Enterprise Not Empathy

F7 | LIFESTYLE By Kelechi Iwumene.
Apr 23, 2015
8 min read

ENTERPRISE NOT EMPATHY

By Kelechi Iwumene.

Scrolling through my Facebook profile, I stumbled across a post that I remember writing a few months ago:

Modern-day stories of Africa’s problems are important but people are more likely to sustainably invest in the continent if they are exposed to more of its potential and growing success #enterprisenotempathy.

On reflecting on this quotation, I think about Nigeria. I was fortunate enough to be born and raised in London. I was also fortunate enough to be raised in a household that upheld Nigerian values and traditions, specifically from the Igbo culture. I was raised and nurtured by my grandmother who spoke to me in our native Igbo tongue and fed me the food that my cousins were being fed back home. At different stages of my life, my parents would lecture me about my prospects and the ways it sould contribute to developing communities back home. I could call an uncle living in Port Harcourt and without fail he will remind me that ‘East or West, home is the best.’ Nigeria is my home but such a statement needs to be recited bravely, for it does not come without its disagreements. Some black contemporaries like myself may consider me naïve for saying that Nigeria is my home; they say ‘go and live there for seven months then come back and tell me that Nigeria is your home.’ Fair enough. But our idea of home should not be solely based on how long we’ve lived somewhere. Moreover, I know of family friends who have done exactly what those ‘realists’ propose; a cousin of mine lived and schooled in Nigeria for seven months and came back a changed young man. He is now a business professional working as an actuary and looking for ways to invest back into Nigeria.

It is usually the tragic stories of Nigeria’s abject poverty that encourage diasporians to do something useful with their life. But how about the exciting possibility of tapping into a country brimming with potential? I didn’t think much of my responsibility as a child of diaspora until recently. With all the recent political and economic controversy that has been covered by the media, there is one thing that we must remember when talking about Nigeria; the nation is only fifty years old— and only 100 years old from amalgamation. Nigeria had a civil war (1967-70) in the same way America had a civil war (1861-65). The two conflicts may have been fought for different reasons but they were both civil wars nonetheless. And the two nations recovered (arguably). Rome was not built in a day, so why would building Nigeria be different? Rome was also not built upon the charity of men. I have felt that for a long time now, Nigeria has adopted a pogrom mentality amongst the international community. This is due to the colonial exploitation of its resources and people, a long history of xenophobia, and the lack of adequate enforcement of law and administration by the federal government; emotional scars can take longer to heal. Nevertheless, the Nigeria of today is progressively different from the Nigeria of yesterday.

I remember travelling to the country in 2011. It was my first time and I concluded to leave all my good clothing in London so as to fit in. To my surprise, I found out that most Nigerians had better dress sense than myself. Nigerians are consumers; Selfridges ranks them as one of its five biggest spenders. In 2014, Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest economy with a GDP of £307 billion. With an estimation of forty million potential consumers, the Nigerian retail sector is booming. McKinsey & Company is a global consulting firm that forecasts Nigeria’s retail economy growing to as much as $40 billion between 2008 and 2020. Oil and gas do not contribute to the country’s GDP as much as retail does so there is an incredible amount of potential to unlock—in particular with Nigeria’s Fashion Industry. In 2013 Marc Jacobs showcased a Louis Vuitton collection inspired by the famous print found on the Ghana-Must-Go (GMG) bag. It was shocking to see a pattern, that I had so much emotional and historical connection with, walk the runways of an established fashion label. I remember the shed in the back garden of my family home. GMG bags were crammed with second hand goods that my father would regularly ship to Nigeria. I remember the living room temporarily housing some of his bric-a–brac; the occasional emptied GMG bag becoming an underwater adventure. Dare I say there were memories of my younger sisters using the bags to play dress up; I would like to believe such a recollection but that wouldn’t get me any closer to claiming to see the potential in the pattern before anyone else did. Just think, if I had got copyright of the pattern then, I could have paid off the family mortgage with the profits! Louis Vuitton’s GMG bag proves what we have known for quite some time now; it proves that there is great room for West African design in the highest forms of fashion. It also demonstrates how important it is to have the right platforms for creativity. Some question how the distinct pattern has been interpreted by labels like Celine. Fashion, music, beauty and style enthusiast Funmi Ogunja writes:

Hands down Celine has executed the print so so well! But they could have at least done a huge campaign for the use of this print and it’s collection in Nigeria or Ghana, or even used Ghanaian models, the controversy would have created such a buzz! This would bring so much attention to Africa and our beautiful textiles!...I love that Celine love this print! I seriously admire what they have done with it! I mean nobody else has, they took the initiative and the advantage to be honest.

