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GREY, a label for the curious, bold and the fashion forward individual. The duo team, Rukky Ladoja and Obida Obioha, describe their unisex clothing brand as the place "where culture and design meet functionality."
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Despite the still growing fashion industry in Africa, specifically Lagos, Nigerian these two have been able to fill a gap in the market - Creating a brand for a woman who is ambitious and a risker, without being an imposing figure.
While the GREY man is described as having a quirk factor to his character, he is definitely not one who follows trends, he takes the current trend, re-imagines it and creates an entirely new look that will suit his lifestyle.
While Rukky is very much a woman who is capable of anything in her own right, the two go together like Italians and pasta - they are both there to support each other and bounce ideas off one another, as well as take their brand to greater heights.
During my chat with the creative minds behind GREY, I could definitely see the creative spark in their work relationship - with Obida [Obi] being the business oriented individual and Rukky being the creative flare of the brand, they create a perfect balance for the brand.
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READ ON and find out who they are inspired by in the industry and why, what do they think of the structure the African creative industry is based on and is the African fashion industry really just a fad?!!
What is GREY?
Obi: We offer stylish well-made clothing at accessible prices. We design and make all our clothes, literally al designed here.
We are called GREY but are very colourful, we like to think of ourselves as your ‘go-to’, the stuff you wear to get around and to live your life in, that is very important to us. From going to work, picking your kids up, it’s a work to cocktail look. I mean, we do some fancy pieces as well, but that is not our main focus, we are more focused on the day-to-day lifestyle.
I must say though, what we call day-to-day lifestyle is quite bold and daring but it is for a someone who is not scared to make a statement as well.
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Rukky: Our slogan, I guess not a slogan, more of our mission statement is “Where culture and design meets functionality”. So, what we are trying to do is, little fragments of African culture but mainly accessible. You are not wearing it as a costume, you’re wearing it as ‘this just happens to be a pencil skirt by a Nigerian designer but with little details.
So basically, it’s that idea of adding those bits and pieces into your wardrobe that give you more of an identity and makes you feel more individual.
At the same time, we like to think of it as a brand for women in transition. So, either you are transitioning from one stage I your life to the next, i.e. a student moving onto a working woman, whatever it is, it is your wardrobe guide, it helps you do that without the hassle.
The transition term also applies to the transition from work to play. These are the things that guide what we do, and of course, because we are both Nigerian, the is a factor that is woven into what we design
when we first started, there was either high-end fashion or the tailors. There was no in-between, nothing to bridge that wide gap.
How would you describe the GREY customer and/or ambassador?
Rukky: I think the first thing I always think when it comes to the womenswear is that she’s curious. She travels or wants to travel, quite ambitious in whatever her mind is set to do.
Another quality is that she appreciates beauty in all the little details and wants her clothes to reflect that as well. She is a conversation starter, without being too imposing.
Obi: Yeah, I agree. I think he is also very independent, does not follow the pack so much and that is one of the things that appeals to a lot of our clients. There is a quirkiness factor in our design, a detail you would not see anywhere else. There is also a vibrant character, she is attracted to our clothes because of the character it has.
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According to your site, GREY is not couture, high fashion or high street. Where does your brand sit in the market?
Rukky: The most important thing is that we are creating our space in the market because the Nigerian fashion industry is still so niche and so new.
I mean, when we first started, we started with high street, and so we found that I added way too much time and energy putting work into our designs that it could no longer be considered as high street and of course, the prices drew it further away from the high-street label. I guess we would label ourselves as more contemporary, if we had to define it in a more international term.
In Nigeria, we are still in that transitional space because most Nigerian designers design their own prints, which are quite expensive. Most designers that deal with ready-to-wear and high street are really cheap and they don’t design so much – so we are still in that space where we do that design work at the top but we still make it as accessible as possible. I’m not going to say we are the cheapest brand but you will understand the numbers behind our prices.
So, I would say contemporary and transitional.
As an African design label, specifically Nigerian. Would you say the African fashion industry is being taken seriously enough? And why?
Obi: I think we are still niche, in the same way you would say the Australian fashion industry is somewhat niche or all those other off calendar fashion weeks.
I also think, traditionally, the industry of fashion has come from some noted cities. i.e. France. Think about Zara, as big as they are, they don’t have a Spanish fashion week that you can consider.
Another thing to consider is the fact that African fashion is considered as a ‘fad’ or it’s just something in the moment or are we actually being taken seriously?
For us, one of the reasons we don’t do African prints with the Ankara, we don’t want to become a gimmick. We want our clients to be able to keep going on with their lives, running errands, attending cocktail parties…etc. We are functional first.
That is how we have always been, we don’t push our label as an African brand, we are a brand that is based in Africa but not an African brand, that’s how we feel about it.
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Rukky: In terms of structure, I can see the industry still has a very long way to go.
International audiences might think we are a fad. We don’t have any structure; we are developing our structure on our own and that is such a tough thing because locally people are still not taking fashion or the business of fashion as seriously as we should.
There is some government support creeping up now but it is slow and it’s tedious. Of course, we don’t have any structure to start with, we decide to define the structure ourselves and say we can do high-street having no idea what that entailed, we just thought, let’s do some research and let us take up this part of the market.
So, structurally, we are still struggling but production-wise, it is hard for us to stick to any international production cycles and I think we shouldn’t try to. Personally, I think we need to do this at our own pace and stop trying to do things the way the international markets would. At some point, we will catch up or they will catch up to us.
So, for now, I think it is understandable that they are taking us as a fad, we’ll get there.
