When Femi Olayebi was pregnant with her first child, she searched the length and breadth of her home town of Ibadan but couldn’t find a baby bag that she liked. “I was searching for a combination of style and functionality, but nothing caught my eye. Everything I came across either looked cheap or was too bulky for my liking,” said Olayebi.
She decided to make her bag. The language major with a Master’s in
translation was not to know it, but this move would lead to her becoming the
proud founder of a contemporary, high-end African fashion label. Olayebi
decided to learn how to sew and, bubbling with creativity despite her basic
skills, managed to make a stunning and functional baby bag.
“The bag was a hit with my friends, their friends, and my family. Shortly after, requests started pouring
in, with people placing orders to get the same bag for themselves or as a gift for new or expecting parents,” said Olayebi.The overwhelming requests prompted her to start ‘My World of
Bags’, a business that swiftly gained popularity among new parents. Her bags
were known for their stylish design, high quality, and vibrant colours. As the
business grew, Olayebi decided to expand into other areas. She started designing
and selling women’s bags and added more products like accessories and
merchandise. “Not in my wildest dreams did I think that this singular action
would become my future and grow into a business in Nigeria and beyond,” she
said.
Being 100% self-taught and without Industry experience, Olayebi
soon found herself in a whole new, challenging world. With the internet still
in its infancy and Google yet to make an appearance, she had to rely on books
to navigate the business world. She even had to hire dressmakers, whom she then
trained to become bag designers.
“A turning point for me was
being selected in 2008 as a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Scholar.” This allowed
me to attend an entrepreneurial programme and also attend a business course,”
Olayebi said. “After that, I was twice nominated to attend mentoring programmes
in the United States, where I job-shadowed some renown American handbag
designers,” she added.
Apart from numerous clients in
Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Gambia, Ghana, Namibia, and other
African countries, the brand also has customers in Europe, the US, and Canada.
Having spent over two decades in the industry and attended numerous exhibitions,
Olayebi recognised the challenges and opportunities and resolved to transform
the landscape by launching the Lagos Leather Fair in 2017. The fair has become
a major showcase for local designers to display their finest leather products.
It also features master classes, workshops, conversations, and runway shows,
all in one event.
The 2023 edition featured workshops as diverse as the process of
shoemaking and how to grow a business through social media.
Emerging brands are offered free space to showcase leather
products, which are then evaluated for prizes and mentoring opportunities. The
fair also helped boost existing businesses. “I took part in the Masterclass on
branding and how it could help us access the international market; this made me
look inward to reexamine my strategy in my route to the international market,”
said Abimbola Azeh, founder of the Mona Matthews brand.
“It made me put together a new collection. I sat down to think of
the major things I wanted to work on this year, including the old styles I
wanted to retain and the new ones I wanted to do. The fair gave me something to
look forward to,” Azeh said.
Olayebi also holds skill training programmes where the youth are
empowered and more young designers are groomed. “There is no point in an
industry that does not have the workforce to maintain and grow it; for this
industry to be sustainable, it has to have the skill to maintain it and
innovation to drive it,” she explained.
Olayebi partnered with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council in
2019 to execute a capacity-building initiative and also persuaded the
Mastercard Foundation to partner in the “Kafawa” training programme. She is now
making sure that Africa, long a source of some of the world’s finest exported
leather, becomes recognised as a major destination for quality leather
craftsmanship. “I am determined to make sure the whole leather value chain works
and African designers are given their own space in the international leather
and leather goods industry,” Olayebi concluded.
-Bellanaija
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