“I wish I was a triplet.” 

Yvery laughs when she says it, but she’s only half joking. On sourcing days in Kantamanto, Accra’s sprawling secondhand market, it can feel like you need three versions of yourself just to keep up. One pair of eyes scanning hangers at lightning speed. One body weaving through narrow alleys stacked with denim and leather. One mind calculating what can be repaired, reworked, resold. 

By the time customers see the final photos on FoosePlug’s page, like the Y2K tops, the capri sets, or the tailored drops, the hubbub of the market is long gone. 

She began thrifting seriously in her first year at the University of Ghana, originally just foraging pieces for herself, but the collection evolved. When her friends started inquiring, the idea of selling the pieces came organically, and what began as personal style slowly evolved into FoosePlug, a brand built on flair, curation, and a keen eye for what works. 

After sourcing, the work continues. She collaborates with shoemakers and tailors in Kantamanto to revamp, repair, and up-cycle pieces before they’re sold. Pinterest serves as a muse for her inspiration, guiding how pieces are styled or reworked. 

Each item goes through a transformation process, from basic repairs to creative alterations that give thrift finds more panache.The intention isn’t just to resell clothing, but to turn secondhand items into styled pieces that feel worth buying.

While FoosePlug is still first and foremost a curated thrift brand, some pieces stand out more than others. She shares that one of her favorite projects so far has been her shirred jersey collection, a small series she worked on alongside her routine sourcing and restocking. 

Foose’s creative interests go far beyond Y2K. While the brand is widely associated with early 2000s fashion, her personal taste is much more fluid. Goth elements, fairy-like aesthetics, and experimental styling often influence how she thinks about clothing and accessories. For her, the real excitement lies in combining different aesthetics and filtering them through an African perspective. 

At the moment, survival and practicality define many of her business decisions, and with the sheer volume of secondhand clothing circulating in Accra, sometimes she finds it difficult to focus on producing entirely new pieces. Instead, up-cycling has become a natural outlet for her imagination. She enjoys the small details like threads, beads, hoops, and unexpected avant-garde pieces, but she expresses that jewelry is another passion of hers, though thrifting has remained the faster-moving side of the business. 

More than anything though, she wants to make things. The goal is to build enough structure within the brand so that she can focus more on creating. “All I want to do is create,” she declares. 

In many ways, the store’s Y2K focus is also influenced by the realities of the market. While Foose seizes the opportunity to explore different aesthetics, she notion that certain styles are easier for customers to embrace is not lost on her. In Ghana, unorthodox fashion choices being met with hesitation is not at all unusual, which often coaches people to stick to safer, trend-driven alternatives. 

Still, Foose’s personal style continues to evolve. She describes it as something that is ever-changing as she happens upon new influences and stylish people around her. Once upon a time, she leaned heavily into Y2K, then into alternative fashion, but now her style sits somewhere between many different aesthetics. The shop reflects that mix as well. Although Y2K remains the most recognizable theme, FoosePlug carries a variety of pieces that don’t fit neatly into a single category. 

For Foose, sourcing clothing has always felt like a kind of hunt. She rarely goes into the market looking for one specific item. Instead, she keeps an open mind, scanning for pieces that have personality or tell a story. Sometimes the most overlooked items end up becoming someone’s favorite find. 

Looking ahead, she sees endless possibilities in expanding the range of items she sources. The shop already carries things like neckties, vintage pieces, and accessories, though these items remain less common since many shoppers still gravitate toward familiar choices. A customer might pick up a pair of stockings, for example, but choose black or brown rather than something more adventurous like purple. 

For Foose, that hesitation simply means there is still room to grow, and she is doing the work to get there: the early mornings in Kantamanto, the repairs, the back-and-forth with tailors, all of it in service of a customer who is only just beginning to find their own style.

Beyond fashion, FoosePlug also donates to kayayei, with customers contributing through provisions rather than money. It’s a small thing that makes the work mean something outside of the drops.

In a fast-moving Y2K wave, Foose is still figuring out how far she wants to push things, how much to follow, how much to lead it. For now, she’s somewhere in between: curating what sells, experimenting with what she loves, and wishing, on long sourcing days, that she had two more versions of herself to help carry it all. 

Your personal style is about three genres away from what FoosePlug actually sells. When does that version get to come out?

I look at the mountains of clothes in Accra and coming up with something new seems so insensitive. Upcycling is so attractive to me like the idea of detailing, focusing on threads and beads and hoops and random metals. My plan is to structure the business enough to be able to live, breathe, and create. All I want to do is create.

Y2K is everywhere right now, but what does the wave actually feel like when you’re in Accra selling it every day?

Schools are even holding Y2K nights in honor of the 2000s and all our stars—may her baddie soul rest in peace, Suzzy. A lot of people are finding the beginning of their own style from there. People become bis: a mix of two styles. The potential is limitless.

Do you notice any particular trends or customer favorites when it comes to Y2K fashion?

Ghanaian baddies in the Y2K scene are loving leather and fur. Capris too. I’ve been leaning towards three quarter tops as well, not sure everyone’s there yet. Babes are also experimenting more with shoes. The inspos I’ve been getting are insane.

Do you ever feel like you’re curating more for the market than for yourself? And when you’re sourcing, how do you decide what fits the brand versus what fits you personally?

Yes, do you guys read minds? A lot of aesthetics are laughed at in Ghana so people tend to gravitate toward particular things. Trendy things. But sourcing is more like a hunt for me. There’s nothing I look out for specifically, the worst things can be the best thing for someone, so I keep an open mind. I get whatever I feel has personality and would tell how someone is feeling.

Has selling Y2K all day changed the way you dress, or are you immune at this point?

My personal style is always shifting. I keep finding stylish people so it’s always going round and round. I used to be very much about Y2K, then it moved into alte, so my style has been mutating. The shop isn’t only a Y2K store either, there are a lot of random items in there, it’s a mix. Y2K just tends to be the main aesthetic.

If someone wanted to start thrifting tomorrow with zero experience and a pocket full of optimism, what’s your advice?

I’m still trying to streamline everything and create a system myself, but consistency is everything. Saving is half of it, discipline is the other half, and creativity ties it all together. When you find the pattern, keep following it while bringing your ideas to life slowly. The rest will align.

Anything else the people need to know?

We also donate to kayayei. Our pretty baddie customers also contribute. We prefer provisions over money, but we’re open to donations.

Written by: Sitsope Dedoo