‘I hate it when women don’t dress their age’

Kelechi Okere's love for making clothes pitched her against her father who wanted her to study Law at all costs because he felt she would make a great lawyer. As a woman who knew what she wanted in life, she spent her holidays and strike periods during her University days to make clothes for her friends and acquired two sewing machines before she left school.

In a chat with Daily Sun, the CEO of GZK opened up on the challenges confronting the fashion industry, and what she dislikes about a woman's style. Excerpts:
Let's meet you
I am Kelechi Okere. I own GZK clothing line. I have a big opinion that the Nigerian economy is dependent on small businesses. Till we look at it like that, I am afraid the economy will not grow as fast as it should. That is the reason I started this business. That is my dream.

What was your dream as a child?
When you are a child with a big mouth,very aggressive, and speak english properly, you are very confrontational, everybody thinks you can practice Law. But when you get to the university, it has nothing to do with your mouth. It is about fact and being able to study and research. I found school very difficult, it was such a struggle to graduate and by the time I was in my third year, I was just decided to follow my passion. I didn't even go to Law school, to me it was a waste of time. By the time I graduated in 2002, I made up my mind I wasn't going to stay into anything that has to do with Law again.

Why didn't you just go after your passion instead of studying law that you didn't like?
I told my father that I wanted to learn how to make clothes but he said no that I should choose between going to school and making clothes, he was so serious about it, and very angry too. I was afraid of my father at that time, so I decided to just sit back. But within me, I had this feeling I was going to be good at making clothes. I was artistic, I realized that I wasn't good at doing things from my head; but was good at sketching objects placed in front of me. I had an idea of what I wanted, I wish I had somebody who encouraged me. At that time, tailors were seen as people who didn't go to school, so it wasn't something my father wanted to hear of.

I gained admission and was studying Law even though I hated it and wanted to make clothes. By the time I was in my third year, I was tired. My hostel housed graduates who were jobless and they were always buying Tuesday editions of the Guardian newspaper. They would buy one and then it would go round the entire block. I made up my mind I was never going to go through that experience with them. I hated GMAT, I didn't get it, I was very bad with mathematics, so I decided never to study it for anything. In my fourth year, I collected my pocket money, changed school, bought my first machine and put it in my house. My parents didn't know.

My father had moved to Abuja, and I didn't tell my mother either. I found a friend of mine who was teaching pattern making at that time, so I started with her and learnt with skirts. Unfortunately, she had to move to Ogbomosho with her husband, so I now continued alone. During long strikes and holidays, I visited and paid tailors in my vicinity to learn from them too. I started making skirts for my friends at school and my sisters. I was generally practicing, I wasn't collecting money, just money for fabric and was enjoying it. My father came home one day and was shocked because I had even bought the second machine. I really can't tell what he was thinking that day, but when I realized he was happy, I was encouraged. He told his friends that I have turned his home into a factory. So, that is how I started.

Who is your greatest influence in the fashion industry?
The first time I saw somebody making patterns I was shocked, I had never seen it before in Nigeria. So, the first text book I laid my hands on was Nartley Bray's, I read it and I realized that she was a woman who actually studied Engineering. After the first world war, her family owned a school called Carthinker school of fashion. During the war, there was scarcity of clothes, so they wanted people to produce more clothes for women in the army and that was where she came in. She combined her background in science with arts and pattern making started.

When I read that, it blew my mind and the sad thing there is that she is hardly ever mentioned, I was shocked because lots of people always say that pattern making is a man's thing, but a woman actually started it. I am also influenced by Marie Vownet who started the bias cut. The bias cut looks good on clothes but many women don't know how it came into existence. It occurred to me that if these women could actually pioneer these breakthroughs in cloth making, I was sure of making it big. This is because pattern making is a bit technical, slow and quite irritiating. So, these women motivated me. A lot of creative Nigerian designers also motivate me.

How do you hope to remain relevant in years to come?
It is not a competition for any of us. Whenever you talk of a hundred and a hundred and fifty five million Nigerians, they are human beings who must wear good clothes. Apart from that, in as much as they say 70% of us are poor, there are enough rich people in this country to make up a nation. So, I don't see myself being irrelevant anytime in the future. There is room for everyone and we don't even have enough people in the industry to meet the huge demands of clothes in Nigeria.

