Exclusive :Fashion Is A Language That Can Communicate Without Speaking - Akeem Oduwole (CEO Hqclothing Ng)
We are familiar with the name Hqclothing Ng, and its crafty designs, but no one knows the face, and name behind the perfectionism. Ladies and gentleman, meet the CEO Of the most sort after Nigerian clothing(Hq) , Akeem Oduwole. On the 24th of June 2015, Kinggs Blog's Micheal Irabor had a tete-a-tete with the successful Entrepreneur, and he told us much about his fast growing clothe line, and his plans for the future. Enjoy
Can we meet you?
My name is Abdul, Akeem Oduwole. I am the CEO, Hqclothing Ng, I am a Muslim, married, from Ijebu Ode, in Ogun state, and close to 40 years of age.
How did the name Hq come into existence?
I extracted it from my son's name Abdul HAQQ.
What are Hqclothing specialties?
Hqclothing Ng, specialises in classical, sophisticated, unique, and casual men's wear.
Why just men's wear, why not female wear?
Truth be told, I don't like making female's wears, reasons because, I can't take their measurements, and they are quite hard to deal with, and maintain.
What inspires your style creativity?
The fact that people no longer recognise the real traditional attire, inspires me to creating nice styles that would capture the public, and make them want to rock the real traditional attires.
Do you make traditional clothing alone?
No, I also do casuals too. I make traditional, and casual attires alone for now
How, and when did fashion all start for you, and what prompted you to take it seriously?
I started professionally five years ago. Before I took it professionally, I had always done nice designs for my self, but never did I have the intentions of making it a source of finance, talk more of taking it as a profession. On several occasions, my wife urged me to take sewing, and designing serious and make money out of it, but I often shut down the idea, and gave her reasons why I shouldn't drift into such. On different occasions people met me on the road, and ask me who did my designs, and I often told them, 'I designed it but, I didn't do the sewing because I got no time.'. I really didn't even want to give sewing and designing a good thought because, I was into IT at that point in time, and didn't want anything to stop my income flow. There was a day a man walked up to me, and said 'Sir, if you were the one who designed this outfit you are wearing, I must commend you and let you know you are going places because you are good at it.' I really didn't take that man serious because I wasn't ready to leave my good paying job, and delve into being a tailor. Not until one day that I took my car to my mechanic, on that day I was wearing an attire I designed. So my mechanic asked ' sir please who designed this outfit?' I told him I did it my self but I wasn't a tailor. So he said to me 'Whether you are a tailor or not, here is my money, sew something like this for me'. And that was how I started sewing and designing as a profession, and lost interest in IT.
Was it that sewing got so inserting or, multitasking, that you had to let go of your IT business for it?
Yes. Because, when you like, and want your work to be properly detailed, you have to be on ground to monitor it, and avoid mistakes.
What's your definition of fashion?
Fashion is a language that can communicates with anybody without speaking. For example, when you see a fashionable person approaching you, no one needs to tell you how fashionable he or she is. The person's personality speaks on its own.
When you started this fashion line, were there challenges you faced, and were there times you thought of quitting?
Ofcourse I faced challenges, but I never thought of quitting. I never thought of quitting because, I saw light in what I was doing. The thing is, when you are doing what you love, even if you aren't making much, or no money at all, just because you have passion for it, you won't see the challenges, as challenges, you would only see it as a natural thing which you would certainly scale through. You would see it as a normal thing that would pass away, and when you see it that way, it won't trouble you, and you won't consider quitting.
From your point of view, why do you think people fail in fashion?
Most of them don't have passion for it, their major aim is just to make money, and every other thing don't matter. I do tell people, if you go into a business basically to make money, your business won't be perfect. You have to perfect your business before you start chasing money. You don't even need to chase money when your jobs are perfect, money chases after perfection. For example, a costumer pays you 100% for you to sew a nice outfit for him/her, you quickly sew it without watching out for mistakes. And there is another costumer who pays you half, or no money at all to design an outfit for him/her, a money minded tailor would never attend to such costumer because, all such tailor is interested in, is money and not even the satisfaction, and pleasure of the costumer. Such tailor won't go far. Because no one would recommend him/her to another interested costumer. At a point in time, I use to deliver clothes to my costumers and they tell me to come back some other time for my cheque. On those days I would get home at tell my wife this was what happens, and she would ask 'Why should you do such?' and I would ask her to calm down, and tell her, allow me plant my seed into this people's hearts. And so far it has been working for me.
What has been your greatest achievements so far in doing fashion?
Let me start by saying I started from the grass. I started with one staff, and one machine. Now I have close to Ten (10) staffs, and series of machines. I have met several people who I never thought I would one day meet. People Like senator, permanent secretaries, and the likes. I have achieved a lot, I can't even start mentioning.
What is fashion yet to do for you?
Let me say, an award. That's the only thing I think fashion hasn't brought me.
Should we be expecting Hqclothing Ng organizing a runway, or fashion event soon?
Yes. We Are working on that, and that would be coming up sometime in December. I wont give out details yet but, you all should be expectant. If you visit our web page:- http://www.hqclothingng.com/ and our Instagram page your would see more of our works.
What category of people is Hqclothing for?
We design for the high-class, and the average class. We have our premium designs, and average designs. Nothing good comes cheap.
Where do you see Hqclothing in the next five years?
