Ijeoma Onuoha, a Nigerian fashion brand builder creating stylish yet affordable fashion for women  — Lionesses of Africa

What does your company do?: 

Touchbyasoebigirl is a female fashion brand (parent company Asoebigirl Limited) created to meet the fashion needs of women through affordable but stylish clothing. We fondly refer to our customers as “Touch Woman”. A Touch Woman is a woman that stays stylish regardless of what time or day or occasion it is, and to this end, Touchbyasoebigirl caters to different events; corporate look, casual, events and weddings, swim wear, lounge wear etc. A Touch Woman is bold and confident in her own skin. Regardless of her size, body measurements or type. Our pieces are tailored uniquely to meet individual style and personality. Our customer base currently extends beyond Nigeria into other African countries (Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon), UK, Europe and the US/Canada. We had in the past years released collections for the UK and the US markets respectively in collaboration with Fashion aggregators and sold out our pieces. We are also going to be releasing a collection for the Kenyan Market in April 2021. We have recently launched a collection called the Touch Executive Woman which offers finely tailored pants suits that show the sexy, confident and powerful sides of the women that wear them.

What inspired you to start your company?

My mum is a fashion designer and has been in the business for almost 3 decades. I discovered my love for sketching designs quite young (less than age 10). As I navigated through my work life (post University), I picked up sketching again as an escape from the work stress. At some point I decided to make it into a proper business as I was already providing these services to my friends for free. Honestly, I am most at peace when I am designing (with a glass of wine of course).

Why should anyone use your service or product?

We strive to make every product personal to the customer. There is a lot of thinking that goes into making an outfit (especially bespoke) for a person. I think about the personality of the customer (I actually enjoy getting to know my customers on a personal level in the best way that I can), and this plays a huge role as I recommend fabrics and/or design pieces for them.