10 Nigerian World-Class Designers

 

Some famous Nigerian fashion designers have proven their worth in the fashion industry through their world-class designs, and they are making serious waves in the international market. KEHINDE AJOBIEWE writes on some of these designers.

Folake Folarin-Coker

She is the founder of the world famous brand, ‘Tiffany Amber’, which was founded 13 years ago. Since the launch of this power fashion house, it has been one leading step to another in creating timeless and exquisite pieces for the everyday woman. Apart from being a famous brand abroad, Tiffany Amber has also enjoyed international success due to her use of the finest fabric to create glam pieces.

Lisa Folawiyo

The Creative Director of ‘Jewel By Lisa’ is one of Nigeria’s hottest designers that have caught the attention of the international world. She is known for her use of African prints and the highest gradeAnkara fabrics to produce the perfect mixtures ofAnkara sequins, beads, taffeta and others. Among her celebrity fans are Beyonce, Thandie Newton, Tasha Smith, Kelis, Eve and many others.

Deola Sagoe

She is a fashion visionary with a unique approach to her craft that has endeared her to fans and followers all over the world. Deola Sagoe became well-known by designing her mum’s label, which was called “Odua” for 10 years. Her brand, ‘House of Deola Sagoe’, which designs fabulous dresses for women, also creates menswear, jeans and polo for men.

Lanre Da-Silva Ajayi

Lanre is a household name in the fashion industry, and since the existence of this fashion house, she has never failed her consumers. Her collections have been seen on many Nigerian celebrities’ homes and abroad. Her iconic signature designs are modern and fabulous.

Frank Oshodi

Frank became a household name when he was selected by Silverbird to be the make-up artist and designer that finally led Agbani Darego to her reign as Miss World 2001, even though he has been in the fashion industry as far back as 1989. With his make-up label, ‘House of Bunor and Fashion Designing’, he still remains a force to reckon with in the Nigerian fashion scene.

Ade bakare

This London-based Nigerian designer is one of the best in the fashion industry. He always sprung up new designs that are hard to resist. He has contributed a lot to the Nigerian fashion scene. Apart from his exquisite bridal and other wears, Ade also has his own fragrance called ‘Breeze’.

 Bridget Awosika

Bridget of ‘Namesake Label’ now attends the prestigious Parsons School of Design (New York) to get a degree in Fashion Design. Her collections are full of fitting gowns and dresses with simple, elegant designs.

 Soares Anthony

Soares is a young Lagosian that creates pieces that can make an ordinary Nigerian man look like a multi-million dollar businessman. His very suave men clothing line ‘Soares Anthony’ is dedicated to creating a picture of sophistication and opulence. He is inspired by Nigerian fabrics with the tailoring of Japanese excellence.

His pieces have been won by very affluent politicians and have been distributed in London, France and the USA. Apart from owning a fashion magazine called SG2 that celebrates Nigerian fashion, Soares has been giving back to the Nigerian fashion industry by running a programme that helps teach young Nigerian designers what they need to make their work of competent international standards.

 Yemi Osunkoya

Yemi of ‘Kosibah’ is not your regular designer, as he only focuses on bridal and evening dresses. Kosibah was founded in 1991, and he is also known for creativity in designing elegant classical dresses. Kosibah is still the ultimate, when it comes to bridal wears.

 Duro Olowu

Duro is one of the major players in the fashion industry in the world right now, with his collections being seen on celebrities and socialites like United States’ First Lady Michelle Obama and so many more. His signature style is reflected in colourful accessories, jewelry and so much more, and his label’s vibrant signature prints splash across fluid contemporary designs.

Gunmen Storm Obasanjo Farms, Kidnap 2 Asian Workers

Unknown gunmen suspected to be kidnappers had on Friday morning stormed Obasanjo’s farms in Mfamosong, Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State and kidnapped two Asians said to be staff of the Oil Palm Estate.

It was gathered that the kidnappers who were said to have stormed the farm in a taxi, shot sporadically to scare people away from the farm and immediately kidnapped the two persons and took them to a waiting boat near the seaside.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a resident of the area narrated that, “Today in Mfamosong, kidnappers came and kidnapped two white men inside the company premises. They came in a taxi to a farm that used to belong to former president, Obasanjo but has been sold out to a Chinese company. The kidnappers drove inside the premises of the company, shooting sporadically and abducted two white men into their taxi and drove straight to the waterside where they put them in a speed boat and left with them,” he stated.

A member of the community said that the kidnappers were yet to make demands and that the victims were of Indonesia and Malaysian origin.

