London based Nigerian designer- Emmy Collins has decided put his money where his mouth is. His idea is to help some upcoming, but very talented and creative designer to fulfill their dreams. Many just have the God given talents, but don't know how to go about turning the talent into a profitable venture. With this upcoming workshop, it's a way the industry's veteran, hopes to help the up-comers, learn how do the right things and put the proper structures together.
Hear him-
I
am excited with the number of young, budding and aspiring designers who have
signified their interest in the upcoming workshop on fashion, where everything,
including branding, product placement, seasons, business of fashion,
manufacturing (a key factor in design and fashion), fabrics, who the buyers
are, low end/top end of fashion, business plan, short and long term projections
and so on would be disc. As a matter of fact, I will endeavour to touch on all
the nitty gritty of fashion; the very glamorous and not so glamorous aspects of
it and will also answer questions from participants. I clearly understand that
one seminar is certainly not enough to cover all these aspects of fashion.
However, I hope that this will serve as a launch pad to organising a monthly or
bi-monthly workshop where Nigerians, with genuine knowledge and passion, will
be invited to lecture participants on selected segments of fashion.
To those budding talented individuals who are
saying to themselves, “Oh,I have the skill and the passion but not the
funding“, I say to you please do not fret. With time the funding issue would be
sorted out. Fashion should not be elitist so everyone with a natural aptitude
for fashion deserves a shot. I believe Nigeria has the money to invest in all its
great skilled individuals, or else I wouldn’t bother putting even a kobo of
mine in this economy. All it takes is to have individuals who genuinely believe
in fashion, and also have the necessary contacts, to approach corporate bodies
and banks to present the case for talent sponsorship quite robustly. My reason
for believing strongly that the funding is available is not far-fetched. Josh
Samuel recently won a cash award of N4,000,000 (which is roughly about 16,000
pounds) at the recently concluded MTN Lagos Fashion and Design week. If a
corporate body as big as MTN could put up such an amount of money, who can
argue they cannot double it if they are convinced their money will be put to
good use? One can rightly argue that the money is theirs but those of us in the
fashion industry need to get our acts together in order to build trust and
access these funds. With proper organisation, the fashion industry should, and
could, access funding from the government via the Ministry of Youths and
Culture.
I
must say that manufacturing and quality of workmanship will occupy a prominent
place on the agenda at this workshop because I often hear about designing, but
not a lot about manufacturing. What is the dividend in designing garments that
can’t be made or are made cheaply? There are a few standard tricks needed to
ensure a garment is tailored properly, such as swapping from over-lock to
French seams whenever necessary, or boxing in lining so it does not poke out
from underneath the skirt, or dress, through the vent (which is the slit at the
back of some skirts, dresses and blazers). These are some of the important
things I would like us to get to at some point during the workshop.
Hopefully,
some well meaning stakeholders will extend support for this workshop. I do not
know it all but I believe there is something I can give and most of these,
besides my talent, I got free of charge from a mentor, Mr David Jones, who
believed in my talent right from the onset. It never cost me a cent to gain
such knowledge from him and so I am never going to charge for imparting the
same to others. It is only fair that I give back free of charge what I also got
free of charge.
Also,
I will come along with some of my pieces and as well recommend that the
participants come with any pieces they have designed so we all can analyse the
quality and highlight areas of needed improvement. One can always improve on
one’s current achievements, which is why I would be bringing my pieces, and I
will be glad to listen to anyone who thinks I need to improve on the quality of
workmanship.
The
workshop is absolutely free and refreshment has been arranged for
20 participants. While I am brainstorming on moving venue, as I believe the
present location may not be adequate considering the number of interested
participants I have received, the venue will definitely be on the Island but
hopefully venues will be rotated between the Mainland and Island in the future.
The
prerequisite to register is TALENT AND PASSION. I can’t teach
those, you have to have them.
If you believe there is any sort of
knowledge or experience you possess that these upcoming designers will benefit
from, do not hesitate to message or tweet at me @emmycollins or send an
email to info@emmycollins.com. This is about
giving something, irrespective of how big or small it might be, to our country.
Nigeria cannot afford to let its stars of tomorrow continue to grope in the
dark for answers they could easily obtain from workshops such as this.
LET'S TALK FASHION, NIGERIA
 |
| EMMY COLLINS |
