A Malawian Fashion Designer's Colourful Dreams

Lilly Alfonso

Malawi's Lilly Alfonso dreams about her future in colours as vibrant as those of the clothes she makes.

New York, London, Milan and Cape Town are some of the cities that come to her mind when asked where she would like to see her designs 10 years from now. 

As a matter of fact, some of her clothes were already shown in the UK capital last year, during the Africa Fashion Week, but she is convinced that this is just the beginning.
"Everywhere where fashion is, I want to be there, and I see myself making it. I'm not doubting on that one. I dream big and I'm dreaming in colour," 

According to the designer, her passion for fashion was already there as a child when she loved to play with fabrics in the southern city of Blantyre, where she grew up.

"I'd say fashion, I was born with it. I started when I was young, at the age of six. My mum would bath me and dress me, and I would totally change the design of the dress," she remembers.

"As I grew older, people liked what I was designing, what I was wearing, so that inspired me and I started working on other people." 

She had two second-hand sewing machines that belonged to her mother and she started off with a tailoring business, when she was 24, but she says that fashion designing was still "a mere hobby".

That hobby, however, helped her to launch her career when she won the Malawi Fashion Edition (FAME) award as country's best fashion designer three years ago.

Financial challenges
 
"I never thought I was a designer until 2010 that I had a lot of clients and I'd design for Miss Malawi, I'd design for quite a lot of people," Mrs Alfonso told BBC Africa's Raphael Tenthani. 

These days her studio - located in her house in an upmarket suburb of the capital, Lilongwe - is a bastion of activity as people organising weddings and other events troop to her for advice.

Although designer clothes are not cheap anywhere in the world, Mrs Alfonso says that her prices depend on the client that she is working for. 

If the product is going to Europe, for example, she knows that she can ask for more money if she uses higher quality fabrics.

Back home, however, she can be more flexible with her pricing.
"Our economy right now is not really doing well so… I always use any reasonable resources to accommodate my country, for the people that can't afford the other fabrics, but I still design the same design," she explained. 

Recently, Malawi's currency, the kwacha, lost almost half its value and this has put a strain on the running of businesses. 

Also, the inflation rate is hovering at around 33% while bank-lending rates are at about 40% in the southern African country.

All these factors are presenting extra challenges for people who, like Mrs Alfonso, want to expand their businesses.

"I'm having problems with raising the money to have massive production… to be able to reach my goal, I still need extra 10 machines," she said.

"The prices of the fabric have been changing, the prices of everything have been changing; keeping the staff has been a problem because of how to balance up with the economy as it is," added young entrepreneur, who has seven employees and many other weavers and tie-dye fabric designers.

 Nurturing talent

Despite these challenges, Mrs Alfonso encourages other people to pursue their dreams and start their own businesses.

"I'd advise everybody who has any talent - it's not only in fashion - I'd advise everybody to believe in themselves, and do whatever it takes to make it happen for them because God gives us this blessing but it's only us to start acting on it. 

"So if you know that you can do it, don't stop it; no matter how criticism is, work on it because criticism is what makes us best. Believe in yourself and do it, and go for it".
Now that she is 33 and has two daughters, she also recommends parents to support their children's creativity.

"If you see that your child is gifted in a particular area - encourage them to pursue that alongside school. 

"If you see a gift in a child - they need to research on that particular field and support the child in every way," the award-winning designer who liked playing with fabrics at the age of six said.

Source: BBC, African Dream

Luxury Handbags Made in Africa

Zainab Ashadu, founder of Zashadu Bags

Nigerian entrepreneur Zainab Ashadu has had an eye for fashion since she was a child. Growing up, she “fell in love with a beautiful Art Deco-style clutch bag” that belonged to her mother.
 
Ashadu said  that when she started working and making her own money she would visit vintage markets in London and spend her entire salary on well-crafted, timeless and quirky vintage bags.

“Soon enough I amassed a collection of over 200 bags, but I still felt something was missing from my collection.”

This love for handbags and the desire to find that missing link eventually inspired Ashadu to start her own business.

Ashadu is the founder and creative director of Zashadu Bags, a sustainable luxury leather handbag company which specialises in handcrafted leather pieces. Zashadu Bags makes clutches, bags, backpacks and pouches in Lagos, Nigeria, using locally sourced materials including leather, exotic skins and rough cut semi-precious stones.

