StyleEYE on MariamMoussa Creations

by Yemi Olowu

Hauwa Ojeifo grew up watching her mother design and make clothes for numerous clients. From helping out, she developed a flair for fashion design, and this led to the re-birth of  the older woman’s label – the birth of Hauwa’s dream. The designer, who recently released a lookbook for her debut collection, spoke to Y! StyleEYE.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF YOUR LABEL?

MariamMoussa Creations has been in existence for well over 25years. It was set up and run by my mother; Maryam Ojeifo. However, it has always been my dream to follow suit. What was then known as M&M Fashion became MariamMoussa Creations in February 2010 when I finally decided to live my dream. The name M&M was coined from my parents’ respective names – Mariam and Musa. During the process of re-branding, my siblings and I modified it, thus MariamMoussa Creations was born.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU EVER DESIGNED?
I’ve designed a lot of clothes in terms of sketches, but the very first that I saw through personally from meeting the client all through sketching, fabric shopping, etc was a little gray dress I made for my cousin. It had detailing of over a hundred buttons. It still brings such lovely memories as to how far I have come.

WHAT ARE THE FABRICS YOU LIKE WORKING WITH?
I adore the local ankara, for some reason. Just being able to transform a fabric ‘condemned’ to ‘August Meetings’ ,’local people’ etc into something very modern is a delightful challenge. I do like chinos very much alongside chiffon. I’m still looking forward to exploiting my love for aso-oke!

WHICH INTERNATIONAL DESIGNER WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH?
That’s a tough one. I have a lot – from Roberto Cavalli, and Oscar de la Renta to Jason Wu and DVF. There’s no way I could ever choose just one!

HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AS A DESIGNER?
Besides the unofficial role I used to play by helping my mum and friends design when I was much younger, this month marks my first year.

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY AS A DESIGNER?
The satisfaction of my customers is a great challenge, trust me. Any designer can admit to that. Seeing your piece on a happy customer? Nothing beats that! Every other thing falls under this.

WHAT ARE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS A DESIGNER?
Being favoured enough to start living my dream at an early age is only a starter. Having designed the very first MariamMoussa Creations collection has been a great deal for me.

Here’s a look into the MariamMoussa Creations debut collection…

The Butterfly Effect
Madam
Kekere

Head Designer, Creative Director MariamMoussa Creations

One comment

  1. I'm tripped!!! In so little time, you have made such great achievements. Thumbs up. you can reach me if u want me to assist u in cutting up the cloth(LOL). here's my id [email protected]

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