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With Funsho Arogundade
For over a decade, Kiki Okewale has established herself to be one of the leading creative entrepreneurs, especially fashion, in Nigeria. The vivacious force behind Lagos-based top Couture, HOPE Fashion, has carved for herself, an enviable niche in the hub of high fashion with distinctive collections.
As the first Nigerian designer to be on the Dubai Runway with her immeasurable depth of creativity and bespoke designs, Kiki’s influence cannot be overemphasised. This has elevated her into an exclusive community of female high achievers in Nigeria.
As a life purpose coach, Kiki —married to equally influential and renowned gynaecologist and fertility expert, Dr. Babatunde Okewale— also loves to help individuals, particularly women, get the best out of their lives with well-defined purpose and an overall well-being. She has held many training sessions and seminars to achieve this. But recently, Kiki took her interventions a step higher.
Imported fabrics usually push designers into constant battles with exchange rates and long shipping delays. Not only that. When those fabrics finally get to various warehouses, there is also an issue of exclusivity with market shelves overflowing with repeated patterns that dilute brand identity. That’s where widely-travelled Kiki steps in to create a shift from the old order. Her intervention unfolds through a new venture called Fabric Printing Global —a premier eco-conscious fabric printing company that serves as a local antidote to Nigeria’s reliance on imported textiles.
Kiki’s new venture offers a system where designers, wedding groups, and emerging brands can produce their own prints.
Technology sits at the centre of the shift. Digital tools convert sketches into vivid fabrics, allowing designers to test ideas that once stayed trapped in notebooks. Kiki calls it turning imagination into art; many of her students —she runs ‘Blings and Blanks Academy’ where thousands are being trained in sublimation and rhinestone techniques— describe it as turning possibility into momentum.
By anchoring production in Nigeria, Fabric Printing Global eases pressures and opens room for profit, speed, and experimentation. The fashion mogul has also created a supply chain that already keeps money and expertise within the country.