He said, “It was in the morning around 7:30 – 8am when the two persons were kidnapped. There was no security at the farm that morning. The security operates only at night, not the daytime.”

He said that the place where the incident took place belong to Akwa Ikot Effanga and Mfamasong and that the suspected kidnappers must have come from that Akwa Ikot Effanga side.

“They came with a small car and left with a flying boat, the driver of the car hid in the waiting car and there was nobody to pursue them. They were shooting into the air, went inside the premises, kidnapped the men and dashed inside the river” he said.

He said that the victims were staff Obasanjo;s former farm, now taken over by Wilma, a Chinese company, adding that the duo whose names were yet to be known go to the farm everyday.

When the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. John Umoh, a Deputy Superintendent of Police was contacted, he said he had not been briefed.

He said, “I am not aware of that report. Let me call you latter; let me get in touch with the DPO there.”

However, the PPRO did not call again and even efforts made to hear from him did not yield any result as he did not pick up his calls and also did not respond to text messages.

#Informationng

145,000 Adults, 15,000 Children Infected With HIV/AIDS In Rivers State

Rivers State has the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS with a total of 145,236 adults and 15,000 children affected, a Non-Governmental Organisation has said.

Co-ordinator, Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre, Priscillia Shu, stated this when the HIV/AIDS awareness center facilitated a sensitisation programme among staff of the Rivers State Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The awareness campaigner stressed the need for abstinence and faithfulness to one uninfected partner To curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

She also advised on the need to avoid use of unsterilized sharp instruments and ensure that only screened blood are transfused.

Shu recalled that the epidemic first came to lime-light in America in the 80s then gradually crept into Nigeria in 1988 in Calabar through a 13-year-old teenage girl.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture and Tourism Mrs. Grace Akpughunum-Okwulehie who was represented by the ministry’s Director of Administration, Mrs. Ibiere Pepple enjoined all staff to join hands in minimizing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

#informationng

Funny Breakup: This Might Be The Best Breakup Letter Ever (PHOTO)

Breaking up: You could trot out the ol' "we need to talk" line and do it face-to-face -- or you could get creative and slightly creepy like the woman who wrote this breakup letter did. Take a look: 

Oh, snap, that's intense. Is it just us, or do those little hearts make the whole thing a lot more ominous? 

#huffingtonpost

Brazil uses Yoruba culture to sell tourism -Wole Duro Ladipo

Wole Duro Ladipo, the scion of the late dramatist, Chief Duro Ladipo of Obakoso fame bares his mind on the tourism value of the Yoruba culture withWale Ojo-Lanre and Remi Oladoye.

As the proprietor of First Eye Duro Ladipo Production, can you let us into what your organisations is all about?
First Eye Duro Ladipo Production is an organisation that has to do with cultural exchange programmes, upliftment of our cultural value, especially the Yoruba  cultural heritage in Diaspora. The motive behind this organisation is to conserve and preserve our Yoruba African Traditional Religion and culture so that the upcoming generation can have something to be proud of when it comes to their heritage. In all over the world now, a lot of people cherish Yoruba cultural value. Yoruba says that Ile ni a ti nko eso re ode (charity begins at home) so that’s all what First Eyes Duro ladipo is all about.

How far have you gone in achieving these motives especially the uplifting, preserving and conserving  culture?
Yes, we thank God we have really tried our best. I  have a group in the United States of America. I have another group in Brazil.I have a group called Oba Koso Cultural Troupe  and  all we do in this Troupe is to enlighten people about Youruba history, the culture norms, mores, values, the deities, the Orisas (gods) and in line with what can be beneficial to generation and generation coming after. We also organise and present workshops where we talk about the relevance of Orisa and stage presentations in which people learn about the language, fashion, interaction and tenses of Yoruba cultural value.

What are  the challenges?
The challenges that we face has to do with our local setting here in Nigeria. The government at various levels in this part of the country have not seen the tourism aspect of the culture as being explored elsewhere. Though some states are trying their best in the area of tourism, but I will still implore the government to still try and inculcate the segment of cultural value of the Yorubas in the curricula or syllabus. This is because, foreigners appreciate Yoruba culture more than us. This is sad in America, Britain and France majority of my clients are whites who strive hard to learn, practise and embrace Yoruba culture while some of my friends, kith and kin who left Nigeria for these foreign countries are behaving more than the whites. I was shocked in my interaction at home here too that some of us are aping the whites and sending our children to schools where ‘ vernacular’ – I mean Yoruba values are alien or forbidden. Some of our children here are bereft of cultural values and norms. Some cannot speak Yoruba Language not to talk about their local dialect. The other ethnic groups are not. I was surprised one day, when I visited a family friend of mine in Texas, US and saw his six-years-old boy who has never been to Nigeria dancing to Igbo music and displaying their dancing step.
We need to talk to the government  on why they  have to include Yoruba culture in our school syllabuses. We should also raise the culture to a tourism pedestal like the Brazilians who  are making money out of Yoruba culture by packaging it as tourism asset.
Tourists flock to Brazil to see what I called a diluted Yoruba cultural value, but they would have love to come and see, feel and have a first-hand experience of this if we have been able to get our act right on this issue .

