Talented Nigerian fashion designer, socialite and one of the pioneers of the Nigerian fashion industry, Deola Ade Ojo, formerly and better known as Deola Sagoe, celebrated her 50th birthday on Saturday and still looks as fab as ever.
Deola has been a remarkable force in the fashion of Africa for more than 25 years now and continues to prove that she is more than just a mere fashion designer.
In 2004, Deola became the first black woman to present a collection at AltaRoma, Rome’s celebrated fashion week and has, over the years, gathered an enviable array of clientele consisting of a number of African first ladies to global personalities like Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
Earlier this year, she released her most sensational collection, the Komole Kandids, a two-series wedding-inspired collection. The first series offered an assemblage of designs for bridal wears, drawing upon the mood and romance evoked by royalty and royal weddings through the ages.
‘I imagine a Komole bride. She is independent and in charge, but still demure and gentle like the current Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton… She honors everyone that looks at her with her way and that wow Komole creation! …She is the new light in all their lives!’ she said.
The second series, released about a month after the first, switched things up a bit to feature colourful, fun pieces made specifically for wedding guests
Over 12 years of research and development are ingrained into the Komole range. The original collection was launched in 2012, the result of which is a profoundly refreshing take on aso oke and the look of the modern bride.
Deola, a mother of three, who studied Business Administration in the University of Miami, Florida, comes from a family of entrepreneurs who believe in education and business.
Her disciplinarian parents wanted her to follow in their footsteps by joining her brother in the family business and eventually taking a lead position, but Deola found her passion in fashion and pursued it with all her might.
She was appointed Nigeria’s representative to the United Nations World Food Program ‘Catwalk the World: Fashion for Food’, with the goal of raising money towards halving the number of hungry people in the world, particularly children, by 2015.
Today, at 50, Deola continues to prove she is still as passionate about what she does as the very first day and is not ready to quit.
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