Abike Domina, turning passion into business empire

The business of celebrity styling is becoming more popular, as the entertainment industry is growing. It is even a plus when you are a fashion designer like Abike Domina. The celebrity stylist took advantage of her love for fashion to go into the glamorous industry fulltime. Today, the Abyyke Domina brand, which she created, is soaring higher and faster than she imagined. She speaks with FLORENCE UTOR about the business of beautifying people, its gains and pains.

The University of Lagos graduate, says, “the business of designing and styling people began when I was still in school. I used to buy and sell clothes, and each time I travelled, I would buy fabrics and make dresses for myself. At the end of the day, people will ask me, where I bought them, some even bought them off me not minding that I had worn these clothes. At this point, I thought that since I knew the type of clothes that appealed to people, maybe I should just turn it into a business and so, the Abyyke Domina brand started.”

According to the graduate of economics, who won the Miss Sophisticated title while at school, “fashion is something I have always wanted to do. I did not begin this fashion business, because I did not get a job after graduating. No, I was already working with Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), I have had the experience of 9-5 job, but there was really no satisfaction, and at the end of the day, I just had to resign and moved on to my passion fulltime.”

Her list of clients is endless, but she mentions Toke Makinwa, Annie Idibia and Adunni Ade as some of her celebrity clients. “I have even worked with international brands such as Angela Simmons from America and many others,” she quips.

On why she relocated to Lagos from the UK to start her business fully, Domina says, “I chose to stay here, because Lagos is a fertile ground. There is nowhere in the world that Lagos is not recognised. It is preferable that I build my brand, where I know and understand the environment well, rather than where this sort of business began long time ago and the people involved are falling over each other with stiff competition.”

She continued, “going there, and thinking you will break the wall will be a lot of challenge. But I was born in Lagos, so, I should be able to know my way better than anywhere else.”

On affordability, she says, “my clothes are not all that expensive. I want anybody to walk into my shop and be able to afford something. I design at least 15 pieces of clothes every week and I just don’t do that to stock up my shop, I do things that once I display online, they are gone, because at the end of the day, if they are too expensive, they just stay there and after a while you put them on sale and they go for much cheaper than they would have been sold in the first place.”

She continued, “as you go out everyday you are also interacting with people who are aware of your situation you can never tell when someone would just say oh, there is an opening here or there.”

She says, “I get messages of people who are interested in my training them all the time, but for now, I don’t have room for it. I can only advise those who already have the training, but do not know how to go about it, this is how it works.”

Domina advises Nigerians to be more original and stop copying foreign trend. For the celebrity stylists, “if only we can stop following trends and be more original. A lot of people just copy others and forget about their creativity. If only we are more original, there will be competition and variety will force us to be better at what we do.”

Like any other business, Domina has her own share of challenges, she says, “Customers can be very impatient, but I have also learnt a lot of patience on the job, because you cannot fight your customers. On the other hand, a lot of young people don’t have patience, they want to hurriedly leave you and go and start their own business without all the required experience that will make them succeed, that is also the reason I prefer to employ middle age people, because I believe they have seen it all, they have the experience and they know what they want. Though I am always lucky to get serious minded people who have had experiences of 10 years or even more.”

Anothern major problem, she says, is power. There is nothing you do that you don’t require electricity, but like you can also testify, nobody sees light, so we have to run diesel, which adds to the cost of production. This is also one major reason that our young people abroad are not willing to come back.”

On how she copes with family with such a demanding job, Domina explains, “I do my best to balance family and work and I am most grateful that my husband understands my job and is very supportive.”

Advising young graduates looking for jobs, Abike quips, “I left a good job to pursue passion I always advise people to do same, that way you don’t even feel the burden of work, because you are doing what you like naturally. Even if you have graduated, it is not compulsory to work with your certificate, education is just to enhance anything you do. Many people in different sectors have resigned their jobs to pursue their passions, which they are doing well, follow your passion. Even when you have not discovered your passion maybe you could be buying and selling before the job comes instead of staying idle.”