LEARNING EVERYDAY KEEPS ME ON TOP OF MY GAME

 TWW Meets Evaz Couture In The North East

Hello, tribe. It’s another Friday and a lot has been happening over here at TWW, and we’re super excited. With the excitement we carry, we bring you another chat and believe me, it’s one you’ll be grateful you read. TWW had to just because of you, stretch outside the borders of Plateau state and go to Gombe, North East Nigeria to meet up with our special guest, or host this time.

We bring you the best no matter where it is, and this is why making the trip was worth it. We’ve brought you multiple interviews I’m sure you’ve followed, and now we bring you our chat with the founder and owner of Evaz Couture. I say no more, let’s hear from her.

TWW: Hello, and we bring you greetings from the beautiful city of Jos. May we meet you?

EC: Good day, I am Onimisi Evelyn. I am a graduate of the University of Jos. I am from Kogi state, and I am presently based in Gombe state.

TWW: Nice to meet you. Could you tell us a bit about your business?

EC: I run a fashion brand called Evaz Couture, though the full name is actually Evaz Couture, Confectioneries and Collections. This is a female fashion brand that basically focuses on the production of female wears across all age groups, and we are into both bespoke and ready-to-wear clothing.

TWW: Is this your first line of business, because you appear quite experienced considering the relatively short time you’ve been in this?

EC: This is not my first line of business. I remember back from my secondary school days, I was involved in a lot of bead-making. I learnt how to make beads, and I was doing that even till my university days, I was still making beads. Then at some point, I got into confectioneries; the whole baking, making of cakes, chin-chin, small chops and other snacks.

It was at the same time I was learning how to sew. When I came to serve (NYSC), I realised that the market for fashion was higher than the market for baked products, so I gradually shifted fully into running a fashion brand.

I wouldn’t say it has been a short time, because I started learning in 2014, through to 2015. I started my own business in 2016, even though it was very small scale in the university hostel, Abuja Hostel. I carried on that way till I graduated in March, 2017, and since then I continued in the business when I came for my service year, and I’m still running it now, so that’s about six years now.

TWW: Your works are excellent, I must say. Do you feel like you were born for this or you just found yourself here? Could you tell us a bit about your journey?

EC:  Well, I would actually say I was born for this, because I’m sort of a natural. I didn’t get enough knowledge from the formal learning but I realised I had it residing in me, courtesy of my mum being a fashion designer. I found the journey pretty easy, unlike the way I see some people struggling with it. It was exciting for me, so I found pleasure in getting dresses done, so I didn’t really find it challenging.

Talking about excellence, I think excellence is learnt, and it comes from your character as a person. As a person, I am a person of excellence, I don’t want to use the word perfectionist, and I translated this excellence into the work I do. Most times, when a job is not neatly done, I don’t feel satisfied to deliver it; I have to redo it till I feel it is neat and excellent. This was learnt over the years.

Regarding my journey, it’s been an exciting journey for me, especially coming for service in Gombe, that’s where I stepped into it fully and started this business. I just found it easy because God has just kept on making ways for me. I struggle with advertisement, didn’t have to a lot of marketing and stuff. Somehow, my work spoke for me to a large extent. I just make dresses for people and I tell them to tell their friends. Sometimes I don’t even tell them, they just go and tell their friends who bring others when they’re satisfied with what I did and that’s has the business has grown to where we are today.

TWW: Wow, what a story. You also run an academy where you train emerging fashion designers, do you find training them as exciting as working by yourself or is it the other way?

EC: I find Evaz Couture Fashion School really exciting, I think more exciting than getting dresses done, because one of the major reasons why we set out to do this was to impact lives as much as we could, so training people is one of the major areas we impact life and I find it really pleasurable because I see people come in with no knowledge of fashion and in three to six months, they are leaving being able to be independent to earn a source of livelihood for themselves, it’s really very exciting to see that.

I think I find it more pleasurable because tailoring in itself can be real hectic and stressful, but when it comes to training, it’s not that it isn’t stressful, but the fact that you are impacting lives with it, it makes it more rewarding.

TWW: We’re sure they’ll make you proud. Now with your experience in the business, how has the journey been, looking back on where you started and where you are now?

EC: I’ll say the journey has been really exciting. I’ve not had a course to ever regret making this decision. Every day I expose myself to learning more and more so I can remain relevant in the fashion world, and that has really kept me on top of my game, so I would say I’ve really enjoyed it and I don’t regret it. I don't look back and wish I’d done anything differently.

