Your fashion sense was the theme for last years Fashion major event. The event brought together fashion icons and individuals in different areas of the fashion industry.
Topic: The Business of Fashion
A total of 1800 participants were in attendance online on the 25th of May 2021. The conference started at 4:00 pm, it was conducted on zoom and shared on all social media platforms.
The speakers present were
Chief (Mrs.) Oyenike Monica Okundaye (Mama Nike), the Managing Director of Nike Centre for Arts and Culture
Topic: Historical Importance of Adire Tie-dye production
Mokudu Fall, Fashion designer & Artist
Topic: Fashion Art
Sophy Wanjiku, Founder of Tribal Trends by Shikoonyango
Topic: Significance of Beads / Wearable Art
Miss Fee, CEO 36 Degree
Topic: Building Confidence as a Model
Esther Nweje, CEO Zinnystyles
Topic: Branding a fashion business
Fanny Nzie, CEO Face Beat Boulevard
Topic: Makeup & Fashion
Chief (Mrs.) Oyenike Davis Okundaye – the managing director of Nike Art Gallery in Nigeria. She is an in-born artist from a long lineage of creative artists in her family.
She started her Art shop in her bedroom in 1967, which was her first gallery. She spoke on how everything used in the process of making Adire is made out of organic materials to protect the earth.
Historical Importance of Adire
Adire is done in different cultures and comes in different languages. In Nigeria, we use our left-over food (Cassava) to paint the clothes which come out beautifully. The cotton material is from the cotton plant as the land in Nigeria is very fertile. Each design is painted with feathers, and each design has a name, and meaning, for example – mirror: the mirror in your life, flowers: anyone who brings flowers, bring life, and so on.
Eyinolasunmi – people are my family
Adire fabric as a communication tool
People talk with the fabric as a form of communication. People use fabrics as a form of self-expression.
Medicinal purpose
Indigo dye is a vegetable dye that is used in the process of making Adire. It also has its own process of making the indigo dye itself, with the use of cocoa ash and sunlight.
Organic dye is used in the cure of Fibroids, and liver cancer as it is medicinal in nature.
The fabric is always the closest to your skin.
Also, before one becomes a king or chief, one must have indigo because you carry the people along, and are required to have the color of love which is indigo.
There are different color dyes made from organic materials such as kola, guinea corn to mention a few.
The power of organically made fabrics
The fabrics made from organic dyes are very powerful, and you feel the energy when you wear them.
She concluded by saying, there is power in textile designs and production, although it comes with its own challenges which must be embraced as a professional. The full video can be found here.
Miss Feeya – CEO/Founder 36 Degree in Germany. 36 Degrees is a platform for models, where children and adults get trained as models.
How important is diversity in modeling / Fashion?
It is very important to have representation in modeling/ Fashion. There is fashion for everyone regardless of age, skin tone, height, or any regulation. It is important to have different people represented, for example, ageless models, dark-skin models, light-skin models, teenage models, and the regulation of being skinny or very tall is what is broken in 36 degrees. She works with different designers to represent their collections in international fashion shows. More in the video here.
Confidence Building in models: it is interesting to note that as humans, we must learn to love ourselves, from our skin, to how we look, including the texture of our hair. At 36 degrees, we focus on building confidence and letting the models know that they are beautiful in their own way.
As a community or family, it is important to give support to children to build their self-confidence to love themselves. The full information can be found in the video here.
Sophy Wanjiku – Founder of Tribal Trends by Shikoonyango from Nairobi Kenya.
She makes wearable beads made out of recycled bones, beads, calabash, horns, all sorts of sustainable materials, and they are all of high quality.
She is passionate about wearable beads and works majorly with stay-at-home mothers to keep them busy while caring for their families. The full video conversation here.
Mokodu Fall – A fashion Artist from Senegal based in Italy. He is an artist painter. His works have been displayed in Milan Afro fashion week and other big events. He translates art on cloths, in a rich and unique way, and his inspiration comes from Africa. You can view the full video here.
Fanny Nzie – is the Founder and CEO of Face Beat Boulevard, a German-based makeup artist with five (5) years of experience. She specializes in dark-skinned women and can work on other skin tones as well.
The importance of makeup in the fashion/modeling industry
She highlighted the importance of makeup in the fashion industry as makeup artists help influence brand marketing, cultural awareness and boost self-confidence for most women.
Esther Nweje Chukwura – An image consultant in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She manages an Image consulting firm called Zinnystyles limited for 10 years.
Branding a Fashion business
In branding a fashion business, you have to stand out. You do not necessarily have to do something different, you can something similar in a completely different way.
In branding, you want to start by creating a niche, look at what solution you are bringing to the table, and know your target audience.
Create your avatar client
Create a profile of your ideal customer by understanding their lifestyles
Work on your brand elements
– what color should my brand be associated with (color says a lot psychologically),
-where should I locate my business, how should my logo look like, what name should my brand have (must be strong and sweet at the same time), what marketing style should I focus on, etc.
We hope you enjoyed the video summary and will support us at this year’s Fashion Major Event (FME) on 27th & 28th May 2022.
Looking forward to your cooperation.