TAE LAUNCHES OMOGE LINE

Bisola Ibironke Edun is the creative director of the eponymous label tagged TAE, we recently met up with the wondrously talented petite lady after the launch of her very new and exquisite line to find out, what it takes to be as good as we hear she is.
WHAT INSPIRED THE OMOGE LINE?
The Omoge collection was borne out of two things: the desire to move away from my usual embellished ankara look and also the desire to create clothes that women could easily wear while on holiday. I've always loved pin tucking and I wanted to experiment with giving the ankara fabric a completely different texture. I'd thought about embroidery but then i made a pin tucked skirt which was such a hit, it seemed only natural to use that detail on dresses. I decided to work with a shift silhouette because it's classic, easy to wear and very comfortable.


WHAT IS THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE BEHIND YOUR BRAND
Our design philosophy has, and always will be, the wow!factor. When I started out, I decided that I always wanted to make clothes that would elicit some sort of reaction from people. I also want my clothes to be associated with special memories in the wearer's life, something that would always be linked to the particular garment; say for instance, a woman remembers she was wearing a Tae outfit the day her husband proposed.


HOW EASY IS IT FOR YOU TO DESIGN IN THIS ENVIRONMENT
Not easy at all. Running a business in Nigeria consumes so much of your time and energy; it becomes very difficult to be in the right frame of mind for the creative juices to flow. I find that I'm most inspired by street fashion and Nigerians, while fashionable, are not very daring sartorially. For my December collection, I’ve been inspired simply by looking through one of my favorite fashion blogs, thesartorialist.com. I usually tend to look at the street fashion in Milan, especially the men’s', because they come up with all sorts of crazy colour combinations I would never see on the streets of Lagos (and if I did, I must admit I’d be the first to say the guy was cuckoo!), but looking at those colours, the way they're put together, it just kind of works and I love it!


WHICH IS EASIER; COMING UP WITH THE IDEAS OR PUTTING THEM TOGETHER AND MAKING CLOTHES OUT OF THEM.
Definitely, putting them together. It's also my favorite part of the whole design process, I love seeing my ideas come to life. I spend weeks and sometimes months trying to come up with an idea for a collection, but the minute I do, it takes shape in no time at all and I get really excited at that point.


WHAT ARE WE TO EXPECT FROM YOU IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS
I've always wanted to develop a maternity and a teenage line and I'm going to start work on that before the year runs out. Touch wood!