I’M ALREADY IMPACTING LIVES WITHOUT BEING IN POLITICS – FUNMI AJILA-LADIPO

Howdoes it feel turning 60, a landmark age?

It feels good to be 60. People say I don't look it, thanks be to God. But it is also due to how I have been very intentional about taking care of myself, internally and externally. I believe age is just a number and you are as old as you think you want to be. I mean, I threw a disco party and all my invited guests felt very young at heart. Are there things you want to discard or get more involved in now that you are 60?

I want to get closer to my maker. I already have a personal relationship with Him, but I want it to get deeper. I want to be more involved in projecting my craft, which is fashion designing through which I have made my mark. I also want to take service to humanity seriously. I have always been passionate about youth development and empowerment. I try as much as I can to use my influence to facilitate, sponsor and host programmes aimed at training the Nigerian youth in the creative industry. Together with the American embassy, I always nominate upcoming designers for the International Visitor's Leadership Program, IVLP, for training and development. I mentor and lecture young upcoming designers within the country and I am regularly invited to host or speak at fashion seminars, workshops around the world. In 2020, I established The Funmi Ajila Foundation to help drive these initiatives. The foundation was formally unveiled at my 60th birthday party. It is a non-profit organisation with the mission to empower youths with vocational skills through training, thus helping to reduce unemployment by providing access to quality vocational and technical education for a better life and national development.

At 60, would you say that you are fulfilled?

Very much so because I love what I do and I am passionate about it. I am passionate about fashion and impacting the youths. I am satisfied with it and I am enjoying it. I am believing God for my dream to come to pass, which is to have a place where I can mass produce and I know it will come. It is not about going to borrow money to make it work because I can if I want to. The time will come, I believe, when I can handle it, when things will fall easily on my laps. When it is time, something will prompt me to get going. Money isn’t quite the problem, proper planning is key.

When you say mass production, I believe it means in thousands of units. Are there really people who produce fashion goods in Nigeria in such large quantities?

Maybe not on a large scale, as obtainable in developed countries, but, yes, people mass produce fashion goods and they are mostly exported out of the country. Unfortunately we are unable to do large-scale production here because there is no market for that sort of thing. Besides, power supply isn’t stable in the country. Added to this is the fact that skilled labour isn’t readily available. There is no serious mass export happening in the fashion industry. Government needs to look into the business of fashion as it is so vast. It is beyond just textiles. It is not encouraging at all.

If we had a textile industry that is producing the kind of textiles we expend energy looking for, all I need to do is get a sample from the marketing officers. I don’t need to know who owns the factory. If the quality is good enough we then go into business. I tell you to produce for me and deliver at a scheduled time. I don’t need to start walking around Balogun market, Lagos or Aba, Abia State. It is distracting and draining and God help you if you don’t find the kind of fabric you are looking for.

You are highly regarded as one of those who transformed the Nigerian creative industry via fashion. What is your story?

I started out as a professional model and for many years, I was one of the most sought after in the industry. I walked the runways for many designers of old. And I won many awards for strutting runways. Having studied Fashion and Textile Design at Yaba College of Technology, it only made sense for me to transition into a fashion designer. In 1987, I founded Regalia International which has since been rebranded into Regalia by FAL. In that same year, I was awarded the Afriprint Best Designer in Nigeria with my very first collection and since then, I have won many awards too numerous to mention both home and abroad.

Do you still actively run Regalia by FAL or has your daughter, who is also a fashion designer, taken over?

I have no plans to retire from fashion, not ever. That is the joy of doing what one is most passionate about. So, yes I still run it. My daughter and I both run different fashion brands. Hers is called Ajila Ready to Wear. Our brands are both unique in their own ways and appeal to different audiences.

For eight years, you were the president of Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria, FADAN. What do you consider to be the highlight of your tenure?

I was able to bring serious-minded fashion designers together and they learnt how to grow their brands, showcase and package their business properly for profitability. I created the sub-skills through which my team and I gave back, by training members of the association on subjects they knew nothing about.

The fashion industry has different units; from designing to illustrations to sourcing to sewing itself, draping, etc. There are so many things in the fashion chain that not many people know about so that is where the sub skill comes in. I made sure our members were well-rounded in fashion.

I also started a master class where other top designers were invited from time to time, to talk to our members on how to grow their brand as well as the business side of fashion. You find out that a lot of us, myself included, only know how to be creative but when it comes to the business side of it, many of us are lacking. That is how my mentorship began.

I was also able to build FADAN chapters in different parts of the country, in about 11 states specifically. My team and I partnered with other bodies in the industry, the textile industry and virtually any affiliate of the fashion industry. I worked with the Bank of Industry, BOI to initiate the N1 billion loan scheme for the fashion industry. Many designers benefited from it.

As at the time I left, FADAN was no longer what it used to be. Now people can authoritatively say they want to go into partnership with FADAN. In those days, it was never like that. FADAN would go all out to look for these people but now, they come looking for us. Unfortunately in Nigeria, we don’t come together in clusters, everyone wants to be a big man in their own way, and it doesn’t work out like that in the creative industry because we learn from each other. God has given each of us different creative abilities. What I know how to do, you may not know, but we can rub minds together and make it work. Also we created awareness for Nigerian brands by making people wear Nigerian brands and the government bought into it. It was a bit difficult because our textile industries are not working and we had to depend on foreign goods to service the fashion industry in Nigeria. But today, virtually every red-carpet event in Nigeria is graced by people wearing Nigerian brands. Even foreigners proudly wear Nigerian brands. It wasn't an easy feat being president, you know how it is in Nigeria when you are leading a group of very good creative people but God helped me.

Prior to your tenure, past presidents of FADAN never had the opportunity to do a second term. You broke the jinx. What do you think was responsible for this?