Ashadu started the business three years ago when she returned to Nigeria after living in London for 12 years. She operates out of a Lagos-based workshop with a team of local artisans, who hand craft the products.

Ashadu previously worked as curator and director of African Artists’ Foundation and was head of public relations for the LagosPhoto Festival. She says that although these are causes she believed in, after a while Zashadu demanded her undivided attention.

The young entrepreneur says her bags have been well received in the market.
Zashadu sells its luxury handbags locally and internationally on its website. Items listed on the online shop this week have a starting price of £320 (US$524) for a box clutch bag while the priciest are bags from The Justice python collection selling at £1,100 ($1,800) a piece. The unique bags are described as a “collector’s dream”.

Zashadu Bags has been picked up by London-based retailer Wolf & Badger and products will be available in Paris, France later this year.

The British-Nigerian designer is confident that her brand will do well even in the face of competition from international and well known luxury handbag brands.

“You know, the market is huge and there really is space for everyone. There’s a place for mass produced ‘luxury’ bags, low cost cheap and cheerful bags, as well as artisanal handmade pieces.”

The business of fashion
However, she explains that for ‘Made in Africa’ fashion brands to flourish across the continent and beyond, there is need to improve infrastructure, increase investments and create a better understating of the “business of fashion”.

“For a country as culturally rich and diverse as Nigeria we have a very long way to go in supporting all factions of our creative sector in a way that is sustainable. We are all affected by the same issues: the sometimes poor infrastructure, the lack of institutional support and the struggle to understand a potentially huge but underdeveloped market base, to varying degrees.”

The biggest challenge Ashadu faces is blending the business and creative sides of her company in a way that one does not negatively affect the other.

“I think that as a designer it is very important to keep creativity and business separate. When one starts to affect the other the soul of the brand suffers. It is important to feed one’s creativity and remain focused on what excites you; it makes facing challenges that much more enjoyable.”

Organic growth
Moving forward Ashadu plans to work with more women in the production of Zashadu Bags.
“In terms of expansion, I strongly believe in organic growth as there is nothing more motivating or satisfying.”

Ashadu advices other African entrepreneurs “to look inwards for self-development and self-actualisation”, adding that they are not obliged to follow any “western blueprint”.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to dream big, but start small. Also to trust your instincts and allow it to guide you like a compass, know who you are and believe in yourself.”
Ashadu explains that African economies will greatly benefit if citizens allow negative experiences and the challenges they face to unite them in finding solutions.

“I think that as Nigerians… for example, our electricity situation is shameful and dire, and we have been living with it for years, dolefully compliant. We are yet to find a united voice to challenge it, yet we all suffer for it. There is strength in unity.”

Source: How We Made It in Africa

Common Problems Fashion Business must be Aware of

What are some specific issues faced by fashion entrepreneurs?
Creative people often have too many ideas, which is a curse as well as a blessing. They just don't know what to do first, and they're really lacking knowledge of the business side of things. Ninety percent of my clients are designers who have not been to design school. They have an idea, and they try to figure things out on their own from there. I teach with step-by-step instructions and real-life examples, because that's what works for me. I say, "Here's a script, here's how you should talk, here's an example of a good e-mail and a bad e-mail."

How can small designers take their business to the next level? 
It's all about knowing where to find the right resources. I have videos about where to find fabric in small quantities, about pricing their lines. Lots of designers would rather have a root canal than admit to how long it took to sew something. I used to be the same way. I go over how to get a product made by a sewing contractor or a jewelry contractor, and what guidelines to provide to get a good product back.

Does working with high-end goods present particular challenges? 
Absolutely, because you don't get many impulse purchases. I work with clients to find and keep customers who like what they're selling and can afford to buy it. We work on constant marketing, on establishing a relationship that doesn't revolve only around "please buy my product." We talk about engaging customers, creating a sense of community, even encouraging a little voyeurism--say, posting a video of the process behind how you made that shirt.

How can designers set themselves apart? 
I helped one client who wanted to do trunk shows. Rather than just mention in her marketing material that she offers trunk shows, we worked on a packet that spelled everything out: Here's what I'll do at a show; here are the dates I'm available; here are postcards you can mail to your customers. It's all about making things as easy as possible for the retailer. "Contact me for more information" is the kiss of death.

That's not what any busy person wants to hear or has time for.

Reshaping Africa

From a young age, Phyllis Taylor loved the colourful prints in West African clothing and dreamed of seeing them used not only in traditional dresses but also in garments that her peers would wear.

