Stella Okuzu Wears Ade Bakare Couture: A Fashion Journey.
Stella Okuzu, the CEO of the Royal African Society in London, England, called our Lagos atelier and said she wanted an outfit for an event in London; we had to have it made and sent to her. She ordered a beautiful cape with a sprinkle of lace petals. It was from our 2018 summer range.
We constantly get orders from previous collections, initially I was always reluctant to remake old styles but a manager at the atelier said our styles are very classic and if the client wants it we should make it, this reminds me of the maxim “business is all about delivery” .clients constantly scroll though our online posts especially on Instagram and identify styles they like going back decades. The style Stella chose from the Morocco summer 2018 collection was shown in Dakhla, which is in the southern part and is considered to be south Sahara. A very controversial region in Morocco. We were invited by Alphadi, who’s a celebrated designer known all over Africa. He stages a bi-annual fashion extravaganza in different countries across the continent. We were kindly invited to Morocco and showed our 2018 collection, which consisted mostly of exquisite dresses in silk Adire adorned with capes in various lengths and colours, some with embellishments or embroidery.
The collection was a huge success, and we stole the show with a sudden appearance of large colourful umbrellas, which we made at the Lagos atelier with intricate details at the edges of the umbrellas.
Unknown to me, another designer, Lucas Escalada, also showed. He loved our theme of colourful styles with umbrellas and subsequently invited us to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and insisted we bring those umbrellas for his show.
In Malabo, we were lounging in the beautiful Hotel Ando, and I decided to do a quick fashion shoot in the lobby. Indeed, Africa is beautiful; the models were from the Gambia and the Ivory Coast, stylists from Gabon and Ghana. I was escorted by my cousin Lekan, from Nigeria, and the photographer was from Cameroon. We changed the lobby into a temporary fashion stage, and onlookers gazed in awe. It was such a beautiful experience.
The photos took on another life of their own and were used by magazines and social media outlets. It was from this collection that Stella Okuzu chose her cape. She kindly sent me a photo, and I saw her speaking with King Charles at the Nigerian diaspora event held in London. It sparked nice memories. King Charles was the Patron of the Prince Youth Business Trust (PYBT), which gave me the finance to start Ade Bakare Couture London in 1991. On looking at the photo, I wondered if he was aware of what he helped start, through his vision for youth businesses as far back as the 1970s. Totally fascinating what a story a photo can tell.
