She`s the new kid on the bloc as
far as creativity is concerned in the fashion business, that’s Toju Foyeh,
Future Awards` New Designer of The Year 2012. There`s no gain saying that, Toju
is not one of the run of the mill fashion designers owing to her clientele base
and score-sheet in so long a time. The drop dead beauty fielded questions with
News Editor, Faith Irabor during a recent meeting in Ikoyi, Lagos where she
spoke on her art of fashion designing and unique selling point. Below are the
excerpts:
Can we get to know how you came about
the idea of your kind of business?
I’ve always known that I wanted
to go into fashion and actually my parents owned a fashion house when I was
growing up and my grandmother was a designer as well, so it’s something I’ve
always known I wanted to do and after I finished my Law degree I decided to go
to a fashion school and then I moved back and I set up.
But how prepared are you for the
industry considering the fact that it`s quite challenging?
Hopefully my style, because I am
focusing more on evening wears and I know a lot of Nigerian celebrities often
want to come out in the best evening gowns on the red carpets. Besides we
already have lots of designers who are focusing on more smart types of clothing
or more different types of clothing so I’m focusing on this specific area.
You said style would stand you
out, in your own context what’s your definition of style?
Style for me is a reflection of
your personality as well as a reflection of your mood and those are the general
things that inspire me and I feel with the types of fabrics that I work with as
well, I have a unique selling point.
What kind of materials do you
use?
See, it depends, let me explain
again that what I focus on mostly is evening gowns and that’s what is going to
be seen in my store though there would also be designs made with other fabrics
and also at affordable rate. Then I also get some fabrics for my evening wears
abroad.
So we won’t be seeing the usual Ankara
made fabrics in different styles?
No, I don’t think so
But you’re wearing a beautifully
designed short gown with Ankara fabrics?
Yes, I agree but I mean this is
not what I planned on selling at my store so, I don’t want to follow the trend
of what everybody is already doing, what I want to have at my store is stuff
that you might not get to see anywhere else, everyone is making Ankara so if
you don’t have to come to me for Ankara you can go down the road for Ankara, so
what you see at my store will be things that you wouldn’t see down the road.
But would you put your evening
dresses to suits trends in our local fabrics?
When you say local fabrics what
do you mean? Ankara is not local fabrics, it`s not made here I mean it`s not a
Nigerian fabrics, it`s made in Denmark.
On the contrary how do you intend
to break into the market and stay on top because it’s highly competitive?
That’s why I said earlier about
my main selling point, it is going to be a combination of stuffs like I said,
it’s going to be my own interpretation so it could be fabrics, it could be
colours, it could be cuts, it could be forms, I mean dress forms and things like
that, like if you want me to make you an Ankara dress, it’s going to be an
Ankara dress but not the regular type that you see down the road, basically it`s
the details that will make my clothes stands out.
So who are your targeted clients,
then are students, I mean fashion conscious girls welcome too?
I think it might go a bit too mature
for secondary school girls so I would say the age range would probably be from
21.
How do you describe the other
outfits in your store?
Yes, the store is going to be
loaded with different designs and styles ranging from the likes of chiffon
blouses, baggy pants, evening wears and the rest, but like I said I’m not going
to stop doing my evening wear thing 80 percent.
You won the Future Awards 2012
New Designer of the year amidst other strong contenders, what would you say was
the magic?
I feel really honoured for even
being nominated for the award, I mean I was surprised. I remembered telling a
friend of not being too sure I could win it because the category was tight and
as for the magic I will say God and the couple of jobs that I have done.
Can you mention some?
(Laughs) I think I did a lot but
I did it in a short space of time. I remembered being noticed since 2010 when
we started clothing Tiwa Savage, I started working with Tiwa as far back as
then and even till now and in 2011 we did Arise fashion week which was also
huge, followed by series of magazine covers including Wow Magazine cover,
Genevieve Magazine. We’ve also clothed Agbani Darego, Waje, Goldie and many
more.
Which would you still see as the most challenging?
I think the Newspaper outfit on This Day style
basically because we had to make 2 outfits neatly with This Day newspaper and
for, I think MBGN and Miss Nigeria, that I think has been my most difficult
challenge till date because you are working with Newspaper, It`s not like
working with fabrics, it`s not like sewing something, you actually need to
construct it with things like glue, pins, hangers, it was pretty tough but
thank God it came out fine. For the This
Day one, I basically have to form a shape to make to a blouse to actually make
the base and then put on the paper and that involved things like cutting the
paper into different pattern. And then I worked on different projects as well
as Charity shows and then Arise 2012, I also did African Fashion week last year
2011 and I also did New York Fashion week last year 2011, so in a short pace of
time I’ve actually done those things.
Where are you from?
Osun State
Are you married?
This is the second time you have
asked me (laughs) do I look old enough to be married
How old are you?
I just turned 24
Are you in any relationship?
Can’t discuss that
When you are not doing fashion designing, what do you do?
Baking, cooking. I bake different
things, pies, pizza, cakes, I enjoy baking I also cook a lot and I went to
cooking school when I was very young.
Any embarrassment in the course
of the job?
I think I once had a client, I
won’t call it an embarrassment but I think she was just trying to be smart
really, she asked for something, so say for example she asked for this dress
and came to the show room, she wore it she was fine, she wore it out then she
came back after wearing it, she wore it in my store and looked in the mirror
left, right everything was fine then she wore it out then she came back oh no
maybe you should take the sleeve, let’s make it sleeveless so I took off the
sleeve, she looked left, right was okay with it, wore it out (laughs) came back
and was like…, the things is that she kept trying to alter the dress so that
each time it look like a different dress. That was crazy but I generally have
happy clients, I always form a relationship with my client, a lot of my clients
are now my friends, generally everything has been good so far.
It’s been nice chatting with you?
Thanks too.
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