Style House Files #'Buy Nigerian' Initiative

For the reasons eloquently stated on Omoyemi Akerele’s Style House Files (SHF) blog and LadybrilleNigeria’s Editorial Director Uduak Oduok’s article on Nigeria’s Fashion Industry published on NigeriaWorld.com, we wholeheartedly put our weight behind SHF to say, “Buy Nigerian.” The SHF ‘Buy Nigerian’ is an initiative we support, makes good economic sense, will provide jobs for our women, empower our young girls and revive the fashion industry from roots up. BUY NIGERIAN. See some excerpts from the initiative, then visit the site jump in on the debate, be informed and then support our industry with your Naira/Pounds/Dollars.

“#’Buy Nigerian’ is a stylehousefiles.com initiative all about encouraging consumer culture in Nigeria as well as supporting locally made goods. It is the notion that eventually, enough income can be generated locally to boost and support the Nigerian fashion industry and even the economy. The initiative supports the idea that ‘if goods of an excellent quality are made available here in Nigeria’, they should be bought.

Our mission is

* To ensure that the Nigerian fashion industry is a big stakeholder in the Nigerian economy; and
* To create a consumer culture where Nigerians can buy Nigerian made products like they would any where else in the world.

For starters, the industry must unite, cooperate and work together to lend support, strength, and growth to themselves and emerging brands. There are fashion and design schools in existence but are they enough? If not many, can more be created? What are the standards? What percentage of aspiring designers want to be formally trained?

Aspiring designers need training and guidance. They need to learn the art of designing. A lot of people just decide one day that they want to be fashion designers and a few years down the line their brands fail because they never got taught the principles of how to start a brand. They never got the work experience from established fashion brands.

Being a great designer is the crux of a brand’s strength, but good design and bad business sense will get you nowhere. Local PR firms need to begin to take the industry as a whole seriously. By coming up with new ways to push brands locally and internationally, more local brands can confidently set up good businesses that will generate income.

More financial institutions can begin to encourage the industry by also investing in small businesses, as well as providing loans . . .”  More on Style House Files.

Ladybrille Magazine

Founded in 2007, Ladybrille® Magazine is a California based pioneer digital publication demystifying the image of Africans in the west through contemporary African fashion and celebrating the brilliant woman in business and leadership, with an emphasis on the African woman in the diaspora. Our coverage includes stories on capital, access to markets, expertise, hiring and retention, sales, marketing, and promotions.