Lisa Folawiyo
Lisa Folawiyo studied law, at the University of Lagos. She started her label “Jewel by Lisa” in 2005 from her home.
With an initial investment of 20,000, she was able to purchase 12 yards of fabric and made the first pieces with her mother.
Lisa’s brand offers a wide range of clothes and jewelled accessories which has showrooms in Nigeria and the diaspora. She is one to incorporate traditional West African textiles such as Ankara with modern tailoring techniques and an emphasis on beading and sequin trim. Lisa Folawiyo is steadily gaining grounds and exposure with her ‘Jewel by Lisa’ empire.
Deola Sagoe
Deola is from Ondo State in Nigeria. a mother of three who studied at the University of Miami and University of Lagos and earned a Masters in Finance and Management, she is a fashion icon With a 28-year-old career in one of the toughest markets in the world. She was one of the first Nigerian-based brands to show at New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week.
She reinvented the popular traditional Aso-oke for a 21st-century audience, her work possesses a globally appealing style which has earned her an enviable clientele, she has had the privilege to work with famous personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
Omoyemi Akerele
Omoyemi attended the University of Lagos where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Law. She proceeded to the University of Warwick where she received a master’s degree in International Economic Law.
She worked at Olaniwun Ajayi & Co a Nigerian law firm from 2000 to 2003 before becoming a fashion designer. She was the fashion editor for a Lifestyle magazine called True Love.
is the founder and executive director of Style House Files, a fashion business development agency that primarily focuses on the Nigerian and African Fashion Industry.
She launched the Lagos Fashion and Design Week and her creative development agency gives African brands the opportunity of showcasing on Pitti Immagine in Italy and the Lagos Fashion and Design Week. (extracted from Wikipedia)
Omoyemi Akerele is widely regarded as a driving force in the industry.
Banke Kuku
Banke is the founder and CEO of Banke Kuku Textiles, a company she started in 2011 right in Lagos-Nigeria. She was given birth in Lagos, Nigeria, at the age of eight (8) she was relocated to the United Kingdom when she was 19, she graduated from Central St Martins College and then Chelsea College of Art and Design, having gained a bachelor’s degree in Textiles.
This early exposure gave the ability to able to marry the traditional African and western cultures together in other to create extraordinary fabrics for both the fashion and interior industry.
Wunmi Amokeodo
Wunmi is the founder of Design for Love (DFL), it was both her love for fashion and the need to address a need in the marketplace that drove her to start DFL.
She needed something to keep her busy outside her 9 to 5 job, so she journeyed into fashion design, she started by selling fabrics and designing them for her clients but the constraint of getting good tailors to interpret her designs made her learn how to sew.
With her knowledge of sewing, she was able to sew two nice dresses that got the attention of her cousin’s colleagues who placed orders for theirs.
The down payments she collected on the orders became her start-up capital for her fashion design business
Today, DFL is a successful fashion label that designs and manufactures female apparel and accessories – specifically dressy casuals and business casuals using Ankara and other fabrics that are more synonymous with the Nigerian and the African market.
If these women can break through a world seemingly dominated by men, you can too.
