Hello my FAB people,
So being my first blog, I pondered on what to share and the one thing that kept recurring in conversations, meetings, shoots was the “Buy Nigerian Campaign”. So the “Buy Nigerian Campaign” is a www.stylehouefiles initiative encouraging consumer culture in Nigeria and supporting locally made goods and I must say that they get my vote a 100%.
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| ITUEN BASI |
So we all know that there is no money in the fashion industry - or is there? Most “creatives” are driven by their passion and making money usually takes second place. But then having said that, this is a multi-billion dollar industry that has made some people very very rich. We Nigerians play a large part as research shows that we are listed as one of the top five spenders on Bond Street and Selfridges in London. So why do we not spend on our fashion at home?
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| AIMAS |
There have been several debates on the issue; some being extremely supportive of the initiative while others just think it a waste of time. So yesterday, I was having a chat with one of my favourite Nigerian designers who truly flies the Nigerian flag high with her creative genius and her attention to detail. We were speaking on the quality and the finishing of products made in Nigeria and how it is difficult to compete on the international scene with such badly produced goods. Then the suggestion of producing abroad in other low-income countries came up and it made me think if that would still be considered “Nigerian”?
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| ZASHADU |
The whole idea of this campaign is to improve the industry here, which includes design, production, distribution, quality control, finishing etc so the reality of the project became apparent. I thought to myself what makes Nigerians different from Chinese, Indians or Turks? Is it our mindset? Is it our lack of integrity? Is it our poor work ethics? Because if you really think about it, there is absolutely no excuse for Nigerians producing sub standard goods to a bunch of fashion savvy people. So while I am super excited about the campaign, I know that we still have a long way to go!!!
You hit the nail on the head here Tayo, as I sometimes say "Intentions are good, delivery needs a lot to be desired".
ReplyDeleteWe need to start thinking more about quality of all we do, maintaining that quality and even (shock horror) improving on that quality. I wish someday we Nigerians will start to think more about quality rather than how to make a buck in 3 secs.
I would and do buy Nigerian, but lets call a spade a spade, some times, one wish they hadn't.
I also wonder why things made by Nigerians are always so ridiculously priced? So as much as one wants to buy Nigerian, our pockets may not always be "BIG" enough.
Ditto Suby re:the price points.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the writer's last paragraph.We still have a long way to go but at least the industry is slowly getting there.
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