Although she was born in the United Kingdom, she would go every summer to her parents' homeland, Ghana, where the production side of her fashion business is based.

Phyllis Taylor of Sika Designs

"Every time I went I thought 'there are so many fabrics here, there are so many dressmakers and no-one seems to be making use of it'," she told the BBC's series African Dream. 

"It's not something that you see in the UK unless it's in a traditional way, so I thought 'let me see if I can produce something that youngsters of my age group at the time would feel comfortable wearing', so it just kind of started from there," she explained.

Ms Taylor studied music and performing arts before taking courses in dressmaking and pattern-cutting at the London College of Fashion.

"I always wanted to start my own business and I always had a love of fashion," she told the BBC Africa's Mary Morgan.

"I kind of almost fell into marketing and PR - not that I didn't want to do it - but it was kind of a sidetrack thing and I thought 'I am still having this kind of urge for fashion', so I must have taken a short trip to Ghana and made a few pieces," she said.

 Part-time jobs

At the time she was selling jewels at the Selfridges department store in London, and had another part-time job in the marketing and PR section of a British tabloid, The Daily Mirror.

"When I produced the pieces that I did - in the first trip - I started selling to my colleagues in Selfridges, and then they were like: 'This is really nice stuff, you should try and get it out there'," she said. 

Since she was practically working seven days a week doing both jobs, she managed to save some money to start her own business, Sika Designs, in 2006.

"I stopped working in 2007. I still wasn't ready but - because this kind of business takes up a lot of your time - I didn't have any time to do it the way it had to be done, so I had to just stop."

Her designs are now being sold in Accra, London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. 

"Basically, I design all the pieces here [in London], I get together a collection, take it over to Ghana, once I get there I go to the markets and I kind of decide what print would work with that particular shape, take it to the dressmakers and they'll make it up."

At the moment her company employs 12 people in Ghana and three in London.

"It's not been easy working with the tailors and the dressmakers I have because they're not used to the finishing that we're used to here, that we expect," she explained.

"At the same time, I felt that it was my duty, in a way, to kind of keep at it and show them that: 'Look, this isn't right, this needs to be done, this needs to change, this needs to be improved', and in the long term I think it has really benefited the brand."

A growing business

Ms Taylor told the BBC that she decided to keep the bulk of the company in Ghana because logistically it did not make any sense to her to ship the prints from Africa in order to make the dresses in the UK.

And how has her company changed since it was founded?

"I started selling in markets but not for long. It was very apparent to me, almost instantly, that I needed to have someone who was already established to sell my pieces so I literally just walked the road with my portfolio and a bag full of samples. 

"I didn't know what the normal thing to do was but I just hoped that I found someone nice, and I did the same thing in New York and managed to find a boutique to stock my pieces there, and did the same thing in Atlanta."

According to her, "this was at a time when African print was not on the radar, no-one was doing it at all".

"To convince somebody to take something that was made in Africa, with African print and made by a designer that was virtually unheard of, it was very difficult". 

Ms Taylor added that it was also very challenging to sell her garments in Ghana at the time because people were not used to the combination of prints and a modern design.

However, she has a boutique in Accra now and dreams of expanding her business to other West African countries and to South Africa

Source: BBC

More Ghanaian Unemployed Youth to be Trained

About 20,000 unemployed and under-employed youth will be trained and equipped under the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) by the end of 2012.

Mr. Isaac Owusu Asante, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Coordinator of LESDEP, announced this at a one day workshop organised by LESDEP in collaboration with Tano South District Assembly at Bechem.

The workshop was attended by 52 participants registered in different modules under LESDEP Programmes

Mr. Asante explained the workshop was to empower the beneficiaries in managerial capabilities to maximize profit in their modules.

The beneficiaries would be provided with equipment support as a loan payable between six months and two years at a flexible repayment agreement with no collateral or guarantor.

The regional co-ordinator advised the youth who had not registered under any of the modules to do so without delay.

Mr. Zakari Bukari Anaba, the District Chief Executive, called on the youth to embrace LESDEP programmes to acquire skills to secure jobs.

He said modules like catering, barbering, beauty care, mobile phone repairing, fashion dressing and many more had been established under the LESDEP Programme.