How would you describe your clothes?
My clothes are simple, elegant and conventional. I don't like clothes that are inappropriate. My clothes can be worn to work, to church, to a party and even for an evening outing. It only requires a change of accessory from day to night events. Since consumers are dictating the pace, I constantly come up with clothes that will be used for every event thereby giving them good value for their money. My styles are conventional because so much can be done with them.

How challenging has it been?
It has been extremely challenging due to the environment we find ourselves. Things always work upside down in Nigeria and it is not encouraging at all. Practitioners don't know anything about the industry they are in. A lot of people don't know what they are doing and they get awards because they have a family name and people who are contributing so much to the industry are relegated to the background. Some stylists are lazy, they expect us cloth makers to run after them with our designs. The fashion industry is vast, the cloth makers, stylists, models, fabric importers and style writers make it happen in the industry and if the stylists don't know how to do their jobs, then it is a pity.

Other challenges include power, the cost of machinery and that of importing fabrics because it is not produced in Nigeria. The overhead is higher than the cost of production itself. We also don’t have tailors that are well trained because there are not reputable fashion schools in Nigeria. The youths of today don’t want to work anymore, they come and go like the wind. Work ethics is terrible but in all these, I still believe there is room for improvement.

What inspires your designs?
I just like good clothes that are well-tailored and well-finished. I don’t sit down and ideas come to me. I can transform any made cloth into a different and more classy design.

How did you come about your name GZK?
It is an acronym. My son’s name is Gozie, my daughter Zubechi, I am Kelechi and my husband’s name is Ken, so the K is for my husband and I.

What fabrics do you use for your designs?
I use everything, but I use cotton the more because the weather is so hot. I have importers who buy fabrics for me and I pay them.

How affordable are your clothes?
They are variables but they are very affordable.

Who are your target clients?
They include women who don’t have an 8-5 job, women who run their own businesses. Mothers who equally want to look nice while carrying out their duties to their children and home. Lawyers, insurance brokers, women in the ICT world and a few bankers who wish to look different. Women who wear my designs are between ages 25 and 45.

What kind of accessories go into your clothes?
I love designing my clothes with buttons and pockets, they come out beautiful. I love embroidery and pleats but do not use sequins and stones. I love to drape and play with darts. I love making my sleeves extraordinary, I use colours a lot, but they must also be colours in vogue.

What is your unique selling point?
My unique selling point is my marketing strategy. I was known for shirts when I started but I had to watch what was doing well into market. From there, I moved to dresses. I have also added a lot of classy jackets and trousers suitable for the African woman. It is always challenging for women here to get good trousers, this is because white designers cut the trousers to suit their figure which is different from ours.

What do you dislike about a woman’s style?
I hate it when women don’t dress their age. I dislike women who add too much to their dress, it is not flattering at all. Do not show too much, if you want to show your cleavage, then the rest of your cloth should cover your other parts. If you have to reveal your legs, then your upper body should be well covered. At my age, I have no business wearing a micro mini skirt. I had worn that in my twenties because I was youthful, but doing it now would be age-inappropriate. Women should avoid dressing like masquerades.

How often do you introduce new collections?
The initial plan was to introduce three collections per year, but because we are understaffed, I am stuck with two collections.

How do you relax?
I don’t go out often and dislike parties. I love watching cable TV. I record the programmes I have missed during the week, and watch them on Fridays since I am free. I love church activities because it draws me closer to my creator.

How do you combine your role as a wife, mother and business woman?
I won’t say I have found a perfect balance, but I am working towards it. I make sure I make up for any lost time not spent with my family. I have a very supportive family. I will never have done what I am doing now without my husband’s support both morally and financially. I try as much as I can not to neglect my husband and my children. I always make up for the lost time whenever I have the opportunity because I am always busy. I pick my children from school myself to enjoy their conversation because we may not have the time to do that again. I let them know that I am interested in their welfare and show them they mean the world to me.

Where do you see GZK in the next five years?
I see GZK gaining ground strongly in the market as a ready-to-wear line. By that time, we would be able to brand export our clothes in South Africa. We use the UK sizes and make them of international standard, so South Africa looks like a big market for GZK in future. I am not interested in a couture, but gaining the market as a ready-to-wear line which is more profitable and less time-consuming.