Bunmi Koko’s big story started when the name washed up as one of the privileged fashion houses to design a jacket for the fashionista First Lady of America, Michelle Obama. Since then, greater world attention has been paid to the fashion house that is certainly making Nigeria proud on the international scene. Only recently, ahead of the royal wedding to be held later in the year in England, Bunmi Koko was picked to design Kate Middleton’s engagement outfit with Prince William. Her outfit would also be one of the designers to advise on how to dress the future Queen for the big day. The fashion house was among the top-rated designers that featured in the just concluded Arise Magazine Fashion Show held at Federal Palace Hotel Lagos. The duo of Bunmi Olaye and Francis Udom – founders – tell OYINDAMOLA LAWAL their successes, challenges and plans to set up a brand in the country.
ESTABLISHED two years ago by the duo of Bunmi Olaye (creative designer) and Francis Udom (Engineer), Bunmi Koko has wormed itself to the hearts of many every stylish women and celebrities, Michele Obama. These include ex-Spice girl Melanie Brown, Estelle Mischa Barton and others.
The outfit has also earned the founders numerous nominations and awards; Olaye emerged winner of 2010 Africa Fashion International Africa Fashion Awards in the Best Emerging Designer’ (International) category while Udom was a finalist and nominee for the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Grampian Awards, African Fashion Award for the 'Emerging International Designer of The Year 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was also finalist in the Creative Business and Young Entrepreneur of the Year categories at the Precious Awards 2010.
After winning an array of prestigious awards in 2010, Olaye, who has worked with top designers such as Allison Rodger and Alexander McQueen, as well as for luxury brands Prada, Harrods and Louis Vuitton, was personally invited to South Africa by Nelson Mandela.
The meeting prompted the duo to turn their designs towards world’s hungry children and joining organisations committed to ‘fill the Red Cup’ for the survival of about 22 million children, majority of whom live in less developed countries across the globe and are benefitting from World Food Programmes (WFP) for schools.
Udom says, “ we want our clients to realise that filling the ‘Red Cup’ signifies hope for hungry children.”
“We all know it’s hard to concentrate on an empty stomach, which made us join WFP to ensure no child goes to school hungry.” Olaye adds.
On the latest feat of the outfit, Olaiye discloses: “Bunmi Koko has been picked to design Kate Middleton’s engagement outfit with Prince William. It was also approached as one of the designers in UK to make statement on how to dress the future Queen for the big day.”
AT the recent, Arise Magazine Fashion Show, the duo showcased three collections namely Geisha’s Reform, Matriarchy and Kaleidoscopia. Geisha’s Reform, which was inspired by a Geisha tale of love and agony —a moving work of art in 1940’s Kyoto, Japan —, can be defined as ultra-feminine, glamour and sophistication.
Bunmi Koko enhanced the pleating trend in the Matriarchy collection while also introducing wild prints and vibrant colour to the brand’s signature themes. The collection also sets the scene for Spring/Summer, celebrates female empowerment and domination as well as corrects African culture with the Europeans. The charm of the leopard masquerade (Ekpe) from Calabar, Southeast of Nigeria — the cultural icon for empowering women in the colonial town during the period of Queen Victoria and Mary Slessor, a missionary — was used to design a female warrior-like dress with a Victorian influence.
Olaye notes, “We had three collections, this is the first time we are showcasing in Lagos, so, we want to give our own country a good treat. We had the first collection, Geisha’s Reform, which has a Japanese inspiration and the second, Matriarchy, inspired by Nigeria, basically by Calabar people, which is why we had the masquerade. The final collection, kaleidoscopia that is our recent collection, was shown in London Fashion Week.”
“However, Kaleidoscopia, which is also inspired by the scientific and philosophic discoveries of light, includes 3d prints that plays on kaleidoscopic illusions. This season sequins, suede, lambskin and patent leather, which was put together to create the collection gave it an otherworldly look,” she states.
SPEAKING on how they came into fashion industry, Olaye informs, “Though, I never thought of being a designer, from childhood I just wanted to be in some sort of creative art, I enjoyed drawing and painting. The idea of fashion designing later came as I was growing up. I read Fine Art in my first degree and later Fashion Designing. I love making clothes and when I met Francis, who has the same passion with me, we joined to make Bunmi Koko a reality.”
Since coming on board, the fashion outfit, a luxury women’s wear brand has lived up to its billing, clothing women across the globe and making strong fashion statements at international events.
Revealing some of their success secrets, Udom says, “at Bunmi Koko, we make our own fabrics, we design them right from the basis as well as some of our accessories. We travel around the globe, especially Britain, Spain and Italy to source for embellishments. This is done to maintain our concept and uniqueness.”
He adds, “ we have 10 functional departments, the first is the project management, which I work under; then the creative department, which Bunmi heads as creative director; she runs all the pattern cutting and sewing. There are also IT and multinational department and others. Before embarking on any project or collections, the heads of departments sit down to brainstorm, about production, the fabric, research and other aspects of it. We make every head to be aware of what is going to be showcased at the runway even before commencing the project.”
THE name Bunmi Koko was coined from Bunmi, the first name of Olaye, while Koko comes from Francis Udom.
Olaye enthuses, “Obviously Bunmi is my first name while Koko is a pet name Francis calls me; we both call each other Koko, which means ‘my other half in Efik.’ In essence, Bunmi means ‘God gave me in Yoruba,’ adding ‘Koko’ to it leaves you with Bunmi Koko, which means ‘God gave me my other half’. We are almost married.”
On where they draw inspiration, Olaye discloses, “most of the time, it’s either something I have seen or somewhere I have visited or a movie; it could be anything. The last collection was from a new musical video that plays on kaleidoscopic illusion, which inspired me to start thinking about light. I researched and found out more information that made the collection so rich, because a lot of the prints were actually microscopic images and kryptonite images; which we manipulated and printed on fabrics — jersey, organza and satin.”
For the challenges, Udom laments, “it’s funding, which is as a result of the global economic situation, but we hope to overcome it. We have been winning awards, getting awareness and going to different countries, including Lagos, Nigeria, which is our country. We hope our country would support us, we hope government would look at what we are doing, representing the world from Africa and support our initiative.”
The fashion outfit has some of its subsidiaries scattered in South America, London and South Africa. “Our products are accepted in England; right now we are in Vogue, Maria Claire and many other global magazines. Though we are Africans, we get supports from everyone; we have been on TV station such as ITV news,” Udom says.
On their plan to set up in Nigeria, Olaye informs, “we intend coming to Nigeria, but we have first decided to showcase our collections to see how people would respond to them and also to our coming. However, the responses are good; everyone loves our collections,” he notes.
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