Unveiling the Youngest Fashion Designer in Nigeria
Week Nigeria. That was how she ended up at AFWN as the youngest designer. Now her interest has been established and we move it up from there.
Combining education with passion I always use myself as an example. I was given a chance as a sports person when I was barely nine years. I read Industrial Chemistry, and today, my means of livelihood comes from sports. If I hadn’t been allowed to do sports then what would I have been doing today? I would ensure that she completes her education and at the same time I am not going to stop her to pursue her dreams and passion. My daughter is a strongwilled person and when she believes in something she is ready to pursue it. She had notebooks all over the place with sketches and so devoted to fashion magazine. I will encourage her as a mother. I just read about a 20-year-old who won a Tennis Open and went home with about $3m. I think as parents it is high time we started recognising when our children are talented. I agree they must go to school but we should start nurturing that talent from when they are young. It is has been a long time we have seen a young person reaching the zenith of their dreams in this country because there is a lot of emphasis on book education at the expense of creative education. The likes of Bill Gates live in an environment that allowed him to discover who he was at a relatively young age and today, he is the richest man on earth.
How did you bring her up as an only child?
I am a single parent and she is an only child but I wasn’t overly protective of her. Most times she spends sometime in her cousin’s place. Or, she is in a friend’s place. And I took her to a boarding school where she just finished her junior WAEC.
Have you ever noticed these traits in her as a child?
She must have inherited it from my family members because I am surrounded with creative people. My sister is one of the big shots as creative director in advertising agency in Nigeria. Her two godfathers, my siblings’ children are all creative people in music, entertainment and even sports or creative arts. So she has been surrounded by creativity all her life. I want her to explore her talent alongside schooling. Sometimes the experiment works and it is verse visa and that is life for you.
How did you feel when she was coming out with her models?
Participating in AFWN was the icing on the cake for me as a mother. It was an awesome moment for me. Yes, we went for rehearsals and we were hoping it would turn out fine. Then we came for the show everything looked amazing and I realised that it was my daughter’s designs they were putting on. I couldn’t describe how I felt that day. I sat in the hall and pinched myself not to have tears when her models were on the runway. At the end of the show people walked up to me to congratulate me. I was extremely proud of her because it was her design that translated into clothing. For the first time I am seeing what she drew on papers on stage. At the initial stage I was conservative as a parent that she should focus on her education. Then we reached an agreement that if she was able to achieve between 75 and 80 per cent average in school, then she was good to go and participate in the fashion show. She lived up to expectation and achieved 78 per cent average. I gave her a lot of support to ensure that she came up top academically and her creativity aspect also did not suffer.
After AFWN, what next for her? Arising from the African Fashion Week the International Women Society Vocational Training Centre located in Lekki where she has been getting some tutelage on sewing is having its graduation on July 25 and she has been asked to be part of the fashion show with their alumni. Unlike the AFWN where she showcased a few clothing it is an opportunity for her to showcase her full collections of about 25. Hopefully, we are likely to be in London for the African Fashion Week London in August. One thing about Nkem’s stuffs is their ‘wearability’. They are everyday attire – formal, casual or semi-formal.
One would have expected her to design for her age range.
Funny enough the first set of designs she made were for adults because we (her aunts and I) were her models. She also made some casuals for her age mates. She realises that her mum and her age mates would also like formal dresses so she does both.
What was her dream before she took to fashion?
Before her fashion talent crept up, her vision was to be an entertainment and creative arts lawyer (a kind of copyrights lawyer) that is incorporating fashion, sports, creative arts and entertainments. That dream is still alive because she is only 13. And as time goes on in her fashion foray we are looking at her doing internship with a big fashion house locally or internationally. By the time she finishes her WAEC she would be 16 and I don’t intend to send a 16-year-old to the university or to ‘A’ levels. I realise that we are just breeding youths who don’t have skill experience. There is no doubt I have confidence in her ability. But two years of internship (before going to the university) will convince me whether she can go fully into it or not. I look at the Williams’ sisters who started playing tennis at age 13 eventually went to school along the line. Today, Venus has a complete range of fashion, while Serena has over 400 nail studios all over America. They were pursuing their interest in sports, education and business.