Tolulope Olafimihan: African Fashion Brands Need to Adapt to Global Market Demands

Tolulope Olafimihan, the CEO of GNATION Company and Creative Director of GNATION NIGERIA, has spent over 15 years building a thriving fashion brand that specializes in contemporary menswear. Born and raised in Kaduna, Tolu’s love for art and design led him from studying architecture at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, to pursuing a fashion course at Central Saint Martins in London. His journey from creating budget-friendly pieces as a young lad to styling private individuals and corporate clients around the world highlights his versatility, working across industries like entertainment, events, and even faith-based institutions. He tells Vanessa Obioha about his journey so far, sustainable practices in fashion and how African fashion brands can be a reckoning force globally

In what ways did growing up in Kaduna contribute to your love for fashion and design?

Kaduna was such a wholesome town and growing up, though it was the heart of Northern Nigeria, it had such cultural diversity that was so tangible where parents had friends that cut across Muslim, Christian, ethnic tribes of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, expatriates and foreigners. We celebrated with everyone, we watched their movies and shows, saw the fashion and even learnt the languages. To say I can pinpoint this exposure at an early age would definitely be something to consider. I grew up in the days when kids played outside with other kids on the same street, escaped into worlds through books, magazines and print media, where the TV was on at 4 pm and off by 9 pm for network news, where we visited other people in their homes almost every other Sunday, played on trees with water hoses, and back when we looked forward to “Christmas cloth” (hold the ‘H’ in cloth and end the word at ‘T’). Even choosing Christmas cloth was a whole event, based on the choices offered by tailors from a freehand sketch fashion sewing magazine. If you were really posh, a foreign sewing magazine complete with sewing patterns and Caucasian models would be available to choose your style. Everyone had a mum or aunt who seemed to run a tailor’s shop back then, including my mum. These were moments that definitely shaped my foray into fashion.

Are there challenges peculiar to fashion designers in the north?

The challenges of fashion designers are not limited to a geographical location, especially in 2024. I believe all fashion designers nationwide experience the same things, from needing to generate their own power supply, learning to market their design, brand and products, and dealing with diverse clientele exhibiting diverse personalities and still learning to give good customer service, amongst other challenges.
Personally, I don’t even think the government is an impediment any longer – because the problems of government support persist in all industries. However, exposure of fashion designers in the north has drastically changed since the early 2000s till date and though things like publicity, exposure, acceptance, etc., used to be the problem, the narrative has changed.

The creativity and tenacity of fashion designers in the north have shone through enormous efforts to learn about the skills required in the industry, understand the market, break barriers that seemed to hold them, improve and innovate in design, think more globally not locally and most especially leveraging on the digital age to bridge the gap.
The only challenge, I believe, for any fashion designer in Kaduna, Abuja, Lagos or London in 2024 is not being able to build a brand or business properly, not being able to identify his niche or customer base, and not being able to sell to meet the fashion needs of the market.

What’s the inspiration behind your brand name?

GNATION was born from the idea of building a brand that cuts across generations. I was in university at the time studying Architecture and immersing myself into the essence of design, learning about the great people in their various design elements and also learning about the legacy of design houses. I daydreamed about t-shirts and graphic design and made sketches of what I would like to wear – things I couldn’t afford at the time. Doodles were very prevalent in all my sketch pads and the term ‘generation’ played into my mind and literally took on a life of its own and was coined into GNATION. As soon as that happened, a number of graphic t-shirt designs were sketched later; GNATION stuck and never left. We started as an urban fashion t-shirt design company doing graphics for t-shirts that were pro-Naija, t-shirt concepts inspired by street-style American brands like ECKO Unlimited, FUBU, etc. We have matured with the brand over the years and now cater to a more menswear-tailored lifestyle design brand with product lines of kaftans, agbada, suits, casuals and corporate/semi-corporate clothing. We still design and produce t-shirts and create graphic prints in urban fashion products for private and corporate clients as wardrobes. Design remains our core.

How involved are you in the creative process?

The creative process starts with me as the Creative Director. I steer the creative ship for our team to meet style goals and create our own trend that aligns with our design ethos. Our team share ideas together to provide the best for our customers and we work out ways to express further creativity on our products with experimentation and selling some of these to our clients who either love or hate it – as sometimes evidenced in the sales numbers for the design. However, we also love to collaborate with other creatives in expressing ideas which really helps us to grow and learn new ways of doing some things.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your work?

Customer satisfaction and longevity of our design and products. It gives us so much joy when a customer either meets us or contacts us to say an item purchased years ago is still making waves in the present day. It makes all the effort worth it.

What are some of the positive changes you have seen in your industry so far?

Collaboration is a big positive change. Fashion designers are partnering for work, they are celebrating each other’s success and sharing ideas and trading stories together. Designers supporting designers in public as much as in private is a huge change for good.

African fashion is gradually attracting global appeal, in your estimation, what are the necessary steps needed to make it a dominant force to reckon with?

Aren’t we dominating already? In recent times we have had industry uproars from some foreign designers copying or using ideas from African fashion brands. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, kudos to the ones who have been copied. However, admittedly, we still have a long way to go. Every African fashion brand needs to understand the demands of the global market. The game of numbers in resources, raw materials, sales and most importantly the supply chain. We need to be able to produce at a global standard on time and with excellent standards of quality. The UK, US or European market is not the Nigerian market where our output is plagued by challenges of skill, work ethic and power failure.

Sustainability is a common buzzword in the fashion industry. What’s your perspective on it, and how do you think one can effectively incorporate sustainable practices in fashion?

Within our fashion space, effective practice of sustainable fashion begins with promoting best practices in the skill of tailoring garments. A designer and producer of garments must find how best to reduce waste within their space. As fashion is responsible for a lot of waste of textiles, it begins simply with asking questions such as how do we cut patterns that reduce waste in garment production? What digital tools can we invest and engage in to manage this waste? How can we best educate ourselves with information already available about sustainability? We must also intentionally educate both producers and consumers of fashion about pressing environmental and social issues directly linked to fashion waste. Supporting traditional techniques of creating and supporting local artisans can help in promoting ethical practices which directly promote sustainability. We can also create links within our supply chain that can help manage some of these processes. A collaborative effort is required for sustainability.

What are some of the most intriguing comments you’ve ever received about your work?

Over the years, we’ve received numerous comments of appreciation and kind support of our brand in delivering our services and fashion products. I think some of the more intriguing comments have come from our clients in diaspora and foreign clients. Statements like “Wow! I didn’t know you could deliver so quickly”, “How did you get my perfect size with only a picture?” or “When I first ordered online, I was afraid I would fall into the popular meme of what I ordered vs what I got. Thank you for not disappointing me.” This type of positive feedback has helped us to grow and push on despite the challenges we have faced in our journey. The GNATION team has put a lot of hard work and literally years into fine-tuning the engine that runs the brand. We have learnt from our mistakes and work toward excellence constantly.

What are your future plans?

We are leveraging every available tool to broaden our market with digital tools and solidify our online presence. The whole world is online, we aim to be at the forefront of that space. We honestly aren’t looking to be the proverbial no.1, but we aim to be the first name you see when that customer in France, Italy, London or Texas clicks or searches African/Nigerian fashion. Our business has thrived immensely on referrals and continues to do so. Our future is online with the global markets. Our new website is coming up within the next month; our Instagram and Facebook pages are popping up, and we are working to establish a presence in the UK or the US soon.