Could you please introduce
yourself?
The famous Spanish businesswoman,
founder, and CEO of Afri2daworld.com, introduced herself as Mrs. Victoria
Monjolaoluwa Thomas.
How did the fashion designing
journey begin?
The fashion designing journey
began as a childhood passion, from building her interest around her mum’s
seamstress career. Although she was officially allowed to start sewing at the
age of 15 years with so much tutoring from her mum. And later started sewing
for her Secondary School mates at Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu
- Ode. and neighbours. As time flew by,
she extended the passion for tailoring / fashion designing to her University
colleagues too, as a part time job to make extra cash as a student.
She also had a tailor / fashion
designing store in Nigeria way back before relocating to Liverpool in the
United Kingdom in the year 2000. During her 6 years of residing in Liverpool,
she continued to deliver her fashion designing services to her friends,
families, neighbours, and church members.
Was your business born out of
“Passion or Career path “?
Well, most of my businesses are
born out of passion, as I am a strong believer of being passionate about what
you do. Firstly, I start it as a passion, while I try to work on the know-how
and then I set it up as a business. So, I would say most of my businesses were
born out of passion.
Originally, Mrs. Thomas studied
GeoPhysics at the Federal University of Technology Akure in Ondo State,
Nigeria.
But there is no doubt, her
passion for fashion designing, had always out shined the course she studied
during her University days.
Although she worked as a teacher
back in her days in Nigeria, after graduating university, she had always had a
tailoring outlet as a second part time job.
It is also very interesting to
know that Mrs. Thomas also studied Russian and Ukraine languages, as well as
speaking Yoruba, English and Spanish languages. Which means Mrs. Thomas is a
multilingual speaker. And there is no doubt that this would help promote her
business, because she has extra edges to breaking certain language barriers.
Do you have a business name for
your” Fashion Empire”?
The general name for my Business
Empire is “Anointed Fingers” with an extension of AF Beauty Boutique, where she
sells Owanbe goodies such as Italian shoes and bags, all sorts fabrics, such
as Ankara, Laces for both men and women,
Atiku, Guinea brocades for both men and women, silk, chiffon, plain and all
shades of coloured fabrics you could ever imagine. Not excluding offices or
casual wardrobes.
The other extension of her
business Empire is AF signature, where she personalised tailoring, fashion
designing and wardrobe manager to majority of Church Pastors wife’s.
Her newest feather is an Afro
western online store named Afri2daworld, with the website www.
Afri2daworld.com.
When did you decide to make
fashion designing career in Spain?
She once lived in a part of Spain, called Sevilla when she first relocated to Spain, 10years ago. But she currently lives in Palma de Mallorca, Spain since 2014, a Tourist City, where she decided to establish her fashion designing as a career officially towards the end of 2014, combined with running AF Beauty Boutique where she caters for everything in relation to parties. She caters for individual party needs, she supplies Aso Ebi fabrics of all types (Ankara, Laces, Guinea brocades,
Italian
shoes and bags, and costume jewelleries) for all , that is, African groups,
such as Nigerians, Senegalese, Ghanaians… etc.
She also caters for the natives
Latino American communities, Spanish communities and so on…
While every fabric purchased from
AF Beauty Boutique are designed to individual specifications in other extensions,
AF Signature the fashion designing department of the Business Empire.
Did you receive any formal
training in Fashion designing in an Educational Institution?
With all the full training she
received from her mum, years back in Nigeria, she went ahead to receive a
Qualification in Diploma in fashion designing at ESCUELA INTERNACIONAL DE
ESTILISMO Y MODA MADRID, SPAIN, in 2019.
How many years have you existed /
being productive as a Fashion designer in the fashion World?
In total, Mrs. Victoria
Monjolaoluwa Thomas, had professionally become a tailor / fashion designer for
30 years. And she has so many advantages
over other contemporaries in the fashion world because she specialises in
women, men and children clothes designing.
Also, she is not limited to African wears designing alone, but she is
open to all types of professional wearable designs.
Apart from Spain, is your
business still extended to Nigeria?
