Encomium
‘WHAT MAKES OUR DESIGNS UNIQUE’
One of Nigeria’s most creative indigenous fashion designers and Psquare’s brother, Tony Okoye has unveiled new designs of his unisex clothing line, Ajeh Wears.
The new designs, which come in various sizes, are trendy and classy with a perfect blend of Western and African cuts. Some of them include tank tops, crop tops, shirts long sleeve and short, t-shirts round and open v-neck to mention a few.
Tony, a University of Maiduguri graduate of Creative Arts spoke with ENCOMIUM Weekly…
Tell us about your collection?
It’s an Africa brand, celebrating African culture through our designs, which is different from the normal conventional attires. The colour combination is unique, you can easily recognize it from a far, because of the creativity in it. That’s why we are unique. It’s an urbanized African design, infused with rich and true African nature
How long have been you on it, and so far, what has been the acceptability?
We have been on it for more than 3 years, and so far, the acceptability is high. That’s the motivation, because people love our concept of designs. We have not experienced any negative comment from our clients, rather, get more patronage. People love it, and they always come back.
Tell us your celebrities clients?
A lot of celebrities are my clients. We have used our products for videos and presently, we are using it for more videos. It was worn for the Iyanya’s Kukere video, MayD’s Ile-Ijo, among others. I cloth many celebrities such as 2Face, Psquare, Don-Jazzy, Dbanj, Chidinmi, Jimmy Jatt, among others. Even Akon.
How affordable are your products?
They are very affordable for the layman, not only celebrities. It depends on the designs. From N5000 – N10, 000 and upwards.
What is the joy of doing this?
Joy, everybody love it, that’s the joy. When you do things that people love, you’ll be excited about it. That’s the joy. We are creative minded people, and we are almost done with our outlets, that’s a commendable achievement. Due to popular demand, we now have online stores with Konga, Jumia and Bayam, and more are still coming. We have opened more outlets where the wears can easily be purchased.
Our Lagos store is at Ikota Shopping Complex, VGC. We also have outlets in Calabar and Ibadan, while wholesalers and retailers are also welcome.
What are the challenges?
Anything that’s unique, different is always difficult to come up with. We think to come up with designs that our clients would love, at times, it’s very challenging. But, we thank God, we have always overcome our challenges.
What inspired the name, Ajeh and where are you taking your brand to?
‘Ajeh’ is coined from the word ‘Ajehbuttah,’ meaning born with a golden spoon.
– RASHEED ABUBAKAR
