Designer Richard Babalola worked long and hard to get his Babson Zotto jeans range on the racks of high-end stores in Flanders.
Some 20 years ago, Richard Babalola left his home country, Nigeria, for Belgium. He is currently based in Antwerp with his wife and two children. The artist and designer has been working hard to get his Babson Zotto denim label on the racks of local and international boutiques.
Babalola grew up in a house that was bordered by a tailor shop on each side. In 1989, he obtained an arts degree at the Polytechnic Ibadan institute in south-western Nigeria, and he started making clothes not long after. “My first label was called New Dimension, a collection of tie-and-die fabrics and batiks,” he recalls.
Babalola also exported to Europe during that period, and after a friend convinced him to try his luck abroad, he applied for a visa and arrived in Belgium in 1991. “I bought a sewing machine at a Sunday market, not knowing what I’d do with it,” he says. “I fell in love with jeans and worked for years to get the right cut and fit.”
The designer says he went to great lengths to make the best jeans possible. “I would cut up jeans to study how they were made. Then start from scratch with a paper pattern to design jeans with the right fit from waist to foot.”
In 2008, Babalola registered his brand on the market. “Babson Zotto, with the first part referring to my surname and the second to my oldest brother’s DJ name,” he explains.
In those first years, Babalola often went down to the factories producing his jeans to follow the entire manufacturing process until he was happy with the end product. His exacting standards paid off since his jeans label was quickly picked up by local media outlets. This in turn helped him to win over owners of high-end boutiques, such as La Bottega in Hasselt, to carry his jeans.
“Women loved the fit and the finish,” Babalola says, adding that some of his designs even include Swarovski crystals. “But as the orders increased, I had to start finding investors.”To get his name out to a wider audience, the designer also exploited his other talent: painting. He makes both abstract works and portraits in oil and acrylic.
For his portraits, he tries to come as close as possible to a photograph of the person. “The more you do it, the better you become,” he says. His portraits often depict public figures such as footballer Romelu Lukaku, Queen Mathilde, Herman Van Rompuy and TV presenter Ann Van Elsen. I’m thinking about a range of T-shirts for both men and women.
“Most of them don’t know that I have painted their portrait, but I want to show that I can do it,” Babalola says. Recently, the artist offered such an airbrush portrait to Sally Mbanefo, the director-general of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation. Upon accepting the artwork at a Berlin fair, she thanked Babalola for “doing his country proud with his handiwork and for distinguishing himself in his chosen profession”. With both his jeans label and artworks, Babalola is hoping to attract investors so that he can grow his business and, in the long term, have his denim exported to the rest of the world. He’s interested in Nigeria in particular, not just because it’s his native country but also because it currently has the fastest-growing economy in Africa. “I’ve been in Belgium for over 20 years now, and I’ve got the experience,” he says. And while nobody knows what the future will bring, the designer is ready for more.
“I’m thinking about a range of T-shirts for both men and women”, he says, “made from very high quality fabrics, but sold at an affordable price.” What exactly he’s up to, he won’t reveal just yet. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if his artworks have something to do with it.
