By Vivian Onyebukwa
Elsie Unuane Ordor is a third-generation fashion designer. Her grandmother and her mum were both fashion designers, and she has caught the bug. She started off by taking over her mum’s company. Her company, Maison-de-Helen Couture Ltd, meaning “House of Helen” in French, is a combination of her mother’s name, Helen and her name, Elsie.
In this interview, Elsie, who has been in the industry specifically for 12 years, spoke about fashion designing, marketing and sales in fashion business, among others.
How did you find yourself in fashion designing?
I started of by studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham, London. Then I went and did my Masters in Brunel University, UK in Environmental Sciences Law and Management. When I returned to Nigeria, my mum wanted to retire, so she was looking for a manager. She asked me if I was interested in taking over her business. That was how I took over the company. It was just a little small fashion brand when I took over because in her days, she was very big, but at that time she was reducing her staff strength. She brought it into her house, using a couple of rooms because she still had customers. She had her tailors that used to sew for her friends and people around. So when I took over, I continued and was making clothes for people at the time. I got into ready-to-wear, creating my own designs, and I saw that a lot of people were interested in it. I remember staring off with N55,000 with which I bought materials, and engine of my little small generator. We were using hot kettle then to iron. So I literally took it from scratch, and then slowly we continued to grow. I expanded and moved out of the premises because it was my mum’s house. I got a showroom on Admiralty, Lekki, Lagos while I continued production in the house. I was able to put some money together and came back to the factory and expanded it because my factory was so far away from my studio, so when there was any little amendment to do, I had to come back and it was so hectic. So I decided to build a bigger place so that I would have my factory, and studio, everything in one place.
Then I started creating designs. So for whatever reason, I discovered the Adire African print and I made about 12 samples of one particular design but different colours, and I put them online. In 24 hours, itsold out so quickly because it was unique. So I realised that it was something interesting. I created the fabric and everything myself. So it was important that as a fashion designer, you have to have a unique voice. For me that was the point I realised that time. So I started working with Adire, making my ready-to-wear outfits.
When I got pregnant, I went to the UK to have a baby after marrying for 10 years without having a child. I started to notice that a lot of women were not wearing African print. For me, I see African print as prints, just something that has a cultural heritage. When I started asking questions on why they were not wearing African print, they started telling me that it was about the issue of finishing and sizing. So I came back to Nigeria with the mission of fixing these problems, and they assured me that if I fixed these problems they would start wearing Adire. That was when I really went into Adire and started fixing the problems they complained about, and I started exporting to UK after producing in Nigeria. People started coming from all over the world to order from my website. And we can ship to everywhere.
Then I stumbled on an issue, which was logistics. Because I was manufacturing from Nigeria, I thought it would be better for me to ship from Nigeria. Then I realised that the shipping logistics was not something that I could really understand because sometimes we put a certain amount on our website and then send it to courier service, and the next minute the shipping cost would be so much . So we couldn’t really know how they cost their shipping. We decided that we redesign a process that we feel that it would be very good for our clients. Currently, we are redesigning a new collection that would be out sometime in March this year.
The collection is focused on a woman that is aspiring to get to her destination fashion-wise. We all have an idea of who we are aspiring to be. For us, it is that sophisticated woman that likes clean finishing, perfectly made things that sit well on her body, that would pick quality over quantity, appealling, classic, elegant and unique. When I came back, my desire was how to make clothes that are international standard .
Did you train in fashion afterwards?
I studied fashion beyond my university education. I constantly train for fashion and for everything. It is not a one-off thing. I train in fashion, marketing, and sales. That is why I am able to sell to the world. I trained in corset making when I wanted to go into bridal. I trained in pattern drafting, fashion design and illustration, colours, and prints. Most importantly, I am a stylist. I feel that there is a responsibility as a fashion designer to be able to make every shape and size of a woman, making them to feel their absolute best.
How do you cope with the problem of manpower?
