Govt must support indigenous businesses to make Nigeria a producing economy -Iniobong Obinna-Onunkwo and Nneka Etayokhai, partners NENI fashion outfit
Tell us briefly about the collection
The bougie woman collection by *NENI* is inspired by the beautiful butterfly that flutters playfully in the luscious garden.
The metamorphic transformation of a butterfly’s cycle is phenomenal. From infancy to adulthood, the butterfly experiences life. The best part is the chrysalis stage where it emerges into an adult. At this stage, growth becomes a place of curiosity, questions, struggles, and the dire need to succeed. This emergence in every aspiring woman is called CHANGE.
The butterfly signifies the modern woman. She’s scarred yet graceful, dares to explore the world, fearless, driven to grow, and sees and enjoys every moment as a luxury of her journey to aspire for more of the challenges which make her confident, courageous, bold, beautiful, and intelligent.
The garden is the environment and the greenery is life. The combination of all species of plants signifies different people, diverse cultures, different places, and several opportunities waiting for the woman to explore and learn.
What are your expectations? And who are your models?
I’ll start with the models. The models are beautiful ladies. And when we went for our fitting, they were very proud of what they wore. And they were pretty excited. So I know that when they come out on stage, they’re going to showcase the brand because we had to tell them that our brand is a masterpiece. And this is our first outing at the African Fashion Week Nigeria. And this piece that you’re putting on should signify that you’re a Bougie woman. And it just kind of changed the perspective and gave them that feeling of confidence, courage, and bravery.
Is there any colouration between the damask fabric and Africa? Is damask an African fabric?
Well, damask is a heritage fabric, just like we have adire and aso-oke. One of my core values is heritage. So when it comes to anything heritage that will promote culture, luxury, or sustainability, I believe that whatever you’re dealing with has to have that heritage feel.
How long have you been in the industry?
Next year is going to make me 10 years in the fashion industry, and it’s been an amazing journey with ups and downs. Like I said the NENI collection like my partner and my colleague, we’ve been through a whole lot. I mean from the setup stage to the growth stage. It’s been a lot but we’re grateful.
Have you been in other careers before joining the fashion industry?
Initially, I was an investment banker and a portfolio manager. And it was very interesting because when I started, I was a trained engineer before venturing into investment banking and portfolio management. And what inspired me to go into fashion was that I made some pieces for my children, and they went to an elitist society wedding where all the mothers looked at my children and said, ‘oh, so they can weave pieces of Ankara, and do something very nice on the children. No one had thought of it at that time. That inspired me. So, we started the brand ‘Little Weavers’ and now we’ve been in the industry for a while, and we’ve also found another niche which I’ve partnered with my friend Nneka and we collaborated to create NENI.
Does that mean you went into fashion even as a portfolio manager?
No, not really, as a portfolio manager, I loved fashion and heritage. Whenever I put on some of my outfits, I reflect on my African heritage. Sometimes, I would come to work on my suit, with beads on them. I save a bit of heritage in contemporary urban and a mix of everything. Imagine someone wearing these suits with pearls and all of them. I just love that heritage feel. So it’s always been about fashion and creativity.
At a time, you launched a programme to encourage children on speaking their mother tongue. Do you still have that in line?
Yes, definitely. As I said, the damask is a heritage fabric. So for me, heritage is very important. I’m a woman that believes in identity. You have to know your culture. When someone speaks to you, wherever you are in the world, you have to be able to tell people that ‘look, I know where I come from, and I’m proud of who I am. And I have a connection with the particular roots’.
So I strongly believe that people should connect with themselves, which is that heritage, communication, and language. It is high time women, parents, society, and the community trained the children to be proud of themselves to identify with themselves. Some people go out there and they speak, they’ll say they don’t understand Igbo. That is wrong because you have to identify with your culture and know your identity.
At what point did you switch completely from your career into fashion?
It was a personal journey. And I felt at that time that there was more that was deserving for me. and I just felt it was time for me to leave and, then the inspiration that came with the societal wedding, and I just felt like this was an opportunity. Let’s just leverage on it and start up.
You design for women, is there any plan to start designing for men?
