Elfreda Fakoya - Fashion Designer

THE FLUIDITY IN HER ILLUSTRATIONS TRANSLATES TO THE CLOTHING SHE MAKES. HER CREATIONS ARE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T CARE IF IT IS MEN’S OR WOMEN’S WEAR.

Challenges are the frame work for growth and development, a challenging idea or situation in most cases unlocks an element of our consciousness that may have been previously dormant. When perusing our passions challenges are inevitable, but quality and beauty are often the results of diligence and reflection. Quality is a word that is synonymous with the beautiful and eloquent creations of 23-year-old Elfreda Fakoya.

Growing up in a rather big Nigerian family, creativity is something that she naturally gravitated to. Aside from her interests in film, illustration, music and travel, fashion is something she actively perused in recent times. From her time at the Fashion Retail Academy for two years and graduating from her BA Course at Ravensbourne, Elfreda continues to excel in the field and is gaining recognition for her unique perspective of clothing on male silhouettes.

Elfreda’s earliest memories of Fashion come from fabric. She recollects to finding some Red Chiffon in grandmother’s room of approximately a metre and a half in length. She began obsessing over ideas of turning the fabric into a dress, probing her grandmother to grant her permission to tailor the garment. Her grandmother unfortunately refused.

Elfreda’s exploration of men’s wear comes from being challenged. Womenswear was initially the direction she aimed to delve into, this came from a history of expressing herself through that element of fashion for approximately 3 and a half years, prior to my first year at Ravensbourne. After her first project, she was assessed by a tutor and commended on a good outcome, but she had not challenged herself. Elfreda therefore decided to try something new in order to do so and she has been creating menswear ever since. Fashion school was an extremely enjoyable time for Elfreda. Experimentation is one of her passions and this period in her studies where a time in which she was able to do so the most.

However tough and intense times did not fail to follow. Meeting the set requirements alone was not enough and proving herself was a constant battle and then doing it repeatedly as the challenges increased. A month can be spent creating a piece and presenting it, only to have tutors to reach of a pair of scissors and cut it up. Usually a new direction will follow and begin the process again. In a highly competitive environment she continued to progress and develop her craft, her tenacity and group of colleagues were vital elements of her success.

Her craft gave her the chance to invest her time into something she has been fascinated with from a young age, helping to develop her own style and how to present and package it with finesse. Her time at Ravensbourne allowed her to understand where she could position herself within the industry and how she can be recognised in such a saturated and difficult industry.

Another outstanding quality of Elfreda’s is her elegant and fluid illustrations. This talent interestingly began from drawing exaggerated versions of her face when she didn’t have a live model to reference from. This later progressed into her studying the styles of different illustrators that she held in high regard. Eventually, she found her aesthetic somewhere between a combination of all her references.

Film relating to fashion is also something that Elfreda experimented with. A fashion film titled ‘The Gradual Collapse and Ultimate Death of the Fashion Industry’ was created by Elfreda, explored the operation system of the fashion industry. The film was an interesting and creative capsule that reviewed the industry and concluded that the infrastructure needed to be, in a sense, reborn in order to cut out waste and become a lot less damaging to the planet. The fight for the betterment of the planet through fashion is a concept that Elfreda continuously focuses on, and the fluidity in her illustrations translates to the clothing she makes. Her creations are for people who don’t care if it is men’s or women’s wear. The clothes are for people, to give the people a great mood or achieve a sense of self that they desire.