One of the reasons we are not able to make clothes that are equal to the international market is because of manpower. For me, it is not about how far, but how well. Over the years in my days when I started, I have had a factory full of over 20 tailors, to a point where I have only two tailors. Through the years, I have been able to understand where I need what hands. For example,there are different levels of manpower in the country right now. In my business, I know what is important for each sector. For instance, I do ready to wear for myself, but I also do for other businesses because I have invested in a factory. I do this for both local and international markets.So, because of that, I know that, for ready-to-wear, I don’t need a bridal tailor. It is easier for you to get a tailor that is also great. For things that are repetitive, it is something that you can use lower staff because it is easy for you to say “stet”. But when it is a creative thing, you have to look for really good people, and that is what makes a difference. When I started I used to make clothes for people, but now I don’t do that. I create my ready-to-wear and I do bridal. Manpower has always been an issue. For me I have had to work with both ends of the stick. For example, there are certain things I outsource to more advanced hands. My pattern making for my ready-to-wear, I do it abroad, not here in Nigeria. But I do the tailoring here. It is important to us to produce here to give jobs to people here. That is why we set up our factory here. It is important for us to also take orders from the UK, back here because we need money coming in from foreign currency. So, anybody can do production.
What other challenges do you face?
Creativity wise, what we have access to is very limited. I feel that there are different aspects of fashion. I think that the cost of production is so high. It can be a lot lower if a lot of things were easily available. The forex rate is high and most of the things we use are imported. We do manufacturing, so power is very important to us. Right now, the cost of power is very high. In a day we are spending over N25, 000 if we work with public power supply. But if we have to introduce diesel to it, we are spending over a hundred thousand because we have to buy diesel of over N50,000, and it keeps increasing and people don’t want to pay so much on their clothes, especially if it is aso-ebi.
How do you cope with the competition in the industry?
There will always be competition in every business. One of the things that have been a defining factor for me is clarity, as to what I am bringing into the market. You have to know what people need, and the only thing you can know is asking people what they need. So understanding marketing and sales has been the greatest impact in my business. Again, my target audience is not necessarily in Nigeria. I don’t sell to everybody. I sell to a specific person who has a problem and I fix that problem for them.
Are you also envisaging that any of your children would take over from you?
I hope so. I hope I am able to meet my own personal goals and dreams. I believe that fashion, like every industry, has a lot of prospect. If my child sees it, wants to do it, then why not. What isvery important to me is, whatever they do, I believe in planning ahead for my child. But it gets toan age where they might want to decide for themselves with passion. I would like for them to take over the family business. I definitely would want to live my dreams and build the company to great heights.
What can you say about Nigeria fashion industry?
There is a lot of creativity here. A lot of people are putting their best foot forward. In terms of what has been set up, I feel like it can only get better. We are making waves around the world. People are noticing it, the same way with the music industry. I feel that at the right time, with the power of the social media and the internet, it is something that the world should watch out for because we have a lot of creativity in Nigeria.
How do you think that the government can help the industry to grow better?
There is a lot of creativity here. I remember when I was just starting up as a young fashion designer, if the government maybe had some palliatives or supported my business in any way, maybe I would have gone a lot faster than I did. My goal was solely dependent on hard work, family and friends. I feel like a vocation training should be done, and financial support as well be put in place. For somebody that has exposure, like myself who have been to different countries and have seen government in action, I would say that it has to be something that is greatly invested in, not one off. There has to be centres built for the purpose of this for generations to come. It has to be something that is a constant development, long term investment in different aspects of fashion, not just coming up with fashion shows. It has to be something that they really invest in because there is a lot of potential. Government should invest financially in giving people grants to set up something, putting people in placement in organisations, partner with already established fashion brands, so that when people come out of whatever schools, they put them in placements. That would also solve the problem of manpower that you mentioned earlier.
What is your advice to those who would want to go into the fashion business?
Understanding the business side is key. The turning point, for me, is how to market the product. You don’t want to come into a business where you are doing what everybody is doing. You must have something unique to make it more fun. If you are thinking of going into fashion business, before you start to invest so much, buy a machine and set it up, do your market research. Come to someone like me and say you want to produce a certain amount of clothes and you want to use my factory because we have a factory. What matters is that you are doing a business. It doesn’t matter that you have to deal with the headache of owing a factory. So sometimes, you want to do business and you feel like you need so much money to do the business. But there are already people who have set up machineries that you can use and also run your own business so you can actually focus on what is actually really important, which is sales. A lot of people do thatlast but that should come first.
