HOTTEST MALE DESIGNER, MAI ATAFO REVEALS HIS SUCCESS STORY

Ohimai Atafo fondly known as MAI is one of Nigeria’s fastest rising fashion designers. His label MAI has suddenly found its way into the wardrobe of some of the fashionista in town. He designs for many celebrities at the moment. His designs can be described as contemporary and stylish with a classic hint. In this interview, he opens up to BOLA AKINBOADE on his business and what makes his label stand out.   

I think its actually my business strategy, I try to do things personal before it gets business oriented. I get to know the people and they believe I have a very nice disposition. And again, I have a few of them as friends, so it was easier for them to identify with my designs . So I guess it was just a word of mouth that went around, and as they say, if you do what you do well, people will come to you.

It would definitely be Omowunmi Akinnifesi(Ex-Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria) . I think between both of us, we are not just friends, I think that whole thing started with the Celebrity Takes 2, where I made the  costume she used  for the dance show. And after that, we now kind of agreed at a fixed cost to make clothes for her exclusively. I didn’t know how that will turned out, but it turned out really well, because like you know, you know Omowunmi has a fantastic body , lovely carriage, she can make anything look beautiful. So it was easy for me to make clothes for her, and when everybody asked what she was wearing, she said she was wearing my clothes in the early days till now. So it now became more like a signature for her. She was the one person that brought my clothing line to the forefront.

Yes definitely, while I was making things for Omowunmi, I also made things for Pasuma at the dance show. And from that point, I started making clothes for quite a number of people from Stephanine Okereke, to Mercy Johnson, Kemi Adetiba, Onyinye Igwe of Sound City, Ransome Noah,Stella Damascus, Yemi Black. And thinking of the names, the names just go on. It’s a long list and very excited to be making things for

Yeah, I do stuffs for male and female

Its simply because women are the ones extremely crazy about fashion and they are the one that make more noise about what they have that is why it looks like I make more of female things. I do make quite a lot of male stuff too.

I do not have any training at all in what I am doing, I am self taught. I learnt to sow clothes by myself as a little child. When I was growing up, I used to have a sowing machine at home which I dabble with a few times. And I kind of like got that right and it moved on to me making clothes. So am not taught in anyway. I am thinking of going to see what it is like being taught but I am scared that it may make me loose my head.

Officially, I started making clothes 4 years ago, but I have been making clothes for as long as I can remember. When I was in secondary school, I used to use bed sheet to make shirts and wear them in school. That was what now moved me to having eye in clothes. When I was studying in England, I used to help people buy clothes and put things together, that was where the styling part of me really came up. And also took a course in  styling to push that aspect of me even more. Then coming back home, I started off by just making waist coats with aso-oke and caravans for people’s wedding. It was for my close friends only, it wasn’t for sale, and it was my contribution towards the wedding. And then it was no tailor, just me sitting down to cut, sew and do everything. I thought it would be nice for me to go commercial because I started getting a lot of people saying,I’m

 getting married and I want you to do this for me. So I started with only male because I didn’t want to do female at all, I just thought it was too much palaver with the female outfit. But when I started making outfits for Omowunmi Akinnifesi,it  actually grew me into making things for female, and it just started from there.   That is how the journey has been really for me, it just started from something I just love to do, in secondary school, even in university, I did home economics, which also helped a great deal, and you know you have to make costumes every now and then. So that helped a great deal.

If I say I know, I will be lying to myself, but I just think I am not scared to venture into wherever my heart takes me, that is wherever my inspiration takes me to . I like bold bright colors,   because I like making red carpet statement. And I like making suits and really funky jackets for the guys. So I am not scared to go the extra mile to bring it out and the truth of the matter is that after I finish every dress, to me, it looks old. So when people compliment on dresses that I have made 2 years ago, 3 years ago, or like a month ago, I am shocked. So I really didn’t know but I just thank God for it.

I mean, it’s for different things, I wont say I am the King of this .if you look at different designers, you can always tell why people go for their designs, maybe because they have done it over time. Like Frank Osodi is The King of Corset and you can’t even take that from him because he is the one that does that. Zizi Cardow does amazing short dresses with the awkward long sleeves and awkward long back, so you can always tell from that.  And same goes to some other designers who have also carved a niche for themselves with their unique signature. I don’t think , I have a signature because I am kind of move with time, I am dynamic, I don’t stay in one place, so I kind of do whatever comes to me at any point in time. And I think since I am still young in the business, I don’t want to tie myself into just something in particular. I will like to open up and let people see everything I can do. And based on the feed back I get from different stuffs, I can decide that I will make this my strength and I will build up on the other ones.

Every day, it kind of like changes, but I feel comfortable doing things with chiffon, I like been inspired by the Grecian look of the past. And I use embellishments too, and what I do most of the time is, I like to create my own embellishments and make it look different from what you ordinary buy in the market. I also use a lot silk satin, taffeta. And I like to make my own fabric, I can get a plain fabric, and use trimmings, and sequins and all that to create a new pattern on the fabric, and that takes me to a different place at the end of the day. That’s for women.

For guys, I really like working with wool, for suits, and now, I work with linen and khaki for guy’s jacket. So I am open to a lot of fabric

That is the funny thing, I think I can do so many things and be known for those things, and actually make commercial sense from those things rather than going into something that I think its an area that is mass.Ankara is already mass, everyone does it, even your neighborhood tailor can actually pick up a style and do Ankara. Am not saying that I will not do Ankara, I do a few, but, I don’t necessary get over inspired by Ankara. I like to work with simple cut and flow, the Ankara fabric is already patterned, and people now still use that pattern to create layers and ruffles and all that, and I think that is a bit too complicated. I like to work with things that are simple, so Ankara is patterned already, I will just make a simple straight forward skirt, and Nigerian women don’t like that, they want things that have layers and ruffles, slit, and pleats on top of the Ankara, that kind of make me dizzy (Laughs). So that is an area that I am looking at to create something a little bit different from what you see. I am researching on it right now, have done a few designs for  some customers with Ankara and they like it, so I am looking into doing more of that , and very soon, you will start seeing some interesting things from Ankara from me. 

First of all, I like women and I like what women look like, so first of all that is my inspiration when I am making ladies outfit. To look at the body and say what can I do to bring out the best in this body and hide what she doesn’t want. So when I have that in mind and I start sketching, it comes from that. And again, it’s about how to do something different, like there is no new dress under the surface of the earth, every dress has been made before, but I still think of ways on how to make things different, by the use of 3 fabrics or using 2 or 3 cutting designs, so I tried to sketch in line too. For the guy, its interesting, my guys shirt is always like a runway success, because I don’t do the normal designs for guys, I tried to think out of the box. I like to use a lot of pattern fabrics for guys, and a lot of floral shirts for guys. And for the suit, I don’t want it to be regular, I want to make really nice funky jacket, so that is what actually move me in terms of the guys. And again, it has to fit, its all about fit. I will not make a jacket for you in a hurry, I will make sure it fits, your body, your chest, your tummy, your waist, your sleeves have to be perfect. So that is what I think of when I am designing, it’s about the body, it’s about how it fits on you, it’s about the fabric I am going to use.