New Telegraph

Fashion industry, a goldmine Nigeria needs to tap into –QueenGold Sekibo

QueenGold Daniella Sekibo is the Executive Director of Blue Pearl Services International and the founder of Africa Fashion and organisers of the Design week. In this interview with IFEOMA ONONYE, Daniella Sekibo speaks on how her passion for fashion and how she left her petroleum engineering job to hosting fashion shows around the world

 

We have heard so much about Africa Fashion and Design Week. As the founder, tell us how it came to be.

 

Africa Fashion and Design week started 10 years ago in October, purely out of passion to showcase Nigeria in a more positive light. As a fashion lover, I do a whole lot in New York. When I meet designers and producers back stage, they are always excited to say, ‘oh, you are from Africa. I tend to correct this notion that Africa is not a country.

Rather, it is a continent with different countries, with diverse cultures, vast people, very creative minds. That was what birthed Africa Fashion and Design week. I wanted to tell the African story in a different way. Show the creativity of Africa designers across the world. It is a platform where we can show our talent, network and celebrate each other.

So, in October, 2012, AFDW was born. We started in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. Our first runway show was in Port Harcourt and we evolved as years went by. So, from Port Harcourt, Lagos, we have been to Los Angeles, Nairobi and Accra. We have had the best of names in the fashion industry showcase on our runway shows.

From David Thilali, To Garvin Raja, Mustapha Asenali, Koko Romeo, the list is endless of designers who have showcased on Africa Fashion and Design week. The same package runs in our 10th year anniversary. We have grown in that light where we are still trying to work on our vision, mission and purpose. We have given birth to the Business of Fashion seminar, which is an avenue to enhance core skills. When telling a story about people, it evolves.

It is not stagnant. As you have the big names in the industry, as they grow, you will want the younger generation to take over. It’s a way of protecting and preserving your heritage. The Business of fashion helps to enhance their skills and core values in fashion for the younger ones in the industry, help them to grow, so that they can take over when needed.

The Business of Fashion program will have resource people from countries where AFDW has held, such as Kenya, Ghana and United Kingdom to speak to the younger generation.

There is also, Trade Exhibition and the Runway showcase. Another program that will be witnessed is the ‘Blue Pearl Rising star. This is where we find and scout for new designers. Giving them a platform to shine. We don’t just allow them come to Africa Fashion and Design Week, we sponsor them to New York Fashion Week.

This year’s anniversary, we will sit down with some of our stars that we discovered and share their growth and prosperity stories. Our theme for the 10th anniversary is Imagine, Inspire and Ignite.

We want to tell the story of how Africa Fashion and Design Week started in a most passionate way. We want to inspire people with our story, that it does not matter how you started, so far you are consistent, and you have the grace of God most importantly, you will keep growing.

10 years in hosting Africa Fashion and Design Week? What have you discovered from this journey so far?

We don’t know that fashion contributes a lot to the value chain of our economy. Fashion is one of the sectors that has been downplayed in this part of the world. This is why countries like Nigeria are yet to gain massively from fashion because they are yet to tap into the wealth it has.

This is part of why Africa Fashion and Design Week was established, to shed light on these parts that have been neglected to the government. For this 10th anniversary, we will be showcasing fashion 22 designers from across the Africa. Both from Africa and International designers.

The most important part of our a n n i v e r – sary is introducing our Blue Pearl Rising stars, whom we discovered, g r o o m e d from scratch and gave a platform to fly at the New York Fashion Week. They are now big brands. We are bringing them on AFDW this year. We are showcasing designers from across 11 African countries this year, like Kenya, Ghana, M o – z a m – bique, Z i m – babwe, Cameroon. We have designers coming from the UK and USA and of course Nigeria.

 

We have gone to many runway shows and most times, we see very disappointing designs- the finishing of some designs are very poor and glaring. Some come unprepared, some don’t even iron the clothes they are showcasing. Are we going to see these in your own platform?

I am so happy this question came up. There is a reason our fashion and design week is different. There are so many designers but not all are on Africa Fashion and Design Week runway. It is a big deal to be on our runway. I am a petroleum engineer and I worked in the industry for many years before facing my passion for fashion. I worked in New York.

So, trust me, there are processes we follow before picking designers for our runway. I will not be telling you some of these processes because it is like revealing a confidential information. As a professional designer, there are terminologies we use and processes we use to screen. This year, Ejiro Amos Tafiri will be opening our runway shows here in Lagos.

 

You are the founder and organiser of Africa Fashion and Design week. You said earlier that you studied Petroleum Engineering and we understand you have worked with oil companies in Port Harcourt. How did you end up in Fashion?

Passion never really dies. I studied Petroleum Engineering and worked with different oil companies but no matter where you run to, your passion will always find you. I remember when I was a little girl, my parents would buy me clothes but when it is time to wear it, they never get to see the clothes exactly the way they bought it. I would have used scissors to cut it, trim some part, make a bow to fix on it, because I would see that the style was not good enough.

And I was a little girl then.

How old were you then?

