On the Nigerian fashion scene, there is no doubt that the Desirée Iyama brand is making waves, with people becoming die-hard fans and taking inspiration from it.
In this week’s #MCNWorkLife, I had the pleasure of speaking to the designer herself, Desirée Iyama, to learn all about her journey, belief in sustainable fashion as the key to longevity, and how she stays adaptable in the ever-chaotic world of Nigerian fashion.
If you had to describe yourself, who would you say you are?
I am a multipotentialite, meaning that I am a woman with multiple potentials, and it’s not all the potentials that have been actualised. I am also a doer, not a thinker. As an idea comes to me, I could literally be executing it tomorrow. I am Desirée Iyama.
What was your childhood dream job, and how does that translate to your current role?
I have always known that fashion was my thing. There were even times I tried to run away from it. But it has always been fashion.
If it was anything else, it would be architecture or interior design, but still around design. I was interested in architecture because I liked the idea of creating buildings, but when I saw the work that it takes to get the certificates, I just said, “I’m not doing this.” So I shifted my effort into fashion design.
I grew up watching my mother make clothes. My mum and grandma were both fashion designers. It’s almost like an heirloom or a bloodline tradition. In secondary school, I was making clothes for friends for their fashion shows and inter-house sports. While studying sociology in university (sometime around 2013), I was also making Oleku with different types of satin and cotton, and it was selling. Even then, I still hadn’t made up my mind that I wanted to do this fully.
But I had a whole community of people—my uncle, brothers, friends—encouraging me to be a fashion designer. Long story short, I launched the Desirée Iyama brand in 2016.
What were your expectations when you launched?
It was just about my art and being a designer. I didn’t know what my vision was beyond going into the field because I was a skilled designer. That was a mistake, but it was also a good lesson. I learnt that you don’t just go into a field because you are good at it; you have to plan. That was the tricky part for me because, like I said earlier, I am more of a spontaneous doer than a thinker.
I didn’t pop up to launch. I just had products people bought. I made leather goods, so I had bags as well. These skills naturally come to me. I was skilled but not entirely knowledgeable. I was just making and selling my products for the first two years before I decided I needed to acquire more knowledge if I wanted to upscale. This was when I went for my master’s in fashion business, a far cry away from the sociology I studied for my first degree.
I had to take a break from running the business and got retail work experience for a short while at a general luxury store in the UK, where I learnt a lot about customer behaviour. I had the opportunity to start my own business in the UK after the master’s programme, but I decided to invest the knowledge into the Nigerian fashion industry instead.
I moved back and officially re-launched in July 2020. It became a different identity from what it was in 2016.
How?
I thought I had to be at the Lagos Fashion Week with my designs. By 2020, when I was restarting my brand, I started nurturing my relationship with God, and with that relationship came instructions from the Holy Spirit saying I had no business on the runway. That was the exact statement. It’s funny because I was really making a collection and thinking I would be on the Fashion Week runway that year. I even bought tons of fabric for this purpose (and I still use it).
I started restructuring for about a year. My designs changed. We had our pop-ups; we sold online; everything was good. I started positioning myself as a sustainable brand.
Sometime in 2021, I saw an application for Green Access, which was under Lagos Fashion Week, on Instagram. I didn’t think anything of it because I already had an instruction that I had no business around the runway. I woke up two days later, and the first thing I heard was, “I told you to apply for something; you didn’t listen.”
I ran it by my friend. He advised me to apply first, as one never knows what the Holy Spirit is trying to say.
The application had some interesting questions, but I did not use my brain to answer any of them; I just went to the books and my brand presentation from my master’s, copied and pasted. I passed the application and got on the runway, which was a realisation for me that it was not a “never” from the Holy Spirit but a “not for now”.
Since 2021, I’ve reached so many more landmarks than I’ve even imagined. I plan financial targets that we’ve surpassed. There’s that satisfaction alone of seeing random people wearing my brand.
Can you share more about sustainability and how you’re using it to promote your brand?
When we started, our approach to sustainability was to have minimum waste by creating new products from the waste instead.
