Getting to clothe the First Lady of the United States of America is a big deal. It is an achievement a young women's wear label like Maki Oh, of which the Nigerian Amaka Osakwe is Creative Director, can be proud of.
Not many young upstarts like hers are able to get such high profile personalities to wear their designs. So, landing the opportunity to clothe Mrs Obama (FLOTUS if you would) on her African tour months ago, was a big dream come true.
The post event worldwide media attention she’s amassed from Mrs Obama wearing of a piece from her Spring/Summer 2013 Collection, to a seminar in Johannesburg on June 29, has handed her the kind of publicity money can’t buy.
Mrs Obama gracefully wore a hand-printed chiffon Maki Oh blouse, showing off what the young African designer is made of. The life of her label hasn’t been the same after that windfall. It is her biggest big-name endorsement yet since Maki Oh was founded in 2010.
Prior to the FLOTUS day, she had caught the attention of other well-known celebrities including former Destiny Child’s member Solange Knowles, who in 2012 wore a high slit Maki Oh-made skirt to a store opening party in New York.
Osakwe’s passion for what she does has shaped the way the Maki Oh brand is positioned. It is a definitive example of a what you see, is what you get brand, where each detail is presented in the most fashionable way, possible to rake in as many users who appreciate the finer things of couture and culture.
The Maki Oh brand Osakwe has said “travels beyond beauty to unite emotions, intuition, sexuality and fashion.”
Add that definition to include the earthy tones her various collections evoke, as well as the luxury feel it has maintained from Everything in Proportion in 2010 to The Maki Oh Fall (2013), and have an attractive brand for fashionistas.
Central to the Maki Oh brand, is the vast appreciation of motifs and embellishments from other cultures dotted in, around, and outside Nigeria.
Everything in Proportion was loved largely due to it’s embrace of other themes other than Nigerian; it fed into the Dipo Puberty rights ceremony in Eastern Ghana, in what she described as “a journey of self discovery through a systematic cloaking and adornment of womanhood.”
Osakwe’s deep appreciation of traditional values and elements that best define her brand has been applauded, and noted as that one distinct selling proposition responsible for the brand’s fast growth.
Maki Oh’s motifs, sometimes sewn in silk organza and velvets, and other times in linen and lace, make for easy wearing.
Osakwe, a Arts University College, BA (Hons) Fashion Studies graduate has within the past three years showcased at almost all the big fashion shows in and outside the continent, putting herself up as that next big thing. She did the New York Fashion Week last year after winning Designer of the Year at the ARISE Fashion Week.
Her push for international clientele has seen the brand taking off worldwide as well as in her native Nigeria.
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