Category: Glamour

Nena Kal Hunter is known for designing and producing unusual high fashion hats. She also designs and makes exclusive headpieces and recently diversified into interior decoration. Her collections were featured in Vogue Magazine, and while she was still basking in that euphoria, she also got another deal from the Canadian Derby to produce a hat for auction to help raise funds for Breast Cancer Research. Canadian Derby is a similar event to the famous Royal Ascot race. The daughter of former Attorney-General of Imo State, Kalu Ogba, tells Adetutu Audu more about her personality 

The beginning

I studied Fashion and Textiles Design at De Montfort University, UK and trained in millinery (hat making) with a woman called Rose Cory, who was the official royal milliner to the Queen Mother of England. I came back to Nigeria in 2002, made a hat which I wore to a wedding and at the same wedding, I got many orders. That’s how I got stuck in hat making. I later registered my business – Nena Kal Hunter Limited in August 2003. I’ve been making hats and fascinators since then. In 2005, I branched into interior decor when I moved to my rented house. I designed the throw pillows, sofa, curtains and so on for my house and friends kept complimenting. From there, they started ordering throw pillows, beddings and even curtains. Gradually, I graduated into doing décor for people’s offices and hotels. Luckily for me, my millinery designs were getting recognition internationally and graced the pages of international magazines such as Vogue magazine four times, the Royal Ascot Magazine thrice, Brides UK twice, Whispers magazine USA, Oheema magazine Ghana, many blogs including Bella Naija, online magazines and lots of magazines and newspapers in Nigeria.

Most fascinating jobs

One of my most recent jobs which fascinated me was designing the new wing interior and all the public areas of Morning Side Suites. I was called in at a time the building was not yet fully completed. It had a good structure and the owner trusted my design taste since I had previously done the décor of his country home. I was determined to do a good job of it. It was important to me that this hotel décor was different from what I had done in the past, so the concept was not only to design the interior décor, but to also design as many products as possible which would be installed there. It was tedious, time consuming, and yet exciting. In any hotel interior decor, the hardest part is always the imaginative aspect, getting the right picture in your head, doing all the necessary sketches, choosing the colour themes for the different public areas, planning the spaces, sourcing the goods and following through the whole process. The fun part is the procurement stage because you feel like you are on a shopping spree even though the goods don’t belong to you.

Difference between an Interior Decorator and an Interior Designer

Many people make the mistake of mixing up these two professions. They are two different things. I keep hearing lots of furniture re-sellers call themselves interior designers and it just makes me crack up. As an Interior designer, you must have had formal training with a good knowledge of colour and fabric, understand computer-aided design (CAD), space planning, furniture design, and architecture. Designers usually apprentice with a registered and established interior designer before starting out on their own.

An interior designer also has to pass an exam and register with a governing council before they can call themselves interior designers.

They must know how to draw floor plans, and not just decorate a room, but also enhance the function of a room while interior decorators do not necessarily need formal training. It’s usually mere talent and an eye for detail. They can just help clients decide on a style, choose a color scheme, purchase furniture, and accessorise.

Unique niche

The design ideas both for interior décor and millinery are different,  futuristic and whimsical giving you a feeling of being in la la land. In our products, you can see the use of colours, materials and shapes in ways that the regular designers may not imagine; our styling ideas are daring and unusual. We love fantasy, we love boldness, we incorporate nature and its designs in our products and we design to suit the customer’s needs.

Inspiration

I draw all my inspiration from God Almighty. He is the greatest designer and engineer of all time. Look at the world He created, look at the animals  zebras, leopards, snakes, the birds, peacocks, look at butterflies, flowers, leaves and their various shapes, the sky, the sea, the rainbow…..all of these have colours, hues and patterns that have been carefully matched to blend. Look at the human palm with every human being with their own unique design, look at the picture of the internal human body with every organ doing its job, then externally with two vertical legs carrying the weight of the whole body….isn’t that amazing? He created a fantastic world and co-ordinates everything in it accordingly with every group or category having its own timing of things.

Defining success

Every individual measures success in different ways. For me, it is the thrill of designing and producing a product, which people place value on and agree to spend their hard earned money purchasing it. It also means appreciation from people especially in the same field as I am. Nothing excites me like seeing a milliner or another interior designer commend my work. That is what I call success.

Style

For me, style is simply an artistic expression of some sort. In terms of fashion, my style is simple, unique and sophisticated while my decor style is contemporary. Individuals have various ways of expressing themselves and that is what adds up to make up their style and who they are. When it comes to fashion items, I love shoes and unique clutch bags more than any other fashion item. I love them, because you can wear a simple frock, but with great accessories, the outfit can be instantly transformed into a sophisticated and elegant look.

Growing up

Growing up was real fun. We had piano lessons and guitar teachers at home. During the weekends, my dad took us to Concorde Hotel, parks and gardens to have fun. My father is a lawyer; he was the Attorney General then. I call him ‘a posh lawyer,’ because he is very polished.

He is a man that I actually look up to because of his integrity. He has a good name and my role model. He is a man that looks after his family no matter what. My mother is Chinwe Kalu-Ogba. She studied Music at the university and specialised in voicing. She worked with the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Owerri, where she produces classical music on radio and television. My mother does the flogging, while my father pampers the flogged.

 We never liked her flogging us then but now, we appreciate we were flogged to fall into the right shape. My maternal grandfather was a great disciplinarian, and I guess that was where my mother got her flogging habit.

Advice for young entrepreneurs

Be focused and follow your dreams no matter what! Do not let anyone discourage you. Make friends with the right people and those who are ambitious in a practical way. Pray and work hard to get contacts of people who can help you get to the top.