When I buy fabric, I ask questions. What’s this fabric? I research to find what the fabrics are called. Fabrics are threads, and threads have origins. I also learnt in my master’s how to test various fabrics for sustainability.
The brand was a lot more limited than it is now. You could only see maybe five pieces of a particular dress. We never mass produced, except on a retail order. Our supply chain has changed now, but we still maintain the sustainability approach by repurposing byproducts from clothes we have already made.
For instance, if we have three to four yards remaining from sewing ten dresses in Meraki style, and it wasn’t enough to make another dress in the same style, we can use that to make scrunchies, kids’ wear, or a mini skirt. During COVID, we did face masks. I could even make it into a teddy bear for my niece. Things like that.
It is also important to note that fabrics are not sustainable in themselves. It is the design process that can be sustainable. Sustainability means longevity, making a product you can pass down to your daughters. We also deal a lot with variations. We can have two dresses but in various styles. Our bestsellers can last for at least two to three years, and don’t go out of season. We can have collections of 15 to 25 looks, but some looks tend to kick off later in the market than others, and we study the trends to make sure that we make these variations when the market is ready.
We recently moved from a made-to-order to ready-to-wear model. We also watch our CO2 emissions more and things like that. However, the brand has grown, and we’ve needed to amp up our supply to match the demand.
Walk me through your creative process and how you balance creativity with market demands
I am inspired daily by my environment. I could be inspired by flowers or water. I could then do my research and draw a dress that looks like the said object. Even if I didn’t use the exact shapes, the colour would be inspired by the object.
To balance my creativity with market demands, I go to my team, and sometimes, friends to gauge their opinions. They advise me to tweak a few things; the design process is generally very collaborative. The limitation however, is that I have a very good brand recall, meaning that if I have seen something that I have seen before, I instantly remember. I am very careful not to recreate something that someone else has made. If I feel a design is familiar, I always make sure to check that it hasn’t been made before. Once it’s not, I proceed.
What inspired the Meraki bestseller?
Actually, it was the Makarios before the Meraki and the Olivia before that. In 2020, we launched the Olivia, and it had amazing silhouettes with a lot of cotton, taffeta and other fabrics.
In 2021, after our first runway show, we brought out the Olivia in damask. When we were working on our Spring 2023 collection for our Lagos Fashion Week runway in 2022, we didn’t have our opening look for a while. I didn’t even have the dress come to life (as it was only on a mannequin) until we had the fashion week fittings, and I saw how beautiful it was. That was the “Sage Makarios” dress.
Weeks after, it was the GT Fashion Week showcase, and I wanted to do a bridal collection. We brought out new styles (including the Makarios dress) in white and champagne gold. The night before, we were looking for one more look when I randomly saw the Olympics logo. I reiterated the logo on the dress in the studio, and that’s how the Meraki dress came!
Do you incorporate any Nigerian elements into your fashion designs?
I think of various factors. It could be the silhouette of Yoruba women, as they like a lot of body-hugging clothes. Or more puffy and dramatic sleeves with more volume, as in the case of Delta women. I adopt our African silhouettes. Western clothes are freer for everyone to wear, but here in Africa, we pay more attention to womanly shapes. There is a certain hour-glass shape you would have just from wearing our dresses. How African women want to feel when they wear clothes is considered in our products.
I don’t use ankara because it isn’t really Nigeria; it originated in Switzerland. There is the adire culture, which is peculiar to the Osun people, but Indians also do tie-and-dye. So I don’t use “Nigerian” fabrics. What I do use that is grown in Nigeria and people do not realise is cotton. Cotton is a natural fibre grown here.
What challenges do you face when achieving the perfect fit for people?
Unlike when we were made-to-order, where you would have to provide your measurements and we can custom-make to your precise size, sizing can be a challenge. With our ready-to-wear dresses, we ensure people of different sizes can still wear the dress, with enough allowance added. There needs to be that consideration that people gain and lose weight simultaneously.
What is it like navigating the Nigerian fashion industry as a woman?
I am in a female-dominated industry, so I don’t think the challenges a lot of women face in other industries apply to us.
