Ugo Aliogo
Leading fashion brand, The Wardrobe has unveiled an iconic African-centric fashion brand ‘Ade~ Fashioned to-Fit’ to solve the challenge faced by most African fashion enthusiasts with finding Africa fit sizes ready-to-wear garments.
Speaking at the official launch of the brand in Lagos yesterday, the Managing Director, The Wardrobe, Mrs. Adetowun Awofeso said Ade is a home-grown fashion brand powered by The Wardrobe Ultimate Concept Limited that seeks to clothe Nigerians and Africans, at home and in diasporas with high-quality ready-to-wear outfits that meet their tastes, African shape, and values.
She also noted that the focus of the brand is give Nigerians and African their true African identity and pride.
She explained that as a fashion business with many years of practice and a truly African business, the organisation has taken the responsibility of creating a home-grown fashion identity that defines, “our African true figure, fashion tastes, values, and needs.”
Awofeso remarked that Ade fashion brand prides itself in its vision which is to be the topmost African ready-to-wear fashion brand on the continent, with a global presence and mission to design, produce, and retail high-quality fashion items that fit the African body, values, and taste.
She hinted that the proposition of the brand is to ensure that every African has access to high-quality fashion items that fit them perfectly without needing any adjustments.
She remarked that the target market are the middle income working class African women and men between 25 – 40 age grade as well as 40 – 60 age grade, noting that the outfits are for corporate and formal occasions.
According to Awofeso, “The COVID-19 lockdown had helped to expose Africans and the over-dependence on everything foreign and revealed the almost loss of identity as Africans. Having identified this problem of near loss of identity amongst Africans, there was the need for the ‘Ade’ brand to evolve and attempt to redeem the true African identity.
“One major area of the over-dependence on foreign products is in the fashion industry. Ironically, most fashion products made in Europe or Asia, especially Ready-to-Wear garments, are produced for their figure, taste type, and values and not for Africans. This spurs the need for adjustments on ready-to-wear garments bought outside the country. Hence, ‘Ade’ as a brand is birthed to take full responsibility for creating a home-grown fashion identity that defines the true African figures, fashion tastes, values, and needs.
“The brand, ‘Ade’ represents and emphasizes perfect fitting, that is, fashion to fit the African shape. By this, the ‘Ade’ brand is set out to fill the void created and solve the struggles of people looking for the perfect shaping and sizes in ready-to-wear fashion. Hence, one of ‘Ade’s essence is ‘to ensure clients get their perfect fits and sizes. The key promise of the brand Ade is making available, high quality ready-to-wear garments that fits the African shape. And this it is positioned to achieve, taking cognizance of African unique sizes and shapes.
“‘Ade’, as a foremost African fashion brand, seeks to clothe Nigerians and Africans at home and abroad with high-quality Ready-to-Wear outfits that meet their tastes, African shape, and values. This is expected to give them their true African identity and pride. To achieve this, the brand, ‘ADE’ has develpoed a standard body measurements chart for the African body shape, known as Afric Size Chart. The Afric sizes have been developed into three categories and these are – Afric Size Regular, Afric Size Plus, and Afric Size Minus.”
