidered tees, silk durags, gold finger caps, and a concoction titled “Love Thyself Potion,” L’Enchanteur serves a market that had been previously unaccommodated in the luxury world. Over the phone, Dynasty describes the brand’s unique audience as “connoisseurs… People who like to collect items and also pass down heirlooms. People who look to use tools in personal and spiritual ways as well,” she says.
———--
Before they became luxury designers, the young entrepreneurs grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Dynasty laughs as she recalls the business she and Soull had in middle school. “We had a business where we would write peoples papers for them and they would pay us for it,” she says. Now 34, Dynasty says she and Soull had double the knowledge growing up, collecting their individual experiences and reporting it back to the other twin. Both Dynasty and Soull credit the combination of creativity and access to information growing up to their development into designers today.
Growing up in Flatbush, Soull describes her home life as a “joint two brain operation.” Her father, who grew up in Nigeria, is a scientist, studying biochem and computer science. He kept several collections of encyclopedias around the house that Dynasty and Soull often look through as kids. Her mother grew up in Dominique, an island in the Carribean West Indies, and is an artist, seamstress, and cook. She was always encouraging and took Dynasty and Soull, who were the youngest of six, to explore different areas of the city, even sending them to an elementary school outside of their Flatbush neighborhood.
“I think… the [elementary] school [my mom] sent us to really gave us... a reach of not only Brooklyn, it took us to the world. I was just like ‘yo, there's so many people in Brooklyn but there are way more people in the world,’” Soull says. Looking back, she sees her exposure to so many different people and cultures in elementary school as a pivotal moment in her life. “That was the favor that my mom performed for us, by really making it a point to send us to another place [in the city],” she says.
Soull says growing up in the house paved the way for her to become an artist, but it also was where she found another passion: psychology and sociology. She started reading her older brother’s psychology books at 12 years old when he started taking a psychology class in college, after that she started taking sociology and psychology courses in school whenever she got the chance. Although she initially went to school for the subject, she found it wasn't the path for her. She says, “I didn't graduate college. I was just kind of like ‘ehh, academia’ but with that, it was a conscious choice.”
That doesn't mean she stopped pursuing information though, the transition actually encouraged her to buckle down even more on educating herself. “If I'm not going to be in a world that's always supplying me with information to take in, I need to be supplying myself with that… So if I'm reading 3-5 books per semester [at school] that means I have to double that… If I am lacking in information then I think it's important that I go out and research it. Something I got from my mother and father, if you want to learn something you have to go out there and learn it,” Soull says. The self-teaching didn't stop there, she and her sister are both self-taught designers and craftswomen.
———--
She still finds a way to bring in her roots of psychology and sociology into her design work, playing with color theory and symbolism amongst other things. “Symbolism to me is a level of psychology because it’s what something symbolizes and the way that someone perceives it,” she says. “So, for instance, we had been working around the watermelon and in… black America it was a symbol of something that was negative.” According to Soull, after the abolition of slavery, the newly freed black Americans were trying to sustain themselves, and would often sell watermelons due to the fruit’s abundance and ease of production. Because of this, anti-abolitionists created propaganda around the watermelon and black Americans giving even white abolitionists the perception that black Americans were scary Soull says.
L’Enchanteur features several pieces with watermelon symbolism, including variations of t-shirts with a watermelon slice embroidered over the heart, and a hand dyed longbill cap with a green visor and a watermelon pink paneled cap sporting embroidered black seeds. “When [Dynasty and I] discovered the watermelon, that wasn't in mind but the more we were putting it on clothing and people would be like ‘why did you put that?’ and it would become this conversation about ‘well, I don't eat watermelon, I don't like watermelon’ and the more you speak to people and even my psychology around watermelon, I grew up not liking watermelon and I didn't really know why and it was interesting because now I actually love watermelon and I think [my distate] actually started within that as a symbol,” Soull says.
———--
When asked what she does, Soull answers “I transform lives” with a laugh. Although she makes light of the notion, Soull really does apply transformative aspects into her art. “You have the opportunity to transform at any moment,” she says, “everybody is going through it in some shape or form and I think that's the experience… [it's about] how do we proact or react to it.” Soull sees that everyone is connected by the experience of having wounds and the potential to find joy and she is motivated to be a part of the later. “If I can choose the side of bringing the joy then I think that's fucking amazing,” she says.
Soull also found that creating these pieces was transformational in her own life saying she was able to tap into a level of love that she had been trying to find within herself through making jewelry. She recalls creating her first piece and feeling like she had produced something that was almost an extension of her soul. “It made me feel like I had produced a child...or part of me and here I am sharing it with you... I think that's the thing about the soul… it's an unseen force that drives and creates something and you look at it and you say that's beautiful because it’s created,” she says. Soull also aims to spread inspiration through the work she and her sister do and hope to do so as they enter the next chapter of their business.
Focusing on the next chapter for L’E, they have a lot of things lined up for the not too distant future. “There's a lot of great things coming up within the next 2-3 years...We have a lot of great collections instore that we’re excited to share with others,” Dynasty says. Soull sees the expanding business as an outlet of connection with L’E’s audience and people in general. “Using [my] talent or gift to make people feel happy with something that is a little more permanent and not just an instant feeling,” Soull says. She hopes to create pieces that spark longlasting transformation and meaning with her audience.
Note: L’Enchanteur products are available at their online store — www.lenchanteur.co