By Vivian Onyebukwa
The duo of Jevbe Obiomah Utho, fashion designer and Creative Director, Finicky Stitches, and Nifty Agodo, an artist, had an exhibition titled “Adorn,” at the freedom Park Art Gallery, located in Lagos Island.
The exhibition was a mix between contemporary art and avant-garde fashion, where they both showcased contemporary fashion and arts.
In her three-decade journey as a designer, Jevbe Obiomah Utho disclosed that the exhibition was her first time of collaborating with her niece, Agodo, in showcasing works of art.
Apart from being inspired by beautiful things with perfect finishing, Utho also likes working with women. “My inspiration has always been the woman. I feel women go through a lot, so my inspiration is, let her look comfortable, stand out, look like I have arrived, despite what she goes through. I feel women have been marginalised and I like to bring out the femininity in them, make them stand out, look good and have confidence.”
Her collection during the exhibition was basically her ready-to-wear collection, even though she does bespoke wear most times, which according to her, she has done for many years. She expressed her readiness to go fully into ready to wear business, because that is how to grow as a designer.
“When you look at my collection, you will see all the sizes. I have been in this business for several years and I have taken time to study Nigerian and African sizes,” she said.
Going down the memory lane, Utho, who hails from Warri, Delta State, recalled many years back when other designers would advise her against putting made in Nigeria label on her clothes, but she would refuse. “I would tell them that I’ m a proudly Nigerian designer”.
She expressed optimism that Nigerian designers would eventually be accepted the world over. “It may not be in my time, but we would have led a good foundation for the people coming behind us. I believe we have to start somewhere. When we started, it was tailors that were in vogue, but now look at it. In the last 20 to 25 years, look at how the fashion industry has blossomed to a certain level. We are now going to another level. In another 20 to 25 years, we are going to have fashion warehouses. Now people have factories. People are becoming ready. We don’t hope to sell only in Nigeria, we hope to be able to market our African fashion abroad. Some people are already doing that and it is working.”
Utho strongly believes that there is connection between fashion and arts. She said, “Arts talk about lines, colour, creativity. It is the same thing with fashion. Fashion is also an art because, for you to be able to produce a dress, you have to sketch it, put collar, put something to bring it out, and so on. They are intertwined. Same creativity, same craziness runs through artists and fashion designers.”
She decried the high cost of things in Nigeria, which she said has also affected fashion business, especially ready-to-wear clothes. “Everything in Nigeria is expensive. For instance, we don’t have electricity. Personally, I don’t factor in electricity in most of our daily productions. How do we cope with the high cost of petrol? It is very unfortunate, and we keep trying to work on it. That makes Nigerian product so expensive. The Nigerian tailors are quite expensive, but I think it will get better as more factories open up where you can take your things to, have them made at reasonable price, and then sell them. In another five to 10 years, more factories will open and prices will come down,” she assured.
Utho has been in fashion for over 38 years. Her parents, she recalled, did not give their consent to her being a fashion designer after graduating from the university as a sociologist. She was adamant as a result of her passion for fashion. “Seeing my customer satisfied, makes me happy,” she said.
On the other part, creativity is a word to describe Enifo Agodo, the artist who collaborated with Utho to showcase contemporary works of arts and fashion.
Agodo, also from Delta state, is a niece to Utho. From the look of things, it is like the work of arts and creativity runs in their family. Explaining how she became an artist, she said: “I can’t really say how long I have been into arts. My family is arts inclined. I have two uncles from my mothers’ side who are into arts, and also Uncle Ejiro from my father’s house is an artist. So I grew up in his house and he is the one who taught me expression, colours and how to draw. I started quite early”.
Surprisingly, she ended up not studying arts in the higher institution, but opted for Media Communication. She, however, minored in arts.
Some of her works reflect life experiences. They depict pain and anguish which people go through in Nigeria. Others reflect domestic violence, mental and health.
The painting portraying tribal marks shows the ideology behind different tribal marks for different people, and the return of tribal marks.
Explaining her inspiration for the exhibition and subsequent collaboration with Finicky Stitches, Agodo recalled how the idea came while she was discussing with her family about the concept of adornment and what it means. “During the discussion, one of our friends said that adornment is not as rigid as the definition of the word, it has more meaning more than the effect. I didn’t believe that was true. So I decided to find out what other people thought, and I had a lot of different answers that really opened my eyes. Some people said it was about their wear, some said it was about their family, while others said it was about the struggle, feeling and who they are as a person now. I said it was a profound thing that they said. So Finicky and I decided to, based on the conversation, create a body of work that kind of emasculated that.”
On how far she intended to go after the exhibition, she replied: “I m looking at going global after this.”