Nkechi Ibeneme,

Ughelli for Lagos?

I was 22. That was in 1990.

Were you already making clothes before then?

No, I didn’t even think of that. Though I was very fashionable and creative, I didn’t think in that direction. When I arrived in Lagos, I got a job at a factory at Ikosi, Ketu area. But, along the line I was retrenched. It was after I lost the job that I discovered the fashion designing aspect of my life.

How did it happen?

After I lost my job at the factory,things got very tough that I lived off goodwill. Then, any time my friends wanted to go and buy clothes in the market, they took me along to help them choose what clothes to buy - I was that fashionable. One day, two of my friends asked me, Mudi, why don’t you go and learn sewing? Or don’t you think you’d make a good fashion designer, with your fashion sense?’ I took that suggestion as a divine directive and quickly went and registered with a tailor where I learnt to cut and sew for nine months. That was the beginning of the journey.

How has the journey been so far?

Well, I thank God for where he has brought us. It wasn’t easy at the beginning. When I started, I was living in a one room apartment in that house (pointing to a photograph on the wall), at Ketu. That was where I started. I would design clothes, take it to offices to sell. From there, I would get new orders. One day, as I went to an office as usual, Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) saw me and really liked the clothes I was putting on. When he enquired and was told that I was a designer, he wanted to meet me. But I had left. So he left a word with the receptionist that I should see him any time I came around. I would say that my meeting with RMD was the game-changer. His clout in the movie industry helped the image of my designs and he also helped with my savings by agreeing to hold on to my withdrawal booklet for me so I couldn’t go to the bank to withdraw indiscriminately. I was very frugal with money and I shunned parties. I had zero social life because I saved every kobo I could and worked really hard in order to succeed. Despite that, it took me four years to save enough money to rent a one room shop at Anthony (the same area where his magnificent head office is located).After I got the shop, I didn’t have carpet to put on the floor and I had no fan either.It took me another four months to buy those items.

Did you feel like quitting at some point?

Never! The drive to succeed was greater than whatever difficulty I encountered. I set my eyes on the goal and never ever thought of quitting. There was a day I got back home demoralised and depressed due to a disappointment I had suffered. My friend who was squatting with me in my one-room apartment then, called me and said; ‘Mudi, this thing wey you dey do, naim you go take buy car?’ He wanted me to dump tailoring and enter the ‘fast lane’. But, I refused to be swayed because I knew that with hard work and dedication, I would succeed someday.

How many outlets do you have?

Apart from this office (the head office, where the interview held), I have another outlet in Lekki, then,Abuja and Port Harcourt. I also have outlets in:Accra (Ghana) Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Dakar (Senegal), Nairobi (Kenya), and Johannesburg (South Africa).

What are your plans for the future?

The future belongs to God. I will just keep doing what I do and allow God to work it out, the way He worked out this complex for me. This complex (his head office) came by divine intervention.

Having conquered Africa, do you have plans of opening outlets in other continents?

Africa is a huge market with limitless potentials. I may eventually launch out but I’m concentrating on theAfrican market for now and it is quite huge.

Teenagers are known to play pranks, could you recall one naughty thing you did as a teen that landed you in trouble?

As teenagers, we used to go and help out after school in my mom’s restaurant.. There was this cake they sold in Kingsway stores in Warri then which I liked