Mr. Richard Adampoah, Tano South District Coordinator of LESDEP thanked the government for its vision and concern for unemployed youth.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A Young Ghanaian shoemaker named Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011

The Global Professional Achievers Award (GPA) has adjudged a young shoe manufacturer, Mr. Tonyi Senayah, the Chief Executive Officer of Horseman Shoes, as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

The ceremony took place in Accra at the weekend at the 10th Anniversary dinner and awards night of GPA held in Accra, according to a statement released in Saturday.

The awards dubbed: 10 Years of Celebrating Icons of Innovation, was aimed at inspiring young professionals to develop a mindset of becoming globally viable.

The statement said several distinguished personalities in law, architecture, sports, health, banking and finance, fashion and beauty were given awards.

Others were in communication and media, agriculture, marketing, insurance, entertainment, business as well as special awards for humanitarians and social care, innovation, dedication and excellence, GPA business class, champion and lifetime achievement.

Horseman shoes is a Ghanaian based footwear manufacturing company that makes quality and fashionable footwear with the finest of leather. Some of them are men’s dress shoes, Unisex sandals and slippers, School sandals and Security boots.

The statement said the GPA awards since its inception had offered a platform not only for rewarding and promoting the cream of business and professional community but also promoting international trade through networking between professionals, business and high profile decision makers both in Ghana and the United Kingdom.

Mr. Senayah said: I'm grateful to God, my family, workers and customers; I dedicate my award to the youth of Ghana especially those who have started their own business. It is not easy but we will all get there.

I believe in Ghana and also believe there are a lot of opportunities in Ghana and pray the youth take advantage. The vision of Horseman Shoes is to be the biggest footwear manufacturing company in Ghana and beyond in terms of employment and brand preference.

The statement named other recipients of the awards as Roland Agambirey, the CEO of RLG, William Atu Essien, CEO of First Capital Plus, Goldfields Ghana, Richard Abbey of Xodus Communication, Gloria Buckman Yankson of Plan It Ghana, former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor and Azumah Nelson.

The statement said Mr. Senayah's Horseman Shoes was one of the 10 finalists of My Business 2010, a Joy FM young entrepreneurial mentorship programme and a prize winner in the 2010/2011 UT/Enablis Business Launch pad competition to unearth young entrepreneurs.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A Trained Lawyer now a Fashion Designer

African Dream: Nigeria's Lisa Folawiyo

Nigeria's fashion designer Lisa Folawiyo's shiny clothes have captivated people from Lagos to Cape Town, London, Paris, New York and Hollywood.

Lisa Folawiyo

She is the founder and creative director of Jewel by Lisa, a brand that specialises in Ankara textiles, the vibrant wax-resist dyed fabrics characteristic of West Africa and widely used across the continent.

These clothes, originally based on traditional Indonesian batik and formerly known as Dutch wax, have been popular in Nigeria for generations.

"Our mothers, grandmothers and probably great-grandmothers have worn this fabric," Ms Folawiyo told the BBC series African Dream.

But, as though they were not already bright enough, she decided to embellish them with beads, sequins and crystals, all sewn by hand, and the chic combination became an instant success.

"I can confidently say that Jewel by Lisa was the originator of the embellished Ankara which we see today everywhere," the designer said.

"I have a huge clientele and I have been able to hire a showroom in New York, for instance, and from that showroom we have been able to be stocked in about two stores in New York. Also, I am stocked in a store in South Africa," she added.

Teamwork

Ms Folawiyo attributes her company's success to the way it imbues traditional clothing with a very modern look.

She also thinks that a great deal of Jewel by Lisa's achievements have to do with the people she works with.

"I have a great team. That is how I have been able to make a good business out of this," she said. 

"When I started Jewel by Lisa, I worked from home, by myself, and hired able hands of one or two tailors, and it was very much a passion, just something I loved doing," Ms Folawiyo explained.

She says that the excitement is still there but that her team helps her to keep focused and to have a good structure in place.

"This enables me to still run away with my creativity and run away with my passion but then they definitively make sure that the numbers are adding up," she told the BBC's Tomi Oladipo.

Not only glamour

Ms Folawiyo believes that there is still room in the industry for new entrepreneurs.

"Because of my story I do know that you don't have to go to a design school to be a good designer but I do think that you must have a good eye, you want to understand garment-making as opposed to wanting to be called a designer," she said.

In her opinion, many young people have the wrong impression of a designer's life.

"They see the glamorous side. They see us when we go for a fashion show. They see when you go on the runway and take your bow, and they see you've been featured in magazines, and they think: 'Oh, I want that'.

"But it's a lot of hard work; it's a lot of passion." 

Source: BBC