His Imperial Majesty The Ooni of Ife will launch the Ojaja Fashion Institute, an initiative of Oduduwa Foundation at the 2018 Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN 2018) event on the 16th of September.
According to the CEO of the House of Oduduwa Foundation, Prince Jide Fadairo, “The establishment of Ife based Ojaja Fashion Institute is a landmark and unprecedented development for young people in rural environments”.
The primary focus is to develop the fashion clothing making skills of these young people to not only develop a new skill-set for themselves but also to enable them to cater for their collective community in terms of manufacturing for event-based occurrences such as the numerous cultural festivals, weddings, funerals and corporate events prevalent in their society. The bigger picture and vision of this initiative is to eventually develop the group into commercialized manufacturing both for fashion demand but also state and federal requirements for uniforms and so on.
A career in fashion designing begins the process where the Ojaja Fashion Institute trainees may develop into the higher stages of the fashion industry. These fashion designing students could take up positions as fashion designers, fashion coordinators, stylists, merchandisers, textile analysts, pattern maker, production managers, production managers, store managers and fashion illustrated and if interested they could also become fashion journalists.
In attendance at AFWN2018 for the launch are other dignitaries like Senator Florence Ita Giwa, Her Excellency First Lady of Ogun State Olufunsho Amosun, First Lady Elect Ekiti State Bisi-Adeleye Fayemi, Oba Francis Alao & his Olori, Hajia Abah Folawiyo, Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, Ovation Chief Dele Momodu and more.
The 2018 AFWN holds this Saturday and Sunday on the 15th – 16th September 2018. It’s a 2-Day Exhibition featuring 3 Catwalk Shows and a Business of Fashion forum.
Saturday
The business of Fashion Forum: 1 pm
Catwalk Shows: 3pm & 6pm
Exhibition (Door Opens at 11 am) – FREE ENTRY
Sunday
Gala Show: 5 pm