All the steps I’ve taken so far have been good for me, and they are a reason why  we are where we are today.

TWW: Fashion designers across the country are popularly known for disappointing customers by not meeting up with deadlines, among other things. Do you also struggle with this, and if not, how do you do it?

EC: Funny enough, when I started my business, I used this as the edge. What I did was outline the problems with most fashion designers in Nigeria, and after outlining these problems, I decided to do differently, that's really what kept me going.

For example, the issues with delivery time, I realised it was very common with almost every fashion designer, so I set up a 7 days delivery service system; so once you bring your outfit or your fabric, in 7 days you get it and then we were consistent with delivering within the timeframe. Even at times when we see we cannot meet up with seven days, we can meet up in 7 days when you bring your fabric, we tell you that we're fully booked for the next 7 days, but if you don't mind getting it in the next 14 days, that's fine. So that's what we usually did and then we'll just give people their fabrics from when they desire it.

TWW: Your customers always look super happy when they rock your work. Are there times they put you under pressure you find hard to handle and does this affect your productivity?

EC: Oh yes, no matter how good you are and efficient, sometimes this work can be really tiring, and the pressure can be very much especially during periods of weddings and the festive season towards the end of the year. 

The end of the year comes with a lot of pressure so no matter how hard-working you are, you still find times when you almost break down from the work and the pressure. When it happens to me, I just handle it by taking some days off to cool off. I can go somewhere, relax, cool my head, then return to be more effective. 

The pressure affects my productivity and this can really weigh me down because it's hard to operate at my optimum level, I could make a dress and there would be adjustments here and there, which is even more stressful than the actual work itself. So, I just take a couple days off and clear my head, I return more relaxed and better equipped. 

TWW: So, what would you say has been the biggest contributor to your growth as a brand? You clearly are on a fast track to success and your brand is becoming a known name in this town, how has it happened?

EC:  I'll say the biggest contributor to our growth as being our consistency and our ability to keep to our words with regards to delivery. Over the years, we've been consistent, we've not had cause to go in and out of business, or to take a long break or whatever. So, that consistency has kept us on the path to success and we've done a great job in ploughing back our profit. We try to use our profits to improve the business as we earn, in every way possible so we keep improving and growing as we keep earning.

We've also had people in our corner, satisfied customers who help promote our brand even more than we do, and we're really grateful to them, our consistent clients. 

TWW: We always talk about two things with our guests: finance in business and the elections. We start first with finance. What impact has the economy had on your business, with inflation and recession? You are not a direct producer per se, so how serious has it been for your business?

EC: I would say the economy, with the inflation among other things, has affected our business to a large extent, because for the fashion industry in particular, there has been a huge interest, and as a result, price of tailoring accessories has been on a high. It has been on an increase steadily since even before the COVID pandemic, it has been that way. You can go the market and purchase items for a particular amount and by the time you return, you find out that the price has changed. This doesn’t even happen once in six month, price of items can climb twice or three times in a month.

We have had to deal with this by also finding a way to balance up our prices. It has made us lose a few clients, because not all clients would understand the market condition, but we’ve still done what we can to keep ourselves in business, making the barest minimum profit just to keep the business afloat.

The inflation has really affected us drastically, as the price of even the cheapest things we used to buy has now increased by over 200 per cent between 2019 and 2022.

TWW: Finally, the elections would be our last topic. What’s your take on the general elections and the future of the country in general?

EC: Well, regarding the elections, all I can say is that the eyes of Nigerians have been opened and now they know that they have to make a decision for their future. They realise now more than ever that the future of this economy is in our hands and we have to decide what we want, and with regards to this, I would say that I am proudly OBIdient, and we would push this as much as we can to see the change and growth we need in our economy.

I am ready to push, support, campaign and mobilise my people to do the right thing. I have my PVC ready, and I would do all I can to ensure we get it right.

TWW: As we conclude, any word for your customers, present and potential customers?

EC: If there’s any word I have for my customers, it is a big thank you. Thank you for believing in our brand, thank you for pushing this brand far, without you there is no Evaz Couture. We also want to thank our supporters, because even though we only do female designs, we have men who stand by us and stand with us and we are grateful.

To our potential customers, we can’t wait to have you, so we look forward to having you in our corner. We guarantee that you’ll love our work.

TWW: Can our audience connect with your brand on social media?

EC: Of course

TWW: If yes, what platforms and what handles?

EC: We are on Instagram and Twitter as @evazcouture

TWW: Thank you for having us.

EC: It’s my pleasure. See you some other time.