I was just about 10 to 11 years old when I started doing all that with my outfit. I have always had this passion to create and that was what led me to engineering. I had two senior brothers and I was more like a Tom Boy back then.

We were always taking out parts of our toys to pieces and building them back. We destroy and build it back. So, engineering felt like the right place to go. At the time I was in engineering, I loved the career so much. I was still designing and still creating but fashion wouldn’t just let go.

In fashion, it’s someone’s story that you put together and bring it to life. Anytime that I travel for work back then, I am always sneaking in for fashion stuff, to know what is trending, to know what    is buzzing. That was how I got into New York Fashion Week and hearing the stories about Africa. I had to keep correcting a few people that Africa is a continent with very creative people and not just a small state.

Did you become a fashion designer at some point before starting the African Fashion and Design Week?

I did. I made a few pieces. My fashion line did not last for a long time. It was QD5. It was properly registered. It didn’t last because organising runway professionally, you are not supposed to be in the fashion line because it is a bridge. You are showcasing designers, their collection and their work. You as an organiser cannot be working. It’s like a conflict. You may come off as picking their designs.

Internationally, that is how it is done. So, for me realising that process, I couldn’t move on with my QD5 fashion line. I had to give it up for a bigger vision of showcasing Africa.

You put two things you love on a pedestal and had to choose one. You chose showcasing Africa Fashion and Design. Do you miss designing pieces for your QD5?

I don’t think so. I am designing almost every day. I decided to take my designing skill to interior decoration.

QD5 branched out into interior. Each time, I find myself creating pieces.

As a petroleum engineer, when you told your dad you may veer a little bit into fashion, how did he take it?

My dad passed on just a year before QD5 was launched. It’s something he would not have loved, but he was a very supportive father. He wanted me to be a medical doctor. He want me in a very professional career. I told him that he was just programming me to fail because I wouldn’t succeed in studying medicine. I cannot even stand blood. So, I advised my father, he had so many children; he could get a medical doctor from there, and just allow me to do engineering. He loved the part that I wanted to do engineering. He supported me all the way.

At what point did you leave the oil company job to face African Fashion and Design week?

It was in 2018 that I left my job to face the African Fashion and Design week. When I unveiled the fashion show, I was still working. I used up my leave in the office for organising the show. The fashion events are planned to hold even when I am not physically there. But there are ones that I cannot miss being physically present. Then, when I am due for leave, I use that opportunity to show up.

Many Nigerians would see it as a wrong move to leave an oil company job for hosting fashion and design weeks. Do you get that a lot and have you ever missed your previous job?

Life is about purpose. When you have not found it, you are just roaming. Once you find purpose, you feel fulfilled. At that point, you don’t even know that you are working. You don’t even know that you are sacrificing a lot. I have found purpose and it’s not work anymore. It’s a greater vision, it’s a greater passion. So, I don’t think I miss anything.

Do you still make your own clothes or your children clothes?

I don’t even have that time anymore. I have different designers that I work with that make our clothes. I get to critic some clothes sometimes because there are some clothes you see, and you begin to wonder what the tailor was thinking.

Sometimes you find out that the dress does not sit properly. The finishing is poor or that the colours choices do not blend. When you see wardrobe malfunction, it means the designer has not thoughtfully put it together. Being in Africa Fashion and Design week has given me the privilege to work with many designers. When there are particular design you want, you already know the designer that is excellent at it. You know their strength and weaknesses.

When was the first time you actually made a full dress for yourself, considering that you are good at altering the clothes you parents bought for you back then. When did you finally make a proper cloth?

When I was 15. I was about finishing secondary school at the time I made that dress.

Did you later get a training on how to make clothes? Or go to any tailoring school?

No, I am self-taught. I have come to realise that some of the designers I have worked with, that are doing exceptionally well are all self-taught. It is usually when they want to climb the career ladder that they say, okay, ‘let me go to a proper school to see if I am missing something’, ‘ may be there is something that I need to know’. That is when they now go to a fashion school.

Earlier, you said that Nigeria is missing out on the wealth that fashion can create.

Tell us the information you are trying to pass across by saying that?

Nigeria is not tapping as much as we are supposed to when it comes to the fashion industry. This is why in Africa fashion and design week, we are not all about the big names, we are trying to get the younger ones, groom them, because if you are talking about an industry, it takes so much more. The future has a lot to do with the younger designer who are coming up.

For example, Nigeria does not have a production hub. Even if you are looking for buyers to patronise your work, and you fly the best of buyers in, he or she eventually request for 1, 000 pieces of your shirt, where are you going to produce that huge number. So, a whole lot of investment has to come in into the fashion industry but it’s starts small small. So, while the bigger brands are growing, let’s get the younger ones prepared.

You said earlier that Africa Fashion and Design week grooms young designers and take them to New York Fashion Week. How do you do that? Do you get sponsors often?

A few times, we have got sponsors but other times, the budget is on Blue Pearl Services International. Most times, we sponsor the emerging designers to the New York ourselves.

Read Previous

Men’s bag still trending

Read Next

2023 Presidency: APC, PDP battle internal opposition

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *