By Grace Soladoye
Olori Ronke Ademiluyi Ogunwusi is the wife of His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, and the founder of Africa Fashion Week London/Nigeria. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Adire Oduduwa Textile Training and Production Hub in Ile-Ife, Osun State. This is our 14th edition in London and our 10th in Nigeria. It’s all about promoting the creative talents out of Africa. Prior to us starting Africa Fashion Week London in 2011, there wasn’t a platform that showcased the greatness of our creatives in Africa. If you look at the work that they do; the artisans, the designers, the creatives, if you see the wonderful things they do, there must be a platform that showcases them. For creativity to grow, there must be a platform that showcases and promotes its growth. If you create something and leave it in your house without exposing it to the world, it’s not going to grow. Nobody’s going to know about it. At some point, you’re going to get so frustrated because when you create something, you’re driven by passion, but to enable it to become sustainable, to enable it to outlive you, one must commercialise it. Even if you have billions somewhere, if one keeps taking from it, some day it will finish.That was why we created Africa Fashion Week London and Nigeria, so that our creatives, our African designers would be able to have a platform to thrive that they call their own. So, that’s what we’ve been doing for the past 14 years, both in London and Nigeria. We know that Nigeria is the fashion hub of Africa, especially Lagos. So, any fashion that comes out of Nigeria or Lagos, the world, starting from African continent, tends to grab it – Olori Aderonke