Tell us in practical terms the method you apply?
Very simple. We act, dance, sing and celebrate our cultural values with arts by exposing the benefits and superior ethics of it through the media.

But the impression is that those  who engage in this are never – do – wells?
That  was  in the olden days. Even at that time, it is not a profession for the lazy or dull heads. It is not easy for a lunk head to recite the  Odu  merindilogun ( the 16 corpus) is not a joke. For you to be able to dance and count the step of bata is not a joke and for you to be able to polish your talent is not a joke. Though in those days people said but nowadays, people travelling from around the world to African countries, Brazil, Nigeria and the Caribbean  to learn about African religion and culture, dancing, drumming and others . Things that have to do with culture is not a lazy man’s job.

You studied Political Science and you are into promotion of Yourba art and culture, what is the correlation?
What is politics? Politics has to do with people.When we talk about people, governing of people, can you separate culture  from it ? We cannot separate culture from the people, so when we talking politically it doesn’t mean you must involve in partisan politics before you can influence the society. You can influence society with culture,  and mind you,  right from the onset, since I was around six  years old, I started acting with my father. Then,  my father used to produce play for Western Nigeria Television (WNTV). There was this play in the 70’s Moremi Ajasoro that was when I started acting.  I was the little kid that was thrown into the river. Again,  I was involved in Igbo Irumale when one of my brothers and I acted as Iwin that delivered message to Imodoye and so many others so this has been in our blood.  Our father would  wake us up around  four o’clock in the morning, then we would dance, recite poetry and do a lot of things, so these has been in the blood, passing through University of Ibadan studying Political Science and English got nothing to do with that inborn and innate  instinct of cultural values that is  in us as Yoruba.

When your dad was alive, he won many laurels and cultivated  a lot of respect and solid relationship with traditional institutions especially the monarchs, do you still maintain that relationship?
Yes, because the legacy still lives on and there is something I learnt from my dad that if you really want to prosper, you  have to move very close to the elders and respect traditions. If you study most of his works, they have to do with history, epics and classics. He did a lot of research in getting to the root of these historical films. Few week ago, I was with Kabiyesi, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi  Adeyemi. Next week, I will be with my father, the Oragun of Oke – Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin. By next month, I will be with Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, I have no choice than to continue in the tradition which my father had established.

Did you at any point in time regret ever coming to this world through Duro Ladipo?
That’s a very powerful question, if i have to come to this world again I  will love to be associated with him and the family.

How easy has it be wearing his shoes?
Duro–Ladipo’s foot print is large and his shoe is too big. You know there is a saying that you don’t dare putting your foot in a great man’s shoes or his foot prints because it is  either you don’t put your foot there or you even do more better. These are the challenges .A lot of people are saying they’ve not been hearing much from Duro Ladipo’s kids? Where are they ? What are they doing? What our father told us is that the first thing in life is to be educated, and today majority of us are university graduates  that was the first thing, so whatever, we are doing, we have to do it much more better, there is nothing like haste in doing what we are doing .That is why  anything that is going to come out from Wole Duro Ladipo and First Eye Duro Ladipo  Production has to be well baked and you know we don’t need to be making noise, we do things gradually and we really centered on cultural exchange which is our main objective and goals.

How will you describe your father?
Hmnn, Duro Ladipo, was an enigmatic cultural impresario. My dad loved Yoruba  culture. He was a paragon of Yoruba culture. He dropped affluence and riches for originality. Some people want to produce just because they want money out of it, but my father did all he could to project African Yoruba religion and cultural values and  gave it an international shot selling it all over the world. I tell people that my father was never a rich man, but he left a legacy that is even much more bigger than what anybody can bring down and so that is the more reason when people come to tell me that I can make money through this and that, I have always been very careful, I have been in the United States for nine years, there are a lot of things we can do there but that name is very very important to us.

