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Get to know New York’s viral ‘Armour Girl’

Before there was Chappell Roan performing in “Good Luck, Babe!” clad in armour at this year’s VMA’s, there was Saman Bakayoko. (Before that, of course, there was Joan of Arc.) The 22-year-old was knighted with the title “armour girl” by the internet last year after styling elements of her full suit of armour every day for the first week of her final year at FIT in New York. Since then, she’s worn armour to the Met’s medieval exhibit, at Kim Shui’s New York Fashion Week show, on her daily commute, and even to the club. Now, after graduating (not in armour), Bakayoko is making her biggest pivot yet: from knight life to a corporate nine-to-five. She’s welcoming the life changes with a sense of heroic poise fitting for the current season, what she’s calling “gallant girl fall”. “Knights are strong; they fight, they train, they protect, but they also slay,” she says. 

Bakayoko had a hunch that she’d go viral for wearing armour to FIT before even securing her metal helmet. “I got a tarot reading around a month before that told me I was going to be blowing up or getting some sort of attention online,” she says. While the reading may or may not have included a knight card, Bakayoko’s idea came together through a Coachella styling mishap and her desire to start her own brand. “I originally got my pieces to wear to Coachella because I like to stand out, but it didn’t work out because I did not research how to put armour on,” she says. “So I was like, ‘Was this a waste of money’? Then, one day, I woke up and decided to start a fashion line called Yoko because I’ve always made little breastplates for myself.” Putting her advertising, marketing, and communications degree to good use, she figured wearing armour for the week would be an effective way to promote the brand. 

At this point, putting on armour has become second nature for Bakayoko. She can assemble the full suit in ten minutes (instead of over an hour initially) and often layers chainmail or leg plates underneath her going-out dresses. She credits embodying “knight life”, along with her authenticity and positivity, with securing her full-time social media marketing role, but her pathway into the workforce has been anything but linear. After graduating, she swore off America and moved to Ivory Coast, where her Uncle used to be the Prime Minister, before recently passing. Then, she started to apply remotely for a full-time position. After pitching her viral armour experience, she landed her new role in New York at the start of September and had to hurriedly head back. “The armour is a testament to free will,” she says. “You can be a college student today, a knight tomorrow, go to Africa, and then work in corporate, all in the space of three months.” 

The armour is a testament to free will. You can be a college student today, a knight tomorrow, go to Africa, and then work in corporate, all in the space of three months

You could easily attribute Bakayoko’s armoured virality to chance: wearing (and posting) the right thing at the exact moment the fashion trend cycle has been sent back to the Middle Ages. There’s no doubt that we’ve seen an increasing number of armoured looks in recent years – perhaps ushered in by the Dune-fueled Paco Rabanne revival and Zendaya wearing Thierry Mugler’s fall/winter 1995 body armour to the 2018 Met Gala – but part of Bakayoko’s unique appeal is that, in everything she does, she commits to the bit. She doesn’t just wear the armour on the red carpet, but also on the train. This reminds people that they can choose to wear whatever they want on any given day. There are no rules. “Armour is a symbol of power and strength,” she says. “But I’m not making a clear statement or anything, I’m just having fun being out of place in normal society.” 

The historical accuracy (or lack thereof) of her armour-wearing has led to several arguments with online trolls, one of which swore Bakayoko was “culturally appropriating”. After blocking another troll concerned that she wasn’t wearing protective undergarments, she says she ran into him the next day on the streets of New York. “I’m not gonna sit and fight on the internet all day when I have armour to wear,” she says. “But we ended up working it out and taking videos together, so it was fun.” When speaking with Bakayoko, she’s full of tiny tidbit stories like this one. She’ll laugh at the randomness of it all while continuously expressing her gratitude for the doors opened for her. “I just found out there’s a picture of me going viral on Twitter and Tumblr right now,” she says. In it, a picture of her in armour is layered behind the words: “I’m done healing my inner child. Now I’m listening to my inner teenager and it sounds like she wants a sword”. 

After taking on viral knight life, Bakayoko says she feels prepared for what lies ahead. “I guess I can take on anything now,” she says. “If I can wear a full suit of armour in the club, then I can also be this heroine character that can take on a job and the stresses of work.” Her future plans include releasing an armoured heel, styling the pieces into corporate outfits, and “living the knight life double entendre”. “Gallant girls can do it all and have it all. I will be working hard, but I am still a party girl at heart, and I still like to slay, so I will combine my two worlds to stay true to myself,” she says. “I’ll be wearing my armour to work and going out afterwards (when I can).” Armed with medieval-like symbolism, Bakayoko bravely presses onwards to her next battle: achieving work-life balance.

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  • Source of information and images “dazeddigital”

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