Fashions Finest Africa directors (L) Sola Oyebade, Yetunde 'Yetty' Ogunnubi
A franchise off Fashion Finest UK, the new initiative is in place to showcase emerging designers and creatives generally.
This brainchild of Yetunde 'Yetty' Ogunnubi and Sola Oyebade who double as creative directors for this exciting platform describes as a "networking platform for emerging designers".
Fashions Finest Africa
launched in Lagos but the plan is to reach all over Africa to discover
fresh talents and promising designers/creatives. The exciting thing
about Fashion's Finest Africa is it's set to showcase talents across
board, apart from designers, models, illustrators and many others. The
platform is in place to export emerging designers who don't necessarily
have the means to amplify their reach saw creatives exhibiting their
various designs.
The franchisee and directors Sola Oyebade;
a seasoned show producer who is the brain behind most of the hugely
successful fashion shows in Nigeria and abroad doubles as the show
producer while Yetunde 'Yetty' Ogunnubi, a seasoned PR expert and brain behind major fashion events in Nigeria handles PR and media management spoke to Pulse recently about the brilliant intiative.
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Director Fashions Finest Africa Sola Oyebade
1. How did you come up with the idea for Fashions Finest?
Yetty - I
stayed in London for years and because I have a background in fashion
and PR I knew about Fashion's Finest UK that holds during London Fashion
Week and I saw a chance to bring that to Nigeria, Africa as a whole to
help designers as well as creatives looking to grow and give their
brands exposure.
Sola - I
have been involved in the UK fashion industry for over twenty years and
throughout that time it was always a struggle for new and aspiring
designers to be noticed or to take part in any of the big shows, such as
London Fashion Week.
Yetty and I
had been discussing for a while that Nigeria lacked a fashion event
that catered to new, aspiring and non celebrity designers and felt that
we needed to fill the void. But for us, it was not just about doing just
another show but doing something that had credibility and that would
also give back. We both felt that since Fashions Finest was well
established in the UK and ticked all the boxes then why reinvent the
wheel when we could just bring FF to Nigeria.
2. Why did you decide to bring this to Nigeria/Africa
Yetty - Like
I mentioned earlier, I saw the need to help emerging designers and
creatives by giving them a platform to showcase what they have to offer.
There is an unbelievable abundance of talent in Nigeria and Africa as a
whole.
Sola - After
9 successful years in the UK we have been inundated with requests to
bring Fashions Finest to Nigeria/Africa. So following lots of
discussions with Fashions Finest UK and a couple of years of planning we
felt the time was right for Nigeria/Africa to benefit from the
established Fashions Finest brand and thus Yetty and I negotiated with
Fashions Finest UK to bring it to Nigeria. Deborah St. Louis the CEO of
Fashions Finest was extremely enthusiastic about the idea when we
presented it to her as over the years she had featured a number of
Nigerian designers at Fashions Finest shows.
We
wanted to bring the he FF brand to Nigeria, with the aim of catering to
new and aspiring designers, to give them a platform to showcase at a
professionally well managed, high profile show.
Even
CNN state that due to our very young and ever increasing population
fashion would be one of the strongest growth areas in Africa and we feel
that we are well positioned to assist in this growth as well as give a
lot back.
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Director Fashions Finest Africa Yetunde 'Yetty' Ogunnubi
3. Do you think this platform will really help the growing fashion industry here?
Yetty - I
very well think so because the platform is solely for them. It's for
them to show off their works, what they are capable of doing to the
world. It's a platform not only for designers it's also for models,
illustrators, photographers and so on.
It
will push the fashion industry forward especially the less popular but
talented ones, It will be an avenue to show their works to the rest of
the world.
Sola - I
definitely feel that Nigeria and Africa would more than benefit from
the Fashions Finest Africa brand for a number of reasons. FFA has an
established track record of doing professional shows and over years has
become one of the largest off schedule shows during London Fashion Week.
It is our intention to replicate that success in Nigeria. Over the
years we have taken many new designers from humble beginnings to go on
and become well known international designers. We have enormous
knowledge and connections world wide of the fashion industry which would
be of immense benefit to the Nigerian fashion industry. The Nigerian
fashion industry is at its optimal level for growth and discovery of new
talent which Fashions Finest Africa is well positioned to assist our
aspiring designers and creatives to achieve.
There
are a number of well established shows in Nigeria that cater to top
designers but hardly any that cater to new, aspiring or designers that
have not yet broken into the celebrity designer status, we are here to
assist them achieve there aims. It is fair to say that Fashions Finest
is one of the most renowned fashion companies when it comes to
discovering and promoting new designers.
4. How did you decide on designers set to showcase at the debut edition of the quarterly mix?
Yetty - This
was hard because there were a lot of good designers who are still
emerging but for the debut edition, we had to pick quality designers who
represent the ideals of the platfrom. It means that as long as you are
creative and you don't compromise on quality then there's room.
Sola - This
was extremely hard for us, as we had to decide upon four quality
designers that would represent our vision, that produced good quality
clothes and that could show Nigeria the hidden talent that exists within
the country.
Yetty and I sat
down with our team and did weeks of brainstorming, researching and
vetting 100's of designers till we came up with the final four that we
felt represented everything we wanted to achieve as well as express our
'Miami Vice' theme.
It was hard work but I feel we got there in the end and have four amazing designers that would be showcasing.
5. What goes into this type of production?
Yetty - A
lot actually, from planning for months, getting sponsors to see the
picture and getting onboard to media partnerships not to mention the
huge budget required for lighting, runway and so on it's not child's
play but it's something we deeply believe will benefit the fashion
industry.
Sola - So
much goes into a production of this type, it starts with months of
planning, a very big team with people managing many different aspects of
the show production, from producers to stylist to production managers,
stage, light, sound, PR, marketing, social media as well as a full
event planning team.
The team
meets on a weekly basis but we talk every day by phone, whatsapp and
email, checking and cross checking to be sure that nothing is left out.
From working with YD Agency around our PR campaign to doing site visits,
to planning every inch of the venue design, to model casting and
checking that the models that Mahogany Models are providing are up to
the international standard that we require. I could go on and on but it
takes a whole village to put this event together.
The
first ever FFA held on August 27th 2017 with a masterclass session on
the business of fashion with top stylist and Mania Magazine editor
Godson Ukaegbu, GM for Zaron Cosmetics Mary Jane Ohobu and Stylist Teni Oluwo as panelists followed immediately by runway showcases from SGTC Clothing, Sally Bawa and other designers who all had impressive outings.
For the debut edition, top designer Mai Atafo, style editor Onah Nwachukwu, Tosin Ogundadegbe of Style Infidel and more were in attendance.
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