That will be in the pipeline and we’ll look at it as well. Because I make some pieces for my husband and he showcases them almost every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or whenever he decides to put them on. So we’ll think about that.
Is this the first time your brand LittleWeavers is coming on African Fashion Week?
Yes, this is our first outing on African Fashion Week in Nigeria.
So it’s the two brands’ first outing?
Yes, it is our first time on African Fashion Week Nigeria, because LittleWeavers has been going for other fashion shows and we’ve had our fashion shows.
How do you feel about having two of your brands featured on African Fashion Week Nigeria? And what should we expect?
I’m excited. So a quick one for people that are going through different life endeavours or challenges (you know whatever it is you’re doing whatever investments or whatever plans you have) just stay focused on the goal. I say this because the journey towards creating the collection for NENI and creating the collection for LittleWeavers were tedious, highly challenging, and very competitive for me because I’ve two brands making their first outing. So, I braced myself to take it on because whatever happens, we know we will succeed. So we just had to stay on the goal. And here we are.
What’s your perception of the Nigerian fashion industry?
I feel Nigeria is a consuming economy, and I feel that we could do much better. I feel that the government could do so much by supporting indigenous businesses. I don’t just want to say fashion because, in the fashion industry, we have a value chain. So I feel there’s so much to be done; so much investment for the young people. There are so many young talented people out there. I feel we could do better, and turn around and be a producing economy. So I don’t want to compare us to other countries because I feel that Nigeria has the skills, we have the talent, and I feel we could. We’re under-utilised.
As a designer of both adult and children’s wear, what are your biggest challenges putting your pieces together?
I believe strongly in an Ibibio proverb that says ewo ado iyene (confirm this spelling) this means that people are your wealth. You could have a room filled with money or a whole estate, or even own a bank. But you need people. You need the right network of people. You need to empower the right minds. You need to change the mindset of the people around you. You need to build the people. It is the people that will bring wealth. It is the people that will create the infrastructure. The fabrics won’t weave themselves or export themselves at the Apapa port. You need human beings to do that, not robots. So I believe that the first step in everything that we have to do is to invest in the people. It is the people that make or mar your business.
Many hold the notion that women don’t unite, so what is the force binding the partnership in the NENI collection?
Usually, what I feel is that for everybody, the first thing you have to look at for yourself is your personality. Find out your personality. What are your strengths, and what are your weaknesses? And if you find someone that can back you up. For instance, if I’m not a good time manager, then I should have someone who is a good time manager. Or probably I’m very good with calculations, (crunching numbers) then I should have someone creative, or if I’m the creative one then I should have someone that knows how to crunch the numbers or has the skill.
So there should be something that would fuse these two personalities. So I feel, based on what you said that women don’t unite, I think it’s a personality thing. I think it’s not just within the women’s culture. I think it’s also in all genders.
People just generally have to know what their personalities are, and who they can do business with. So you have to understand personality A, can I merge with personality B, and what is our vision? What do we hope to achieve? What’s the objective of our coming together?
Nneka:
My name is Nneka Etayokhai. I’m a designer. Recently, I partnered with my very good friend, a sister as well, Ini-obong Obinna of LittleWeavers. And we came together to create this collection called the Bougie collection for women. We aim to satisfy women of substance, women that want to stand out in society.
How long have you been in the fashion industry?
I’ve been in the fashion business since 2014. I worked with most of the top designers in Nigeria.
I was a former secretary to Mrs. Funmi Ajila-Ladipo, the president of FADAN and as well I coordinated designers at all kinds of fashion shows.
Before this partnership tell a little about your fashion brand.
My fashion brand has been all about making clothes for women that stand out in society. We come out with different shapes of outfits that stand out. So along the line, my friend, Ini came up with the idea that we partner together. We’ve done so well and the African Fashion Week Nigeria is our first outing. It’s our first show showcasing what we can make as designers.
Did you start your fashion business right from the scratch?
Yes, I gained business skills after working with a designer. I once coordinated designers as well. So I’m a designer. I went to a design school. I’ve always had a passion for the fashion industry and I have been in the business for over seven years.
