Light Spirit hearted and ever smiling Chioma Olamide Udom is a beneficiary of Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme 2015, the young lady who holds fashion in great esteem shares her story with TREND WITH ME...
My names are Chioma Olamide Udom, I am from Akwa Ibom State. A lot of people always question my names. My mom is Ibo and my paternal grandma was Yoruba, she named me Olamide. I am the third child in a family of six, I moved a lot as a child, so I attended different primary schools. I had my secondary education in Police Secondary School, Minna. I majored in Economics in the University of Port Harcourt.
I love reading marketing and entrepreneurship related books, writing, conducting online research, sketching fashion designs, travelling and listening to music.
As a young girl I had a dream to touch the world with something positive from inside of me before I bow out from life.
At a very young age I discovered that I could draw amongst other talents. I also had great interest for clothing, its composition and was always fascinated by outstanding patterns, stitches and styles.
Combining my drawing ability with my growing voracious interest in clothing, unconsciously was rising in my inner recess thus making me a passionate young lady who stuck closer and closer with fashion designing.
As I advanced in age my interest developed from mere drawing to sketching designs. Seeing how I made people around me happy and excited especially because of my hand work I then decided I was going to major in a degree in the university that would help me explore my dream which at the time had fully form into designs for African fashion.
I started making designs for clients when I got into the university from which part of the proceeds I used to supplement my allowance I got from my parents.
During this period I enrolled under a local fashion designer as an apprentices. I was then groomed on sewing, stitches, patterns and styles using fabrics and general techniques in fashion design.
With this burning passion and drive I file in an application to get my business name registered in Nigeria as Mi'De Fashion County. Before this time I had already taken Mi’De Fashion County online through my blog and social networks in facebook and twitter.
I use both local and foreign fabrics to produce customized attires. Over time my business have evolved, we have included designing of customized African inspired accessories.
My business got her first contract to design and produce a set of African traditional costume for a traditional wedding for the bride and her bridal train. Ever since we have being getting job from individuals and groups.
We have also being getting words of encouragement from fashion designers based in Nigeria and in the UK.
Major challenge faced so far is intellectual theft. Some people will take our designs from the internet and give their tailors to produce without permission.
Once, a client of ours called to tell me that her friend saw her in a fashion style catalogue wearing MFC, the people who produce fashion style catalogue used by tailors do not ask for the permission of the designer.
Fashion designing involves sketching designs and transforming the sketched design into a piece of clothing, I think it is okay to get inspired by another designer's work and make a master piece by adding your own touch of talent but it is unethical to base a business on another person's creativity.
The inadequate supply of electricity is another major challenge, most of our production processes need electricity to enable perfect finishings, to solve this problem, we have to use the substitute source "generator", which is challenging since it involves buying fuel and maintenance of the generator.
My company, Mi'De Fashion County is a fashion and designing company.We currently provide customised fashion designs and accessories. We cater to male, female and children.
As creative director, I sketch the designs in a sketch pad. The art of fashion designing comes to me from the simplest things in life; this guarantees me the sustainability of my inspirations in the fashion world.
Clients are free to choose a design from our sketch pad and we guide them when they want to select a design of their choice, this is because there are different sizes and figures. Our job is to create pieces that flatter our clients body figures.
Our production unit which is keen on excellent finishing is in charge of transforming every sketched design into the physical form which becomes a piece of clothing when fully made.
In addition to our current products and services, we plan to expand our business to include offering fashion education services to individuals interested in pursuing a career in fashion and in the long run produce high street clothing to cater to the demand of the middle and low income earners in the market.
My TEEP story started when I found out about the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme via facebook, a friend had posted the link as a status update and encouraged entrepreneurs to apply for it. In the past, I had applied for several similar opportunities in my industry, gone for interviews and in some cases, auditions. Some of these opportunities did not have a good ending, some worked out for me. Like all the other times I had applied for such opportunities, I was not sure I would be selected but I am always optimistic and prefer to try than give excuses.
I completed my application form and submitted it two weeks to the deadline, the programme had given us duration of 3 months to complete our form which is really fair and I believed offered a lot of space for other entrepreneurs who did not know about it when it was officially announced, to participate in it.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation twitter account tweeted a time for the announcement of successful candidates for the programme. It was to be announced by 3pm, I was so nervous that day; I kept looking at the clock, desperately waiting for the time to come.
By 3pm, I received an email with a video link, my heart was racing fast. You see! When you have participated in a lot of programmes like this, which have had you travelling a lot with a few seeming not so successful, you get a lot of people discouraging you.
My heart was racing fast because I wanted this opportunity so much, I clicked the link to the video and there he was, The chairman of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and founder of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme “Mr Tony Elumelu himself” congratulating me, I had been selected. I screamed, danced, jumped up and down, the excitement was overwhelming.
TEEP contributed immensely to building my confidence level as an entrepreneur. Prior to this programme, I got all my knowledge about entrepreneurship from books or articles, so this was the perfect programme for me as it opened a door of opportunity to learn directly from my mentor and Tony Elumelu.
The weekly online tasks was very expository. The worksheets and articles made me understand my industry better. It guided my thought as I research in different areas that aided in the discovery of more problems that exist in my industry. I was able to understand my customers and competitors better.
I also learnt the hall marks of successful products and businesses just by reading “THE TOE WAY business values” weekly. The key information in TOE way has guided my journey as an entrepreneur and aided me in my business. It was a delightful honour to read Tony Elumelu's thoughts on business and entrepreneurship in general.
Before TEEP Bootcamp practically expanded my network of business minded individual locally and internationally. I really enjoyed the Bootcamp, the ambience in the hall during lectures was so inspiring, it was a great experience and I felt so blessed to be in the midst of great minds and to also learn from other successful African entrepreneurs.
God, my supporting fiancé and my younger sister have been such influence and I honestly do not know what I will do without these three individuals in my life.
If I could be or do anything else, what will that be... I will be a professional photographer and travel blogger.
If I can change anything in the past, what will that be?... I love my past, it is not full of pleasant experiences but it has molded me into the woman I am today.
#TWM : If you could have dinner with five famous people from all over the world, who would they be?
Wow! This is an interesting question. If I could dine with five famous people, it will be Lisa Folawiyo, Angelina Jolie, Kate Middleton, Tony Elumelu and Mo Abudu.
#TWM: What has been the happiest moment of your life where your work is concerned?
My happiest moment where work is concerned is when a client is satisfied with the interpretation of my design. I'm satisfied when my clients are satisfied.
#TWM: What has been the saddest moment of your life where your work is concerned?
The saddest moment was an ugly experience I had some time ago from an event hosted by a popular cable network company from south Africa.
from what I was presented with before the main event, it was meant to be a kind of program that was designed to support the up and coming fashion designers. To my surprise it was more or less a scam. It was like they already had their selected the set of designers even before the audition started. I had never being so embarrassed. Evidently they needed the extra crowd to make a show for the world to see.
All my effort from sketching, to production, having to travel from Port Harcourt to Lagos, with all the sacrifices inbetween, were all in vain except that I've learnt never to honor any invitation of any sort from this cable network company from south Africa.
#TWM: How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as a game changer in the world of fashion, as a woman who inspired others to dream and follow their passion, as a loving wife, mother and friend.
#TWM: Married life so far...and how it affects your works...
I'm not married yet although I'm engaged to a loving, sweet and fabulously supporting gentleman who has inspire me and support me in becoming a better me.
#TWN: future aspirations?
Our future aspiration is to strive to keep our core focus on innovative style while building a strong lifetime relationship of superior customer loyalty and flourish into a timeless Pan-African fashion brand.