And this is the sad reality. The Nigerian Fashion Industry cannot take full advantage of their beautiful textiles and fabrics unless the right platforms have been established. These platforms can be established when solutions are found to Nigeria’s problems. The high cost of doing business in Nigeria is driving away designers from producing locally and generating jobs. Joke Ladoja, founder of the clothing lines Grey and Eve and Tribe talks of her struggles when finding consistency in supply chains. She confesses that, in each quarter, over 30% of clothes produced locally are scrapped because of poor craftsmanship. For this reason, Eve and Tribe’s recent collection was made in China. There is also the elusive question of retail pricing. Ladoja bluntly puts it:

The mass market in Nigeria wants it so, so cheap, and that’s where we still struggle.

Maybe there is nothing wrong with the mass market looking for a bargain. Maybe it is not the consumer psyche that needs to change but rather the industry needs to provide a platform that bridges the designer with the mass consumer. It doesn’t seem fair to confine the retail economy to the rising middle class who have disposable income. A great designer is one who does not only evolve with their market but finds new markets as they evolve. There are three types of collections a designer can make. The first is Haute Couture; clothes tailored for specific clients and made with expensive fabrics. The second is Pret-A-Porter; ready-to-wear pieces that are more commercial than Haute Couture because of its price tag and suitability. The third is High Street; mass produced clothing and patterns. What Nigeria need is to support the third type of a collection. Nigeria need to develop their high street sector but to do so requires better manufacturing. Funding for infrastructure like reliable power supplies, low aviation costs, redeveloped Inter-African travel and trade, as well as design schools need to work together to support and train workers to manufacture and distribute better clothing quicker. And who should fund such infrastructure but the government and sponsoring partners like GTBank?

Despite the problems in sales and distribution, the funding for the platforms that showcase Nigerian design and production is strong. We have the GTBank Lagos Fashion and Design Week and Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN). My favourite from the shows include Mai Atafo’s suits for men in October 2014. I was particularly fond of his pastel coloured blazers with shawl lapels; they don’t call him the ‘Tom Ford of Nigeria’ for no reason! Also Dzyn’s dizzyingly designed dresses for women were a revelation to me. Stores like Stranger nearby Lekki, in Lagos house progressive designers like Abasi Rosborough and Orange Culture; two labels that between them have a least three or four different seasonal collections that I would gladly buy if I had the disposable income. My favourite is the Locus collection by U.MI-1; the pieces are incredible in their creative unification of the cultures that make up Nigeria, UK and Japan.

Platforms for Nigeria’s fashion industry are also beginning to form in media and muse. Nigeria’s Consat TV recently added the fashion channel Fashion One to its channel line-up. Gorden Li, who is the head of Fashion One’s marketing asserts:

With Africa being one of the rising destinations for lifestyle, fashion and travel, the channel will be bringing in world-class quality content to the region’s discerning audience and are looking forward to future collaborations with the local fashion and entertainment industry.

Therefore the key to unlock Nigeria’s potential is in the collaboration of a myriad of platforms designed to give the industry traction; easy access to publicity is a platform that creates a greater demand which in turn creates a greater supply. I recently discovered Instagram pictures of Beyoncé wearing the rich colours and exotic designs of Ankara. Moreover, the First Lady Mrs Michelle Obama proudly wears and loves the hybrid texture designs of the highly coveted luxury brand Lisa Folawiyo. Lisa’s SS13 collection was available at London’s Selfridges through a pop up space designed and supported by Lagos Fashion and Design Week. Her Ankara inspired prints are most likely the best in the business; rich in colour and pattern with a strong eye for modern tailoring and feminine fits. I advise every woman to check out her outfits.

There are many success stories out there of how collaborative support produces commercial success for Nigeria’s growing fashion industry. But the one that really sticks is the label entitled Hesey Designs. Founded by 25 year old fashion entrepreneur, Eseoghene Odiete, Hesey Designs is an Afrocentric fashion label that produces some of the finest crafted shoes, bags, and purses. She even had a shoe designed and made for Sir Richard Branson! Odiete now runs the Hesey Designs Empowerment Centre where she teaches women how to make accessories at little or no cost. Over 50 of Nigeria’s small and medium scale business owners have benefited from the centre, positioning them as key contributors to the Nigerian fashion industry. The success of Hesey Designs gives Odiete the ability to do something amazing for her community; and that’s what I believe fashion should fundamentally be about. I get all bubbly and excited on the inside when I read stories like hers because they confirm my notion that we as a people do not need empathy; we require the collaborative enterprise of a network of platforms that will empower us to do something amazing. And it’s already happening; as I speak now, the Nigerian fashion industry is the sleeping giant waking up and realising just how much of a global powerhouse it can be.