Chibuzor Ihegboro
How has Zaris contributed to the growth of fashion in Nigeria?
Our benchmark is professionalism. We intend to add value to fashion business in Nigeria by gradually trying to change the face of fashion education in Nigeria. We are producing standard designers that can compete with their counterparts in fashion anywhere in the world. Our alumni consist of winners of Next Top Designers at African Fashion week.
They’ve been FADAN and DA VIVA ambassadors too. So, for me, those are steps in the right direction in trying to change the face of fashion education. We have most of our alumni also working with big designers, doing pattern drafting, fashion illustration, handling the fashion business in every little aspect.
Outline the peculiar challenges you have overcome and still trying to overcome.
Running a fashion academy is more difficult than running a fashion house. This is because a fashion academy is where you are training people. It is more like you are giving service instead of giving products and believe me, it is more difficult to give service than sell product. Getting the right students to enroll, I interview all my students personally and I need to see true potential in you. I need to see the fire, the hunger before you gain admission here.
Sometimes, finding such students can be challenging. We have a standard we strictly adhere to because fashion is not all about glamour; it is handwork, dedication. It is not a free ride.Then there is the ever-lasting problem of light because most of our training equipment run with electricity.
So, sometimes, we resort to devising ways to use tools manually. Funding, you need loans to run an academy like this. During the past administration, we won a grant from the Youwin programme. We hope such miracle will happen again! Space is another thing; we need to expand and build hostels for our students.
What do you want government to do for the fashion industry?
Fashion is a very big business, and in the Western world, they are doing very well because they have their government support. It is not easy for a designer to have a place, to buy machines, to run after tailors. We will want to have a production hub, for those who are making clothes. So, as a designer, you don’t have a big workplace before you can produce. If we have a hub, you can take your design there and they multiply it for you just like they do in China.
The present government needs to understand the boost fashion can bring to the economic growth of the nation, especially in this present economic downturn. It just cannot be over-emphasised. In developed countries, a council is set up to monitor the activities of the fashion industry, how they make clothes so that designers’ clothes are not copied and other peculiar issues associated with the business.
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When we start to put all of these in place, then we can get a more structured economy. Then the emergence of fashion schools should be checked, to make sure they are teaching the right curriculum that is not below standards but of international ones. We need to produce people who are quality designers that can compete with other designers anywhere in the world.
What are you doing differently from other fashion academies?
I can boast that my students can compete in any international fashion platform. You see, the greatest problem that we have as designers is that we are not able to express ourselves. My students are allowed to express themselves totally. For the average Nigerian designer, tailor or seamstress, they just go to the magazines and copy design.
A true designer shouldn’t do that. Create a new design and convince your client it will suit him or her. You should be able to talk about fashion, like engineering and other disciplines and if we don’t put the theories of fashion in place, translating fashion to another person is going to be a problem. That is why it is easier to work with my own students because they can interpret fashion. I have most of them working with top designers because they can understand pattern drafting, they understand fashion internationally, the way and standard it is being done in the international fashion scene. This is why our graduates stand out, we build in them the confidence that is expected of an international designer; we improve their status.
Then there is this wrong misconception the society sometimes perceives of people learning fashion; they see them as dropouts, people that could not read to obtain a university degree. They are so narrow-minded and shortsighted because a fashion graduate is as professional as a lawyer, doctor or engineer. There is no difference! As a fashion school, we have won several awards, amongst others the Best Fashion School in West Africa.
The best Designer for Africa Fashion Week 2017 was a Zaris alumnus. We have also been Da Viva ambassador consecutively in 2014, 2015 and 2016. We are graduating 80 students in 2018. It is a fulfillment for me to see those that we have trained making a difference in the industry.
Let’s talk about the Al -Jazeera experience; the network once did a documentary on your academy.
When we started our website at the beginning of this academy, we stated that we were into fashion education. And at the time we started, we were the only academy that came up with the three-month course. Every other person was doing one year, two years, and people were wondering if it was possible. So, that drove a lot of traffic to our website.
Because the website was created under the Google platform, when Google now came to Nigeria and they needed to look for businesses, they realised we had so much traffic and they wanted to know what and how we were doing it. When Al-Jazeera wanted to do a documentary on SMEs, Google recommended Zaris Fashion and Style Academy to Al- Jazeera.
Is it possible to learn fashion in three months?
Learning the basics of fashion takes basically three months. If after that you want to do more, that’s fine; you just enroll for more programmes.
Which one describes you better, a fashion designer or a fashion-designing tutor?
I studied Fashion Design at the Department of Industrial Design, Yaba College of Technology. So, I have a requisite background in fashion education. Then I had business entrepreneurship training at Lagos Business School. I made clothes for a decade, closed shop for one year before setting up Zaris Fashion and Style Academy. So, I am both a fashion designer and a fashion academy owner. I still do fashion designing. I got involved in training because I found that we needed to be innovative in what we are doing.
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What gives you more joy, doing fashion or teaching fashion?
Teaching, though the training aspect of fashion is more tasking. You have to do more research, more reading to be able to teach. Having tried my hands on all aspects of fashion, I feel teaching is on a higher level. If you studied fashion, you have the ability to impart what you have learnt to the younger generation via teaching.
How easy is it to earn a living as a fashion designer?
It is easy if you are creative. To be in the business of fashion, you have to keep evolving, doing new things and understand how fashion business works in Nigeria in relation to elsewhere in the world.
Has it been an easy journey so far?
There is something called the Nigerian factor to contend with. You want to take a loan, for instance, you have worked to meet the set criteria, at least, 90 per cent, and yet, you still cannot scale the hurdle. It will be helpful to the industry and the general business ecosystem if the procedure can be lowered a bit so people can access much-needed loans. That is one way the government can help young businesses and young entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Is there a secret to earning a living as a fashion designer?
Yes, two secrets. The first, passion. If you don’t have the passion, the stress inherent in the business can easily defeat and drive you to leave it. The second is persistence. Be consistent in the business. Always be there in the face of people, do a lot of adverts; use the social media to sustain your business.
What does it take to run a fashion outfit and a fashion school?
They are two different things. Running a standard fashion school takes a lot from you and so, you cannot afford not to be well grounded in the business. You will not, for instance, be in any business and think, ‘oh, I can run a school.’ As you are grounded in the fashion business, you must at the same time be grounded in fashion education to understand how to run a fashion training school.
Founding a fashion outfit whose stock-in-trade is sewing of ready-to-wear, for instance, will not require you being an expert – you can get someone to handle that part of it for you. The requirement for running a fashion school is the same as in any school; you must have a background in education for you to be able to teach effectively. So, don’t open a fashion school solely because you want to make money and not have a background in fashion designing.
What’s the big lesson from running a fashion school?
The lesson of patience. On one hand, we need people who studied fashion education to be teachers and facilitators in the institute. But they are difficult to come by. To find and engage them is a patient exercise. On the other hand, lots of students come into the training with a totally different idea of fashion and, therefore, make it difficult for us to make an immediate impact. We first have to counsel them, and then try to understand their ideas before we proceed to inculcate ours into them. That process calls for patience.
What next should we expect from Zaris?
For us at Zaris, it is more of quality, education, professionalism and even trying to change the face of fashion education in Nigeria. Professionalism in fashion is very important. In five years time, we intend to grow the business, probably moving over to establishing a fashion university; that is my vision.
