Pretty, bold, calm and collected, Sola Babatunde, the founder of One Stop Celebration, an ultra-modern fashion institute located along Adeniyi Jones Lagos is a workaholic.
Her humble beginning, creative acumen, undeterred determination, divine inspiration and absolute ruggedness have made her to build a classic beehive where celebrities across Africa keep their secrets.
In this interview, she unravels her ingenuity.
Excerpts:
What motivated you into running a fashion house in Nigeria?
Well as I have always said to people it is a calling for me. I have always had the passion for Nigeria. When everybody was planning to travel abroad and find a better life, I just believed that Nigeria is a place for me. For instance all my siblings, except for my older sister, stay abroad. I have just decided to stay here. And I prayed to God to know what I am put on earth for and I had a revelation in a dream where I was teaching different students in a big school to do different things I could do. To my shock at that time, I was teaching a girl how to sew and I did not know how to sew at that time. So the man said to me ‘when you wake up, you go and learn.’ So I woke up, told my boss that I would not be coming back to work and I went to learn. It has been a good journey since that time.
Before you got this dream, what were you doing?
I used to work at Faith Foundation. I am actually a trained banker, studied banking and finance from Olabisi Onabanjo University, formerly Ogun State University. But I worked at Faith Foundation for a while before I stopped and started One Stop Celebration.
Where were you trained?
I am a combination of several places. I was initially trained here in Nigeria and then I went on to UK to be trained at Central Saint Martin’s London. I have also been trained in the US and India. I am always learning; I am always travelling to learn a new thing so I can bring back and make our curriculum more internationally accepted.
So how long have you been into this fashion business?
It started as a hobby but started seriously since 2009.
How did you as a banker decide to become a tailor?
It started like a hobby, and then I realised that it has to be run properly and seriously like a business. Then as God would have it, I won several business entrepreneurial training, so capacity building is very important for any business person. So I have won several scholarships from the US department of state. I did business training in America, EDC and PAN Atlantic University here in Nigeria. I have also been part of the Cherie Blair road to growth scholars. I know that without running a business properly you would not be able to succeed, especially in Nigeria.
To convince a fresh graduate to go back and learn how to sew clothes might be a hard nut, what is your perception of self employment?
Like I recently read about someone talking about vocational training and empowerment skill, I would say it is not for drop outs. There has been a misconception and misplacement of our values; people tend to look down on fashion designing, hair dressing and other hand works and feel it is for people who cannot succeed in school. Whereas opposite is the case. If you are not intelligent or sound you cannot succeed in any of those things, so I did not have to convince them. We started the school thinking it is for those who cannot afford to go to the university but to our greatest surprise, 99 percent of our students are graduates. Some even have Masters Degrees. Some have two to three degrees. Some have been working in different industries and they decided to come here. If you ask any of them you would be shocked at the qualification they have.
Very specifically, what is your drive for this career?
The first and the major source is God, the issue of electricity almost caused me to break down last week, but I remember that I am the one that encourages other people so I cannot afford to be down. That is also one of the drives, when I remember how many people are looking up to me, how many people I have to encourage, the students who are just coming up, my colleagues in the industry and some of the people I mentor. Then the main thing is that I know Nigeria would get better and when that time comes that is not where to start, you should have been in line, and you know they say preparation meets opportunity. I strongly believe Nigeria will get better especially in the fashion industry; a time would come when people would value made in Nigeria products.
There is a notice here in your office that you don’t accept fabrics but only produce ready to wear apparels.
We have decided to focus on ready to wear. Ready to wear is where you have made garments based on standardised sizes that people would just walk in and buy clothes that would suit them. It also helps to perfect your skills; it helps you to produce clothes that would fit anyone. The economics of skill of producing it is far better; it is less stressful and much profitable. You are able to plan your designs ahead and people will eventually know your brands. You can showcase your brands and people will know what you stand for; so that is why we have decided to face that. Even though some people still insist that they want us to make clothes for them especially when they see our designs, we have stopped that over time. We do not accept fabrics anymore. You just walk in and buy what you see on the rack and that is the way to go, which is what would develop the industry.
Are you saying a lot of fashion designers are poor because they accept fabrics?
Yes. If you think about it, the effort and all that it takes to produce one car or an assembly line where you have done so many it is cheaper for you, it would make more sense. You can sell to more people, you can market it more, people would even value it more and abroad if someone was making a garment for you they are willing to pay much more, but in Nigeria they tell you that Suraju will sew it for N1500 so why are you charging XYZ amount? They forget the overhead, how much it takes to pay the skilled tailors. So many issues are against one on one production. But there are people who do it and do it well but with our prevailing economic situation, it pays to do make-ready to wear and in this economic situation it makes more sense to do make-ready to wear and that is the future for Nigeria. – Sunday Independent.
