Teni Sagoe Archives

Lessons from the House of Deola Sagoe & Clan at the Business Side of Fashion Annual Symposium 2014 – The Legacy Edition

by T.Williams-A | Jan 19, 2015 | @martwayne, Bamitale Kevin-Agono, Business Side of Fashion, Clan, David Wej, Deola Sagoe, Fashion, Funmi Ayanbadejo, Ibikari Allwell-Brown, Kola Kuddus, MUDI, Patrick Ayanski, Teni Sagoe, Tewa Onasanya

Hello everyone!!! It is the 3rd week in January already (can you believe it?!) Looks like this year plans to fly by so quickly it will be overwhelming.

I’ll get started on a long overdue post that I am certain you will learn a lot from!

Now some of you may have heard of the Business Side of Fashion (BSOF) Annual Symposium. It takes place every year and is organised by the Fashion Management Agency run by Mrs. Bamitale Kevin-Agono.

I had attended about one or two of them previously but the Legacy Edition to me was THE BEST of the lot and a great way to wrap up the Symposium!

The BSOF Symposium was Tale’s initiative and her way of bringing industry experts to help budding fashion designers with their businesses. For her, “it was a zealous adventure with a motive to see if I could make a difference in the fashion industry“. And she sure did!

I recall the previous ones I attended had Mrs Nike Ogunlesi of Ruff N Tumble, Ituen Basi, Folake Folarin-Coker of Tiffany Amber, Lisa Folawiyo of Jewel By Lisa, Mai Atafo…. and even the Bank of Industry in attendance, sharing from their experiences and teaching the delegates about how to run a fashion business in Nigeria.

And the Legacy Edition of the BSOF Symposium was no different. First I was the host 😀 😀 😀 (haha…. yes I have to celebrate myself now n’est ce pas?!). Granted I had no clue what the host was required to do but I learnt quickly “on the job”.

And then we had the Keynote Speakers Mr. Clement Mudiaga Enajemo of MUDI Africa and Ms. Deola Sagoe of the House of Deola Sagoe. You guys have no clue how long I have wanted to meet these 2 people in person!

Images from: http://millarefashion.blogspot.com/2013/04/mudi-tale-of-artistic-expressions.html

http://theeagleonline.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Deola-Sagoe.jpg

THEN there was the David Wej Competition where David Eweje of David Wej (another fashion guru who I totally respect in so many ways) handed out prizes to the winners of the Competition.

Followed by a Panel Talk by 3 industry leaders – Mrs. Funmi Ayanbadejo of Patrick Ayanski, Mr. Ibikari Alwell-Brown of Fetoru.com and Mrs. Tewa Onasanya of Exquisite Magazine (now called EM). Oh I learnt a lot from them, particularly in the area of e-commerce from Ibikari who used to Head the Fashion Units at Jumia and Konga.

And then the Grand Finale was (drumroll please…..) the lecture by the 2nd Keynote Speaker, Deola Sagoe. And I must say I was in total awe of her! Very soft-spoken, no airs whatsoever! Honestly, I just kept staring at her and remembering the first fashion show I attended where I saw her work! I love her and her work to bits!

Lucky for us, she also brought her daughter, Temi Sagoe of Clan and honestly, you guys have no clue how much she had to offer. Thankfully, I passed up on Tale’s offer to interview them and settled down to listen and learn… which was the best decision I ever made.

Funny…. as I listened to them, they both spoke a lot about what I have often spoken about in the past about the design process, pretty much what I teach my students and anyone who cares to listen.

For me, what was very enlightening was that despite the success of the House of Deola Sagoe and Clan, they still admitted they were making steps to expand and create a more profitable business. No stories of how they had hit it big, no “bobo” stories, nothing! No making the audience feel like they had “been there, done that”. Just plain hard facts!

Teni actually came prepared with a list of the different steps in the process with clear explanations on how you move from the design stage to the runway! It really was Fashion 101, taking each stage at a time with detailed explanations! It really was a “no holds barred” session.

Lucky for me – and you guys, I took some video clips but to be honest I edited a whole lot out of the clips! You can watch them on the “Martwayne” You Tube Channel at the following links and PS… don’t forget to Subscribe to the Channel [of course, I had to chip that in there :-D] – more videos coming up!

Now there are 5 different clips and it took ages for me to edit them but hopefully you can learn even if just a bit from them and hopefully use that knowledge to restructure your fashion businesses. I gave the different clips titles. You can click on the links to watch them. PS. Forgive some shaky parts in the video, I shot the clips with my phone and it was so not easy to keep my hands steady.

Part 1: Fashion is Serious Business!

Part 2: How the House of Deola Sagoe Started:

Part 3: How Clan Was Born:

Part 4: The Process at the House of Deola Sagoe:

Part 5: About Bespoke Clothing…:

Honestly, if you were not there, you missed a whole lot and I plan to rub your faces in it! Did I add that we got freebies from Patrick Ayanski and EM?! 😀

BUT! There is hope! Well… not regarding the freebies though… BUT

You can and SHOULD get the full DVD! These clips are nothing compared to the full DVD of an event which started at 8am and ended at 3pm. You can get the DVD by contacting the Fashion Management Agency @:

info@businesssideoffashion.com or 0810 337 9553

Honestly this will be like the best gift you can ever give yourself this year! I, for one, learnt a whole lot from Deola Sagoe & Clan and from Ibikari about e-commerce, which is a new area I have started to explore for myself. I am so glad I was a part of the event I tell you and I will also get the DVD for myself!

I can go on and on about this event but I will stop here. Sadly the Legacy Edition was the last of the BSOF Symposiums and it will no longer hold but you can still learn a lot from the Fashion Management Agency by registering for their Course – Fashion the Business which launched at their Fashion Business School.

And yes! I am one of the facilitators and I handle the creative aspects of fashion! 😀 The Course really does have a lot to offer including how to define your business, how to present your collection, how to position your brand, publicity and marketing and of course the accounting aspect of fashion!

For more details, do check out their site at www.fashionmanagementagency.com or call 0703 002 3333 or 0810 337 9553.

Now I’ll sign off here now and leave you to enjoy the pictures…