However, something that could be considered a challenge is that people don’t consider fashion design to be a full-time job. Parents still think making a career out of sewing clothes is a waste of time. Also, people step on each other to get to the top. Some designers ask for favours but really are trying to corner you. We essentially have the same suppliers and methods, but the morals differ. Some people do not have those values of not mimicking designs. Since it is a female-dominated industry, the women are doing it to other women.
In terms of Nigeria, we do not have an industry but an ecosystem. We don’t have a central body for fashion. There was one ages ago, but that has dissolved. In other countries, you find that international fashion weeks are controlled by a government body. For instance, the London Fashion Week is done by the British Fashion Council. In Nigeria, what we have is fashion weeks by different organisations. Because of the lack of unity, it is hard to call everybody to order. I have a group of fashion designer friends for accountability, but it would be better if we had a governmental body. It will not take one successful brand for the industry to be classified as a success.
Would you say you experience other challenges as a CEO in Nigeria?
Yes, I do. There are operational costs—the exchange rate, cost of fuel—that keep increasing, but we have to adapt and adjust accordingly. It’s a stumbling block, but we have to conquer it, if not we won’t thrive in business. We plan for the rainy days. For instance, if you buy fuel for two weeks and during that time, the fuel price increases, it won’t hit you as much.
What has the Desirée Iyama brand achieved so far?
We have reached 1,000 orders since 2020, as we embraced the practice of “slow fashion.” This year, we launched a retail store in Lagos, which wasn’t our original plan. We had been doing pop-ups until we realised many customers wanted to buy in the store. We opened a store and did an anniversary sale in July. We had a financial target and surpassed it in millions. Now, we are trying to get a staff office and have gotten some press attention. Everything is just growing pretty rapidly. The customer retention, feedback from customers and the press have been super positive so far.
We recently noticed your “Inspired by HER” social series. What inspired that and how successful has it been so far?
We are going back to speaking about faith. By the end of December 2023, I was trying to figure out how to solve our procrastination problem when the idea from God came—to do something monthly and ensure we do it no matter how much money it takes. As a woman, we have periods, times, and seasons, but you have something you must do no matter what. I made a promise to myself that for 12 months in 2024, I will do this for the brand, but it was more of a promise that played into a marketing strategy for the year.
The idea was to share the stories of various African women in various fields, dressed in Desirée Iyama. We don’t even ask how people feel about wearing the brand because they already wear it. It is 100% about them and their journeys. It has been quite successful, and even when I don’t want to put funds into it for a month, I have the nudge to continue. We were able to relate to people more, and it even helps as a styling guide for people to see how they can look in various sizes and complexions and shapes.
View this post on Instagram
As a creative director and CEO of a fashion brand, how do you manage the demands of running a business while ensuring your personal well-being?
I take breaks, a lot of them, so that I don’t mentally check out. I need to charge like a battery so that I can focus and work. For me, it could mean not going out for a month. But just take those breaks.
If you had to mention just three personal tips for work-life balance, what would they be?
Embrace flexibility, as there is no one way to achieve anything. Celebrate milestones. Every milestone matters. For instance, I decided to celebrate my half-birthday and people thought I was wild for that thought, but I believe in enjoying life and celebrating either way. Also, give yourself the chance to disconnect from the world and connect again when need be.
What hobbies do you engage in?
Travelling. I like to hop out of Nigeria and get away from the country’s present realities.
A lot of my hobbies, if not all, are also applied in the business. Sometimes, it is wearing clothes and styling and content creation—I like to create stuff. I also like finding interesting recipes and trying them out. I am practising how to swim. I love playing with my niece too.
Your advice to aspiring fashion designers?
Don’t want to become me or someone else. You are you, and that’s your power. You start to miss the mark when you use someone else as a yardstick. You can see a designer you admire, but it shouldn’t be your main focus. Stay true to your vision and values.
Develop a strong work ethic, be willing to learn, and surround yourself with positive mentors so you don’t feel that problems are peculiar to you. Don’t dwell in your mistakes. TAKE BREAKS—here are times when I stay at home for a week or month. Beyond that, create something we can be inspired by, and don’t copy. Please.
