Funmi Ajila Ladipo is the owner of the famed fashion label, House of Regalia. The fashion designer, who is also the president, Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria, FADAN, tells Yetunde Oladeinde that if not for her mother she wouldn’t have been a designer and how her father’s mindset about fashion designers changed.
HOW has it been with FADAN world?
It is exactly a year that I became the president in FADAN. I thank God that I was able to give account of what I have been doing for the past one year. We had our executive meeting last week and the founder of the association, Shade Thomas Fahm, was seated. She is the founder of the first boutique, Shade’s Boutique, and the first known designer in Nigeria. I needed to give an account. That is not something they have been doing in the association, but I said to them that I am an agent of change. Things must move in a different direction and they must move properly. If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? You can’t build on a faulty foundation. The Bible says you can fast and pray, but I say that the righteous can change the foundation.
If you build on a faulty foundation it would crumble on your head. The people that build the faulty foundation would have left. But if you are under that foundation and you build on it, it may break on your head and it might be at your own time that that thing would die.
What are some of the projects that you are working on?
I have been trying to bring back the designers; all the fragmented parts of the association. If the house is not together, things cannot really work out. I have been talking to them and I found out that there is power in volume. It is not only in Lagos that we have creative people.
You call yourself a designer when you have money and when you are able to brand yourself. But the people out there who are in their villages who come up with indigenous styles and designs call themselves artists, and what we have been able to build are chapters. I have built the Lagos chapter, of which Kola Kudus is the chairperson.
I have been able to build Abuja and Fati Ibrahim is the coordinator for Abuja.
We have also been able to build Delta State successfully and we are going to inaugurate Kaduna, Enugu, Oyo, Ogun and Port Harcourt. Those are city centres and they are pending inauguration. We have been looking at what they are doing. We have been able to find out that there are more people out there.
What is wrong with the system that is in place?
If they have what the so called designers in Lagos have, they would do better. Lagos is a place where we make a lot of noise. When I say noise, if you have access to internet and the other facilities, then you can make noise. Sometimes, people don’t even have shops, they don’t have anything but they know how to use the computer to tell people that they are doing this and that.
We are going into the schools to see people who have foundational training, like basic training on fashion designing, to sort them out. Those who have the flair can go into the school of fashion. Just like you go to the university to study law, then you go to the Bar Association, you should have the formal training.
What strategy are you putting in place?
FADAN has been nominated to be on the technical education board. So we have been able to go to Gboko and we have accredited a school in Gboko, Benue, and another set at a polytechnic in Ogwachukuwu in Delta State, where they have turned out about a hundred people every year. That is what we want to do, touch the grassroots.
You find out that, if they do not have the basic training or exposure, they either go back to learn something else or end up being a tailor in their locality. What we can do to this people is to bring them to cities, attach them to people and let them gain exposure and then they can branch out on their own.
Another thing we have been doing is to build relationship between the government and the private sector. We have been talking to them on the need to support the organisation.
Why do they need to support the organisation.?
You see that we have been crying that things are expensive in Nigeria and these are some of the causes. A number of people have been able to go to schools but they are not empowered. So, we need a centre; it is called a processing centre. A processing hub where you have plenty machines and people are working there. I do not need to have a factory, all I need is a sample.
I take it to the processing hub and tell them I want a hundred pieces and they do it for me. Another designer also goes there and the same thing is done successfully. So, if we have a processing hub in all the states of the federation there would be work for people. These people are employed and they would gain experience in the process. It also creates a retailers’ hub, so that as soon as these things are ready, there would be a ready market.
What should be the role of government?
This is a chain thing and if they are able to source their materials locally, the textile manufacturers benefit and at the same time more people are employed while others are getting value for money. People are paying less and the economy is booming. That is why we need the ears of government and I think that the states should look at this.
Nigeria has signed contracts with AGOA but we have not been able to meet up. You cannot sign a contract with a nation, saying that you would take samples to them without having an industry that would do this. It does not make sense, and so before you work on export, you must find the industry where that thing can be produced.
How did your passion for fashion begin?
In my place we treasure education so much. It is either you are a lecturer, Reverend or a farmer. But a tailor? Nobody would reckon with you. I thank God for my mother who was there for me. If not for her I wouldn’t have been a designer. I would have read law, which was what my father wanted and probably be doing charge and bail. I also thank my dad; he was instrumental to my success. My parents went to school in Canada and at a point my brother was in America studying and my father was invited to a fashion show and he liked the way the designers were addressed.
That was how he changed his mindset. I thank God for having very supportive parents and my father then said: ‘if that is what you want to do, please go ahead.’ I thank God that I never disappointed them. I became a source of pride and I am happy to say that I took a lot of attributes from them. They are people who believe that a good name is better than wealth. That is what has really kept me. I also got the right attitude thing from them. If you have money and everything but do not have the right attitude, then you won’t go far. When you do not have money your attitude would make a way for you.
If you had to advise young people, what would you tell them?
They must be focus and avoid the get-rich syndrome. Get rich quick and die. There is more of Hollywood and Nollywood in the things that they see. Life is not like this. There is always the planning behind the scene. So I would tell them that they should not be carried away with what they see. What they need is to work hard, be dedicated and persevere. Even the woman on the street would tell you that it is not easy. We need to change the mentality where everyone wants to have the latest bag, latest shoe and all that. In every field, you must have passion. It is the passion that would take you far. There is no success story without war. These days, they want to enjoy first but it should be the other way.
