A Fabric Dictates The Designs It Gets.

Watching her with fabrics, then instructing tailors on what to do and attending to customers sum up her personality – Temilola Akintayo lovers her fashion and design work.

She also runs a fashion school and is ever willing to teach students. “I spent less than a year in learning how to sew,” she says as she works on a fabric.
The Fashion House, De-Image Creation, has existed for almost a decade. “I started by sewing suits but gradually, women started buying suits instead. Then I went for indigenous haute couture and my customers embraced that.”

Temilola, who has sewn for many pageant contestants and also featured in the last Nigeria Fashion Week, is no a ‘magazine tailor.’ Wondering what makes a good designer? She was ready to answer that; “Finishing. A good tailor/designer must have neat seams, neat hemming and stitches. No matter how good the design is, if your job is rough and unkempt, you are scored low. The ironing has to be good too. A badly ironed dress is equal to bad design.”

“Moreover, no good designer/tailor would lack the know-how on colour match and think that he/she is good. Know your colour match, know your fabric-match and don’t ever assume certain colours would go well on certain fabrics.”
Of course, she would tell you that a fashion designer is very different from a tailor. “A designer knows how to cut and also play on fabric patterns, even if she cannot sew,” she explained. Fortunately, I can sew and I do all my cuttings.

“Oftentimes, my inspiration comes from when I am cutting because fabrics talk and I understand their language.”

What are the fabrics she loves to work with? “All sorts- Ankara, lace, Georges and French fabrics. What I have observed in fashion is that the fabric dictates the designs it gets. Though ankaras are very handy and any creative tailor can play around with the designs, lace are good for deigns too.”