From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
One of the fastest growing companies in the fashion industry in Nigeria, Afrivault Concept, is partnering with the government on recycling of used materials (fabrics) to useful products otherwise called Fast Fashion.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Afrivault Concept, Dr. Richard Otagburuagu who disclosed this in a chat with The Sun in Enugu, said that Fast Fashion will assist to solve the problem waste products of fabric cause in the local space.
Otagburuagu whose brand, Afrivault Label is fast becoming a household name especially in the Southern part of the Country, with its Bespoke Men’s wear and ready-to-wear unisex, said Fast Fashion will also help on the issues of eco system.
Explaining Fast Fashion he said, “Fast Fashion in a layman’s view or understanding is like people acquire more clothes and when you acquire more clothes you find out that at some points some that you’ve not even used become useless in your hand thereby making you to dump them elsewhere. And once you dump, another person comes, take to the refuse bin and before you know it keeps moving and sometimes ends up in some very sensitive eco environment. It could get to the river; it could get to any other place that would also cause issues towards the climate challenges. So, Fast Fashion simply means recycling used materials, fabrics to useful products.”
Speaking on how he came about it and his fashion career, the multi-talented Isiala Ngwa, Abia State-born Engineer by profession said, “My fashion career started while I was a young man in secondary school when I learnt how to sow knickers that’s what we call boxers today. From there I started making shirts, from shirts I ventured into T-shirts but couldn’t continue with the T-shirts making because sourcing pure cottons were real issue at sometime. But in 2020 during the COVID-19, I noticed something was lacking in the Aba, Abia State fashion space. What did I noticed? I noticed that the waste products of fabric were causing a serious challenge in the local space.
“When dealers of fabric materials or textile materials, when they cut, those remnants, you’ll find out they will pack it and possibly at some point the refuse people will just come, they will go and dump it somewhere. So when I look at it I said no, is there no way I can help? So I started sourcing for those remnants of fabric materials to put them into resourceful tailoring patterns such as facemasks, boxers as well. Then at some point I noticed I could also use them to make clothes, to make ready-to-wear or bespoke wears. So I tried that and at the end of the day it was something fashionable.
“So Afrivault Clothing Label, we’ve been moving from one stage to the other, at least we’re in most stores within the Southern parts of Nigeria, we’ve been able to have our brand registered in fashion retail stores. Like in Ebonyi state, Enugu state, Anambra, Imo and my practicing base which is Aba, Abia state, our products have actually find their way into retail fashion shops.
“Then late last year, we started discussing with government on how to partner with Ministry of Women Affairs, because you find out that in the fashion industry, the women are usually vulnerable because of how the industry is. So we started partnering with the state government to see how we could train and mobilize highly skilled young ladies to also learn tailoring and learn how to factor what we call Fast Fashion into a productive use, and that is ongoing.
My most interest is to bring Afrivault Concept, which our label is also doing, to a forefront, we want to make it a household name within the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for sure we also want to start moving into West African countries and African state. We’ve also tried partnering with some shops within Ghana, at least we have two partners in Ghana currently who also sell our products, the Afrivault Label. So we are making courageous improvement to see that our products get into the hands of those who will utilize them and it also become a household name in the fashion industry.
Currently, we are moving in into other forms of activities, weaving and embroidering, we are doing so many other activities within the Afrivault Concept, to grow it to become a household brand.”