Fashions Finest Africa: FFA launches to promote emerging creatives across Africa

Out to promote Nigeria's thriving fashion industry without leaving emerging creatives behind, the duo behind Fashions Finest Africa spoke to Pulse recently...

The first ever Fashions Finest Africa opened in Lagos on 27th August 2017.

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".

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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.

 

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.

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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.

 

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 worls. 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.

ALSO READ: SGTC Clothing made a chic print show at the debut edition of FF

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.

from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online