People
For Iseoluwa Abidemi, music is her calling and has since remained so having started singing at the age of five. Iseoluwa, the teen gospel star is an inspiration to many young ones. Now at 18, growing into the woman of her dreams, and doing well in her studies abroad, the talented young lady has got her creative hands on something new– a jewellery brand she calls Funmz. Coined from her middle name – Funmilayo, the Funmz by Funmilayo body ornaments is solely her design, unique and originally crafted by one of the best manufacturers in UK. She tells Ferdinand Ekechukwu more about the brand which will be launched soon…
Last time you spoke to me we talked about your music career, school and settling down having newly relocated to the UK and here you are talking about your jewellery brand, tell us about it
The brand is called Funmz, it is a jewellery brand that focuses on the creation of silver jewellery and falls in between the classy and casual categories, with unique but limited designs that can be worn with almost everything. The designs are eye catching and attention seeking. And this brand will be launched on the 3rd of March 2023.
Has this sort of taken over your music career?
My jewellery brand is a separate career from my music and do not relate with each other in any way.
What kind of jewellery is the Funmz by Funmilayo?
Funmz jewelleries currently focuses on the making on silver jewelleries such as necklaces, rings, earring, brooches and other body ornaments but currently we have only one design which is limited for the purpose of the brand launch.
This statement taken from your Instagram page is quite fascinating kind of. It says “It’s jewellery but not for everyone; unique, scarce, original and royalty.” Can you to talk a bit more on it?
Our jewellery brand is a brand for people with taste. It is not targeted to the rich but it is limited and hard to copy. The designs are my original design and at Funmz we consider our audience as royalty.
Is the Funmz jewellery brand self-conceptualized? How did you come about it?
Yes, every design seen on Funmz is my original design which includes every inch of the packaging and the jewellery. The colours, the materials, the ideas and even the letter font, everything seen on Funmz is well thought out, reviewed, tested and then released to the public eye. The creation of the brand itself has taken a year. However, our jade necklace took about 6 to 8 months to create, review and test and it will be released a month from now.
Is there any sample of it out in the market already?
The Funmz jewellery brand is yet to be launched. We plan to ensure our products are available to everyone, which is why we aim to place our products in more retail stores in the UK and hopefully in Nigeria to make it convenient for our consumers to purchase. At the moment our target audience is between the ages of 18-35. But we like to believe that our silver jewellery is for everyone which is why it can be worn with almost every outfit.
And what influences the designs?
Like I stated before the designs of our jewellery comes from me, it can take trying several concepts before coming out with a final design, which was the case when creating our jade necklace. And this happens often because Funmz jewelleries main aim is to make unique out-of-the-box jewellery designs.
What is it made of? How do you source the materials?
For our jade necklace has yet to be previewed, I wanted to use Sterling silver and gems that matched the colour wheel of our brand because I prefer the jewellery I make to fall between classy and casual. And these materials are sourced by our manufacturers.
Can you talk to us about the uniqueness of Funmz by Funmilayo; the designs, crafting?
For the design that the brand will be launching with on the 3rd of March which is the jade necklace, it was designed to change colour based on the light and can be used as a pin if the chain is removed. And as you know the brand packaging is emphasised on Instagram and that is because it is no different, the colours, the font and even the style of the box is all uniquely designed by me to be sustainable to the brand and convenient for the consumers. Another reason the brand is unique is because it cannot be copied as each design has its own code that proves it legitimacy.
How many products/designs do you have under the Fumz brand?
Although we have various designs drafted. We only have one design that has been produced, which is the jade necklace and even that has only 50 made.
Where do you want to see the Funmz by Funmilayo in the future?
I see Funmz diversifying into the creation of men’s accessories and I see the brand becoming a well-known brand by almost everyone for its unique designs and unpredictable nature. But for now, I’ll focus on the launch date coming, which is the 3rd of March 2023.