You always play the role of Sango, is that the only thing you can do?
The first time I played that role, I could remember was in Lagos, It was at Lagos Country Club that I played my father’s  role for the first time when I put on the regalia. I connected the spirit of  Sango which came  upon me instantly and   the instinct was just there. When we left the stage, a lot of people started commending us and some  especially those who knew Duro Ladipo when he was alive cried because of the great performance. I can just say it is an instinct or being possessed.

But is it an instinct stoked by charms or  juju?
What is juju ? I always tell people that there is nothing like juju. There is inheritance, some instinct you inherit. It is just there and will manifest wheneve r it should be. Juju is different from inheritance. I don’t believe there is something like juju unless you want to trace it.

Your father trained a lot of people, how cordial is the relationship between those people and the family?
I have a  lot of  rapport with the people my father trained, though some of them are old now. In fact, I  was with Chief Jimoh Braimoh who is my great uncle. It’s very great knowing him because he has a  lot of influence in my life. I stayed with him for almost seven years and I learnt a lot of things from him which he told me that he learnt from my father which I’ve been applying and it’s been positive.When I need advice I turn to men like Chief Muraina Oyelami, Uncle David Osawe, Baba Lere Paimo,  Baba Adeomola Onibon Okuta, Gbebolaja, the famous drummers and Baba Adesina among others, I still relate with them and they always talk to me. In fact Baba Adesina was the one who trained me how to drum at the age of six.

How did you feel  the  first time you saw you father spitting fire?
The first time I saw that man spitting fire was at Glover Hall in Lagos, there was a performance at Glover Hall and I was sitting right in front of the auditorium with the light man  (Buoda Olu) and at the time Sango was about to come out, the drum was heavy, the scenario changed and I just saw the thing appeared  and it came out to be my father. I ran out of that auditorium, the light man chased me all around the auditorium because I was scared. I couldn’t believe it was the man that we left home together who spit fire and his whole eyeball turned to red

Spiting fire, is it magical or mechanical or what?
Last week, I held  a dialogue with a  Sango worshiper,  a  woman in her 70’s who  told me that  it was Duro Ladipo that first spit fire and that when she witnessed it, she tried to get to the root of it, but couldn’t till this day. “ Duro means a child which the parents are begging to stay, a kind of weird and strange fellow, wait, don’t go.”  My father was born seven times before he stayed. If we talked about all those mysterious things, so what about when he died, the lightning  and  others because I could remember my uncle came around 1:45 on March 11, 1978, to announce to us that his brother passed on about 45 minutes after the weather changed and there was an heavy rain the thunderstorm was heavy and that there were a lot of mysterious things that happened within the house. There was a tree in front of our house and the bird called Eye Iga  always in their thousands, but the day my father died, and the next five days, all the birds flew away. All the eyeles (dove) died, about 45.

Any connection with your dad’s death?
Well,  if  the head of the household died, what do you expect, Yoruba adage says Eiye ile kii ba Onile Je Ko ba onlile mu  ko was pada leyin  onile (the day he died  we saw a lot of them dead).

This  sounds mysterious,  we never heard that Duro Ladipo was involved in any cult, was he in any?
Duro himself was a cult. When he was alive, my mum told me a story that on a fateful day, at an event some people were trying to talk to him about cultism and he replied them that “I myself, Durojaiye omo Ladipo, akobi Olukoso, asingiri , alagiri , abanija mawoju eni, iwaju ina, ehin ogbe ina, egbe mejeji gbono kiji kiji  ta ni o je gbena  woju ekun laise Awo.  Emi gan awo, emi gan imule.” And they all vamoosed like a rat having a cat as guest. They dare not face him with such. He was never a cult member and that was why there was no interference of any such during the burial.

And where is Moremi?
She is there. My mother, the Moremi Ajasoro is there like the Rock of Gibraltar.  Now, I want to thank her because  all this while, she has been an institution. She was the person that kept the legacy of Duro Ladipo, so what appreciation could I say more than give her the kudos. For 35 years now, the woman is still in that house, she  never left for once. My father had other wives, but she is the only one holding forte, the institution and any appreciation  we are talking  about is that woman.

You have a huge stature like that of Duro Ladipo, are you the Oba Koso reincarnate?
I cannot say. People have been complaining about my choleric and mercurial behaviour .Some people said I am an ornament and torment. I do not know.

May be the man took you through some labyrinth of spirituality?
I cannot say. Maybe innate.But sometimes, I wonder why I do some things. I wonder when did this come to be? I wonder why should this be?. I wonder, “has this man come into me”  I wonder why me ? And the same answer I get is “because it is you, Wole Duro – Ladipo . The chip off the old block “ and I understand that a goat will never bring forth a dog.