In the next five years, we should have nothing less than five (5) branches in Africa. Countries like South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, and Benin Republic. That's the first stage, then we should have branches in the UK, and in Paris because, the plan for our design is for it to be found everywhere in the world. I want a situation where you go into a shop where you can find Gucci, Varsace, and also see Hq , and point at it and say I like this, I would buy it.
 |
| Hqclothing |
My name is Abdul, Akeem Oduwole. I am the CEO, Hqclothing Ng, I am a Muslim, married, from Ijebu Ode, in Ogun state, and close to 40 years of age.
How did the name Hq come into existence?
I extracted it from my son's name Abdul HAQQ.
What are Hqclothing specialties?
Hqclothing Ng, specialises in classical, sophisticated, unique, and casual men's wear.
Why just men's wear, why not female wear?
Truth be told, I don't like making female's wears, reasons because, I can't take their measurements, and they are quite hard to deal with, and maintain.
What inspires your style creativity?
The fact that people no longer recognise the real traditional attire, inspires me to creating nice styles that would capture the public, and make them want to rock the real traditional attires.
 |
| Oduwole Akeem CEO Hqclothing |
Do you make traditional clothing alone?
No, I also do casuals too. I make traditional, and casual attires alone for now
I started professionally five years ago. Before I took it professionally, I had always done nice designs for my self, but never did I have the intentions of making it a source of finance, talk more of taking it as a profession. On several occasions, my wife urged me to take sewing, and designing serious and make money out of it, but I often shut down the idea, and gave her reasons why I shouldn't drift into such. On different occasions people met me on the road, and ask me who did my designs, and I often told them, 'I designed it but, I didn't do the sewing because I got no time.'. I really didn't even want to give sewing and designing a good thought because, I was into IT at that point in time, and didn't want anything to stop my income flow. There was a day a man walked up to me, and said 'Sir, if you were the one who designed this outfit you are wearing, I must commend you and let you know you are going places because you are good at it.' I really didn't take that man serious because I wasn't ready to leave my good paying job, and delve into being a tailor. Not until one day that I took my car to my mechanic, on that day I was wearing an attire I designed. So my mechanic asked ' sir please who designed this outfit?' I told him I did it my self but I wasn't a tailor. So he said to me 'Whether you are a tailor or not, here is my money, sew something like this for me'. And that was how I started sewing and designing as a profession, and lost interest in IT.
Was it that sewing got so inserting or, multitasking, that you had to let go of your IT business for it?
Yes. Because, when you like, and want your work to be properly detailed, you have to be on ground to monitor it, and avoid mistakes.
What's your definition of fashion?
Fashion is a language that can communicates with anybody without speaking. For example, when you see a fashionable person approaching you, no one needs to tell you how fashionable he or she is. The person's personality speaks on its own.
 |
| CEO Hqclothing |
When you started this fashion line, were there challenges you faced, and were there times you thought of quitting?
Ofcourse I faced challenges, but I never thought of quitting. I never thought of quitting because, I saw light in what I was doing. The thing is, when you are doing what you love, even if you aren't making much, or no money at all, just because you have passion for it, you won't see the challenges, as challenges, you would only see it as a natural thing which you would certainly scale through. You would see it as a normal thing that would pass away, and when you see it that way, it won't trouble you, and you won't consider quitting.
From your point of view, why do you think people fail in fashion?
Most of them don't have passion for it, their major aim is just to make money, and every other thing don't matter. I do tell people, if you go into a business basically to make money, your business won't be perfect. You have to perfect your business before you start chasing money. You don't even need to chase money when your jobs are perfect, money chases after perfection. For example, a costumer pays you 100% for you to sew a nice outfit for him/her, you quickly sew it without watching out for mistakes. And there is another costumer who pays you half, or no money at all to design an outfit for him/her, a money minded tailor would never attend to such costumer because, all such tailor is interested in, is money and not even the satisfaction, and pleasure of the costumer. Such tailor won't go far. Because no one would recommend him/her to another interested costumer. At a point in time, I use to deliver clothes to my costumers and they tell me to come back some other time for my cheque. On those days I would get home at tell my wife this was what happens, and she would ask 'Why should you do such?' and I would ask her to calm down, and tell her, allow me plant my seed into this people's hearts. And so far it has been working for me.
What has been your greatest achievements so far in doing fashion?
Let me start by saying I started from the grass. I started with one staff, and one machine. Now I have close to Ten (10) staffs, and series of machines. I have met several people who I never thought I would one day meet. People Like senator, permanent secretaries, and the likes. I have achieved a lot, I can't even start mentioning.
What is fashion yet to do for you?
Let me say, an award. That's the only thing I think fashion hasn't brought me.
 |
| Oduwole Akeem CEO Hqclothing |
Should we be expecting Hqclothing Ng organizing a runway, or fashion event soon?
Yes. We Are working on that, and that would be coming up sometime in December. I wont give out details yet but, you all should be expectant. If you visit our web page:- http://www.hqclothingng.com/ and our Instagram page your would see more of our works.
What category of people is Hqclothing for?
We design for the high-class, and the average class. We have our premium designs, and average designs. Nothing good comes cheap.
 |
| Oduwole Akeem Hqclothing |
Where do you see Hqclothing in the next five years?
In the next five years, we should have nothing less than five (5) branches in Africa. Countries like South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, and Benin Republic. That's the first stage, then we should have branches in the UK, and in Paris because, the plan for our design is for it to be found everywhere in the world. I want a situation where you go into a shop where you can find Gucci, Varsace, and also see Hq , and point at it and say I like this, I would buy it.
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