https://www.youtube.com/embed/wTtnKozooXI
My name is Victoria Fọlashadé Thomas-Fahm. I was born September 22nd, 1933. I was brought up in a Yoruba community. My parents came from Akinmorin in Oyo. They used to refer to them as Ara-Oke. I remember the day I was traveling. They all came to the port to wish me goodbye. I arrived in London. When we got to Edgware Road, the high street, and I saw mannequins – they were like human beings. But there was all different fashions. I think this is what I'm caught out for. I've made up my mind. I couldn't believe it. I said i'm taking this to Nigeria. This. To Nigeria. The concept of designing is an art. You learn how to sketch but you must have the feeling. From the college where I attended, they taught us the real basics of fashion, and they teach you the art of balancing by showing you a human being as he is.
I came back home on the 7th of July and we had an Independence Ceremony on the 1st of October. At that time it was new. I presented myself by giving fashion shows, for collecting money for the blind or for one charity or the other, but of course I was happy to do it then. I point out to you, at that time that they were voluntary models – they were not charging me, they were happy to do it. And so I had a beautiful collection of important ladies, professional ladies. Fashion is part of the basics of living abroad. That's where I learned the reaction of women, and even men to fashion.
At that time, I had done this skirt called 'Yere'. This yere is usually a common print fabric, usually in calico, and they use it like a skirt underneath. Even that is not decent enough. When the dress slips off, the yere shows. So I thought, if the yere are changed into skirts, and these skirts gain their way into big shops like the USC Shop Kingsway, like the UTC, like the Leventis Store. And the wrapper, what I did was put a zip – it looks draped – like you're wrapping it, but there's a zip inside to hold it together. So that when you bend down to pick something, it doesn't slip off that was the idea. Well I wasn't a fashion designer abroad. I qualified a few months after I came back home, but I was a model. I was doing modelling and I was highly rated because of my figure, and my neck and all that. I was highly favoured. British Pathé: "Princess Margaret was there to see the glamorous presentation. The Nigerian look: a mixture of traditional and modern that were made for each other. Behind the scenes, Nigerian designer Shade Thomas assisted with a production which brought to London some of the world's top models representing commonwealth countries." You must have heard of Fashion Designers of Nigeria.
It has been going on for more than 30 years. And they're all over Nigeria now. They're bringing in new fashions in our fabric, which I advocate up till now. And our fabric can suit every client..
https://howtoplaythedjembedrums.com/nigerias-first-fashion-designer-shade-thomas-fahm-va-2/
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