Everyone needs a helping hand at some point; it doesn’t have to be money, most times, and word of mouth can work the magic. Always be honest with money and keep your word at all times. Integrity matters a lot in business. Meeting deadlines is a must.

Always save your money and invest in growing your business. Forget designer clothes, shoes, fancy phones and cars for now. You have to make a sacrifice. There will always be newer and better designs by the time you get to the top. Run away from shallow and stupid friends. Always think of the future, fill your mind with positivity and have big fat dreams. No dream is too big. In fact whatever you think, you can achieve.

Toyosi Lana has a background in film, media and journalism and worked in Glasgow, Scotland until recently. The lady who is Serena Williams’ look-alike is also passionate about table tennis. In this interview with YETUNDE OLADEINDE, she talks about her passion, working on a project called Nigeria Unite and the need to inspire the younger generation of Nigerians.

WHAT are you passionate about? I love everything that has to do with the media. Last year, I worked with Hip TV and I was part of their event planning department. Apart from that, my entire life communicates with core media practice. I also love planning tennis.

You actually look like Serena Williams. Has anyone told you that?

Yes. A number of people have said that.

Did she inspire you to play tennis?

(Laughs). I wish, I had a story like that, but I don’t have that. I was a tom-boy while I was growing up. I played football and played everything. One thing that stuck to me was playing tennis; it’s a mind game. If you win, it’s your success .If you lose, it’s your fault.

Over the years, there has been the strong black woman in the tennis world that represented breaking down barriers and somehow she is someone I want to emulate.

What is the focus of your organisation?

It is called Nigeria Unite (NU). We are an initiative. The idea is to utilise the cultural and artistic diversity and richness in our country to help encourage awareness, engagement for charity giving and accountability among Nigerians.

What I mean by that is that everybody has their little community or a little social network, which we can use. If they put their mind at it, they can effect a little change, we can affect the way we think and the way they work. If they see an avenue to affect the structure they can, it doesn’t have to be societal or doesn’t have to be something big to effect change around them and that is essentially what Nigeria Unite is all about. To stand up for something unique in our community, in our social circle.

What inspired the idea?

The use of the art as a channel is also our goal. I recognised that we tend to be a bit blind sighted to certain things. We tend to be apathetic to the things happening around us and I think my defining eureka moment came when I was 18. I just finished watching a Bob Geldof’s show and it was a place where you got different types of arts from different parts of the world. There were all kinds of things from all over the world and it was all to gain a context to entertain the people but at the same time to create an awareness about poverty in Africa.

The theme of the programme was make poverty an issue. That was in 2004, and people came from all over the world. It was broadcast everywhere and people who didn’t know about the issues in Africa knew about it, and Nigeria is one of the countries that benefitted from it. And I just thought, if they can do that, why can’t I do it as well?

We had all that challenges and all that riches. So we can do what we want to do in Africa, it doesn’t have to be a big thing and we don’t always have to wait for government. Things like doing something for your local community like Opebi, do something and not just wait for the government. So we are working with people that have taken time out to change their world, their communities and are touching lives in different ways. We have grassroots organisations that are helping their communities and the less-privileged ones in different ways. We are working with them in Akwa Ibom, Warri and Lagos. We can use our avenue, our platforms to do the same thing. There is no original idea and if something has worked somewhere, it can work here too.

What are the things that you are going to be doing to achieve this?

It goes back to our core principle of engagement, accountability. At the moment, we are trying to organise youth groups, faith-based organisations to find out things in their community that can be done better. When you are engaging and also finding people that go out of their way to find grassroots organisations. It doesn’t have to be government all the time; it could just be a community, like Opebi.  I also appreciate people that take time to create fun or impact the society.

So we have grassroots organisations giving free education to people. We have grassroots organisations giving food to the less-privileged ones in the society. You have this in Akwa Ibom, Warri and Lagos. We can use our medium, our platform to do things differently.

What are you going to be doing to achieve this?

It goes back to our core objectives which are awareness, engagement and giving to the needy. At the moment, we are trying to mobilise youth groups, organisation to find out things in their communities that immediately need addressing. Then you engage in it to make it better. We are also encouraging people to go out of their way to find charitable organisations in the grassroots that are helping their communities. So they nominate and the public would vote for them; this is their back story and this is why we want them to win and all. It is going to be open to all and it is going to be a bi-annual event.

Would you be targeting a particular group, especially the youths?

We are a youth group but we would not be targeting youths alone. We already have Yemi Alade on board and she believes this is a movement. It is not going to happen overnight.

The organisation was conceived with the notion to help increase civic engagement and social awareness in Nigeria. As Martin Luther King Jnr. said, “every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” The human race has been told through science that only the fittest survives. However, the most evolved societies and organisations are those that understand that for true growth to be achieved, social consciousness for your fellow man is key.

The Nigerian NGO sector has for a long time depended primarily on international donor funding and some of the risks and consequences of a singular external funding focus have been seen for years. The global recession resulted in a massive reduction of international aid, both governments and private foundations and significant cut backs resulted in many NGOs closing shop or significantly reducing their reach and services.

Our activities and events will give publicity and raise funding for charitable programmes that are innovative in their different sectors. We hope to skew the scale in favour of indigenous giving. This would of course require that the public is aware of credible grassroots programme, that they trust that these programmes are ethically managed, and that they are motivated to be involved financially and in kind.

If excellently executed, as we envision , Nigeria Unites will help highlight and celebrate Nigeria’s rich and diverse artistic talents, indigenous fundraising and a transparent and accountable process of ensuring only deserving NGO’s and grassroots organisations benefits from the proceeds of public giving. We would work to ensure the phrase, ‘I Am the Change’, becomes a tacit part of socio-cultural make up as a nation, in the upcoming years.