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By Damilola Fatunmise
Olamide Halimat Kazeem has two passions: compulsory education for the girl child and women empowerment.
This wasn’t unusual for someone who grew up during the era of itinerant tailors popularly known as Ejikanitailor.
As a child, Olamide was always fascinated at how her mother used to stitch their torn clothes with just a needle and thread. It was this experience that gingered her interest in fashion design.
Today, what began as a childhood interest for Olamide has metamorphosed into something big – a wave making fashion brand known as Wami Exclusive Wears.
He recalled: “As a child, I lived with my parents in an area where Ejikanitailor (itinerant tailors that amend clothes) were scarce. Hence, my mum often mended our clothes by herself. I was always fascinated at how she could stitch our torn clothes with just a needle and thread.”
Buoyed by this experience, by the time she got into secondary school, Olamide could sew and resize her uniforms before handing them down to her siblings.
“I also used stitches to create beautiful patterns on my uniform. This earned me compliments from my peers. In no time, I had made a business of fixing students’ uniforms and clothes. In addition, my knowledge of fabrics and ability to give suggestions on the best way to combine them for an outfit, earned me the ‘Fashionista’ title,” she disclosed with pride.
For the boss of Wami Exclusive Wears, fashion is an effective way of communicating emotions without uttering a word, and this makes an important aspect of her life.
On how she coined the brand name for her fashion house, Olamide stated that ‘Wami’ is a Yoruba word, which when translated to English, means ‘look for me’.
She explained further: “The basic concept behind the brand is that each Wami’s piece comes with a unique appearance that attracts even non-fashion lovers. At Wami Exclusive Wears, our brand is built on a client-centered approach to create bespoke designs for our multinational clients. We are eco-friendly; thus, we recycle our fabrics for the creation of more clothing designs.”
As a creative person, Olamide derives inspiration from nature. According to her, from the blend of colours on flowers to the stripes on animals, it’s so easy to picture a design and what textures and tones would be ideal.
“Also, the red carpet is an amazing place to get creative juices stirred. There, you watch celebrities in other designs and picture what you would love to have them wear if you were to dress them for a red carpet event,” she added.
The fashionista believes that an individual’s identity is key to representing his history (past, present and future aspirations), and that’s why fashion and style for her is an expression of identity without the use of words.
“To me, fashion and style is my personal way of communicating and identity. I am a fashion designer with passion for female empowerment and girl child education. I am also a mid-career food bio-scientist and health support professional with several years of relevant work experience in Nigeria’s FMCG’s industry and public health sector. I possess great interpersonal and communication skills, which makes it easy for me to understand clients’ ideas and represent it in the designs created for them,” she said.
The fashion entrepreneur identified some of the factors militating against the growth of the industry as inflation and logistics challenges, as well as epileptic power supply, which contributed to high cost of production.
Olamide’s mentors include Zizi Cardow, who uses African fabrics to create modern designs that have become mainstays for women around the globe. She also admires Victoria James aka Veekee James’ tenacity, hard work and dedication to her craft.
Internationally, she appreciates Carolina Herrera’s works, especially how she plays with and blends bright colours.
While describing her journey in the fashion industry as a roller coaster of learning, successes and challenges, Olamide confessed that all these have shaped her into the proficient entrepreneur that she has become.
On her long term goals, Olamide said: “My plans for the brand entail expansion into other countries around the globe, ensuring every woman has at least one of our pieces in her wardrobe. I also plan on educating and empowering indigent women, especially the girl child to decrease female inequality in low-income countries.”