Maybe God wanted me to do it again. Maybe it was because I needed to complete what I started. I guess that was my winning strategy. I won’t say it is because I am better than anyone else or that I was desperate because leading people is not so easy. Some people may like you and others will resent you, but the most important thing is to know why you are there, do the job and have a continuity arrangement before leaving. Being FADAN president was such a huge task as there was so much to be done. Prior to my emergence as president, nothing had been done properly over the years. When I came in, my team and I turned things around. We revolutionised the way FADAN was being run and perceived. You know, you can’t turn things around without a fight. People will fight you, especially those who are not ready for change. But to change things, one must be ready for a fight.

Maybe I was ready for a fight to get things done. At first, I felt like giving up and just facing my own business, but after a while, it dawned on me that if we all keep running away, nobody will do the things that need to be done. I mean if God has placed one there, all one needed to do was to set the machinery in motion even if one may not be the one to complete the task.

The resistance was so much but I was determined to turn things around. The world itself is full of battles, even in our homes and one cannot run away, one has to stand firm and get the job done. But in the process of standing, you have to stand firm, otherwise you will probably lose out or something may go wrong. So I stood firm. I decided that certain things must change in FADAN. You can’t please everyone so it is important to face the task ahead of one and tackle it. I felt that I needed to finish what I started with God giving me the strength and ability. If it did not please God for me to be the president of FADAN, I would not be there for the first or even second tenure.

FADAN is the umbrella body for the fashion industry in Nigeria. Why are there so many people in the industry who are not members of the association?

You can’t force people to be members of FADAN. Everyone wants to be on their own which is a problem; they think they are better than others but they haven’t seen what others are doing. No one has the power to monopolize fashion in Nigeria. Nigeria is quite a complex country. As president, I personally invited some of them to join the body. Some paid their dues but never attended meetings. Perhaps they felt they were too big to sit with other members. But you see, that should be the beginning of humility. Veteran designers like Yves Saint Laurent, YSL, the luxury French brand and the likes, still come together, even with up-and-coming designers. The only thing is that they are classified. But how can FADAN classify designers in Nigeria when they shy away from meetings or choose not to be members? Instead they prefer to be aligned with the American and European fashion world. We all should try to come together and make it work. Some of them are so big they can actually talk to the government to help get things working but they would rather have it for themselves. Perhaps that is why the Federal Government is not taking the industry seriously.

Also, why has FADAN refused to align with annual fashion shows, such as the Lagos Fashion and Design Week, African Fashion Week, GTBank Fashion Weekend, ARISE Fashion Week etc?

The ones you have mentioned are organised by entertainers, not fashion designers. But they invite fashion designers to exhibit their products at the show and get buyers to buy the designs. Everyone is trying to make money in any way they can and you can’t ask an association to be part of the exhibitors. All FADAN does is partner with them. It is their show and it belongs to them. They don’t have to be members of the association. These organisers may decide at any time to rest the fashion shows if they so choose, but FADAN is a fashion body that has always and will always be in existence.

With the proliferation of fashion shows, isn’t it the job of FADAN to regulate the fashion industry?

FADAN can’t regulate the fashion industry without the backing of the Federal Government. You can’t stop people from doing these fashion shows because they are not designers, they are business people. If they partner with us, that is fine, otherwise there is really nothing we can do as there is no regulation in the industry. There is no body regulating fashion in Nigeria. So we can only remain a body and try to do as much as we can in terms of partnership with corporate bodies.

Why isn’t FADAN aiming to become a regulatory body? Oh believe me, FADAN has written series of letters, turned it into an issue on twitter to get the government's attention, but nothing came out of it. I personally know how many letters I wrote when I was president. There is no fashion council and that is the job of the government. You can’t have a body without the government approving it or putting its weight behind it. Now to further complicate things, FADAN falls under the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism, Ministry of

Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Export Promotion Council (NEPC). So FADAN really does not know who to actually direct these letters to.

Having successfully led a group like FADAN, are you planning to make greater impact on society through politics? No. Politics in Nigeria is a very dirty game. I have friends who are politicians, but I’m not interested in joining them. Politics makes people hate you unnecessarily. If I get an appointment, I won’t mind, but I won’t seek an elective position. However, I am already making an impact in the lives of people without necessarily being in politics.

What would you say significantly shaped you to be who you are today?

My parents. They gave me all the training and moral support I needed when I was growing up. God used them to help me find my way quickly in life. They mentored me. It is only a parent who watches his child closely that can spot the child’s talent and passion. I pray that more parents will spend more time with their children, train them properly and give them the right moral education. My parents made me to know the literal meaning of a good name being better than silver or gold.

What motivates you?

Many times, I thought of quitting fashion designing because the most difficult thing to do is to make clothes. You have to get the clothes into the exact body shape of a person and we all have different body sizes and shapes. Also the designer has to get into the mind of the wearer because sometimes the cloth may fit but the wearer may not like it. The work of a doctor is far easier than that of a fashion designer. But a designer not only has to make sure the clothes are well tailored but also fit the body of the wearer perfectly. Designers are not even well paid for the work they do. It is a whole lot of work, but I enjoy it. It is what I am called to do.

You have been married for almost 20 years in this age and time where marriages break down irretrievably as soon as they contracted. What advice do you have for the younger generation?

Marriage is beautiful but not easy. It is like a man travelling by air; you can’t ask the pilot to park in the air for you to come down. If you see your marriage that way, you will just take the good and bad and try and make it work. Yes, I agree that some marriages are unmanageable. If it is contesting with your God and religion, please move out of it. I call marriages contracted these days, microwave marriages. So my advice to them is to look into it properly before taking the plunge.

What is your most prized possession?

My salvation.

STORIES BY IVORY UKONU