Made in America and Celebrating Heritage

Made in America and Celebrating Heritage

by Vanessa Ohaha

photo credit Love Iguehi

Nigerian-American Iguehi James has always loved fashion and was content with curating her own wardrobe with bright colours and unique prints. Little did she know that she would start a business.

Love Iguehi came out of a desire to create clothing that was stylish and within her budget. Iguehi was always asked by friends and even strangers where she got her clothes, and the spark was lit. In August of 2016, Love Iguehi was born after just one year of teaching herself to sew.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Iguehi runs her business from Oakland. As an Oakland native, it was important for her to create, build, and sustain something in and for her hometown. She calls her brand a ‘Made-in- America’ brand that showcases her Oakland roots and her Nigerian heritage.

Love Iguehi is a custom clothing and limited ready-to-wear apparel brand. Every item is hand-cut, so print placement varies, ensuring that no two items are the same. All Love Iguehi merchandise is handmade. Iguehi created a brand that uses African wax prints to create contemporary clothing that in her words encourages her customers to connect back to themselves.

A brand created out of a need for affordable yet stylish clothing, Love Iguehi creates handmade pieces with luxury brand quality at moderate pricing. While the brand could never be a discount brand it may, in the future, have a high-end line. Iguehi hopes to always fill her space with fairly priced, high-quality products.

Her favourite product? The Love Iguehi convertible wrap. This piece can be worn as a dress, as a skirt, as a vest, a top, and it can even be used as a stylish nursing cover-up. The wrap fits any body shape, type, and size and will easily be the most versatile piece in your closet.

Currently, Iguehi curates and pulls the textiles and prints from which the pieces are made. Will she ever venture into designing signature Love Iguehi textiles and prints? She says, “We certainly look forward to doing so. Our ability to curate great prints is critical to the business. So, influencing the design or creating signature prints would be accretive.”

Within Black communities worldwide, there are ongoing conversations about what is appropriation or gentrification of African prints, while a brand like Love Iguehi uses these unique, colourful prints to design for a diverse customer base. Does Iguehi ever worry about these issues? Iguehi thinks concerns about these issues are valid. Time and time again, we’ve seen things taken from Black people without giving credit to the origin.

For Iguehi, it’s important that any brand using African prints identify them as such. She also hopes that consumers become aware of more African brands that allow them to acquire these prints from Africans.

Our culture is so rich and vibrant, and I would not be surprised to see it adopted across the world. Hopefully, as they become more popular, African people will benefit economically as well.

What does the future hold for Love Iguehi? Iguehi hopes and prays for more growth. Currently an online retailer, Iguehi would like to expand to include brick-and-mortar sales channels. However, the plan is to remain relevant to their current customer base while expanding both locally and internationally.

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