Another designer for African Fashion Week Nigeria talks about the road to the runway and what inspired her fashion career.

Nigerian designer, Ihenatu Kodlinye Mike of Tikovah Clothing shares her journey into fashion and talks about how it was inspired by art as she prepares to showcase at Africa Fashion Week Nigeria 2018.

What inspired your fashion journey?

Tikovah Clothing: Growing up as a child I used to see my mom and grandma make clothes with portable sewing machines, I was always fascinated at the process of converting a plain fabric to bespoke and hot couture outfits.

Art also inspired my fashion journey; I appreciate Art so much to the extent that everything I do has to have aesthetics and creativity written over it, I was always keen to make something. I selected my clothes, picked out my shoes, styled my mom’s hair a lot- I still do (laughs), and played with her jewelries too. My mom and dad played a profound role in my journey, my mom has this big wardrobe filled clothes , jewelries and what not, so I used to play dress up too ,while my dad never failed to buy the really good and pretty stuff to help augment my fashion flair

First ever creation?
Tikovah Clothing: This brings back memories. My first ever creation was back in secondary school I made a blouse with red and white check material and hemmed the ends with red bias – I feel a lot of joy remembering this and I still love this creation. I loved every bit of that blouse that i had to make a red skirt to match it. I love prints and cuts, this inspired my handmade set. I wanted school uniforms to adopt more styles so I made my own style through those fabrics.

Any Challenges?
Tikovah Clothing: It’s Africa! Nigeria to be precise, you know the struggle and the growth in our country. We keep trying to conquer and work on some things and it has been tough for example getting good skilled manpower hasn’t easy and even when found its more expensive and increases cost of production.

Tell us about the collection you intend to showcase on AFWN runway
Tikovah Clothing:  The collection that I will be showcasing at the African Fashion week Nigeria is inspired by EVOLUTION , this is seen in the designs, how we are able to own our designs and styles, have beautiful variation of them. This shows that we have a continuous driving force to evolve to a better version of ourselves. Like the brand slogan says “the code to style” we cannot keep styling if we do not have new ideas and style; this is achieved through profiling and particular selection of good textured fabrics.