I had always continued to extend
my workforce between Spain and Nigeria. Initially during my early day at
Sevilla, in Spain, I used to sew branded outfits which I supplied to boutiques
in Nigeria.
Recently I just launched my
website (www.Afri2daworld.com) my new baby, which was born initially to serve
the people in Europe. But it ended up being a service outreach to the world at
large. The name “Afri2daworld” is a “slogan” meaning, services opened from”
Africa to the world. “
When I left the United Kingdom, a
lot of my clients were stranded, and kept disturbing me on how they can still
avail of my services. Some old clients in the United Kingdom had to post their
fabrics to Spain, where I get their fabrics tailored / designed and posted back
to the United Kingdom.
Therefore, with all this uprising
challenges, the idea of creating a website was born, which creates an avenue to
extend my services across the globe, through the creation of an online shopping
outlet for all and sundry to shop at their convenience.
It was very difficult to continue
all production from Spain to Nigeria, because the issue of sourcing fabrics
with limited varieties for Nigerians, from Europe was too challenging. The prices for those fabrics, the logistics
of transportation and custom charges, my production would be too expensive for
majority of Nigerian or Africans to purchase. This led to my vision, that ended
up with creating employment for 20 staff, working for me in Nigeria, presently.
The employee vision in Nigeria
was achieved when I decided to scout for people who could pin into my vision,
work with the budget I had in mind and that would also understand my concept
via Social media, but there was not any positive response. Being a stubborn
person that does not give up easily, I decided to connect with families back in
Nigeria, who eventually helped to connect me to interested individuals whom I
finally created employment for, just to ensure my vision came alive.
The 20 employees working for
Afri2daworld.com in Nigeria comprises of a team of 6 tailors (2 males and 4
females) 8 models (modelling the outfits on Afri2daworld.com), 1 professional
photographer ( taking all the photo shoots of the models), 1 media control and
production manager by the name Mrs. Florence Onakoya , 2 dispatch riders
(taking care of the logistics sector), 1 bag maker and 1 bead maker.
Afri2daworld.com also has 2 major clothes suppliers (one at Oshodi
market and the other at Idumota market) always on standby to source and supply
unlimited varieties of fabrics and clothing accessories on a larger scale. To
ensure the satisfaction of Nigerians and Africans hearts desired choices of
varieties of fabrics are fantastically met.
What effect did Covid – 19
Pandemic have on your business?
The pandemic really did a lot of
harm, as Spain was one of the highest affected countries.
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, where
they reside, is strictly a tourist city which generates its income through
tourism. Recently, because of travel and flight restrictions, the tourist city
vicinity seems dead. No one could boast of working this year, everyone is
solely depending on Government support payments.
For someone like me, that had
always worked as a freelance, business had been extremely poor for me this
year, especially from the AF Signature arms of my business, which is the
busiest sector, where I tailor/ design clothes for clients personalisation’s /
specifications and the wardrobe management aspects of my business too. No
income whatsoever was generated at the AF Signature sector, during this
Pandemic and lockdown.
Just as the pandemic had its negative
effect on my business, it also had a positive contribution to my business, in
the sense that it hastened up the birth of Afri2daworld.com this year, which
was not supposed to be given birth until the next 2 years.
Although Afri2daworld.com vision had existed over the last few years, my
intention was to organise a fashion runways sometime this year, in Nigeria,
which eventually gave way to creating the website, instead, because the fashion
runway activities would have been made
impossible due to the pandemic.
Also, shopping online had been
the latest trend over 5-6 years, most people had found it easier to shop
online. Which prompted me to actually create the website, Afri2daworld.com this
year, which recently launched online on the 26th of September, 2020.
When is your business peak period
before the Pandemic outbreak?
My peak period is usually from September to January. One would have thought your business period would be in the summer season. During the summer season in Spain, the majority of the Spanish are always busy working, as in, attending to the needs of the tourist visitors. So much so, that the streets are quiet.
There are hardly any parties or celebrations going on amongst the
residents. After September, the hotels would start to relieve some of their
staff off duties or sometimes close their business for the year. Therefore,
until the tourist visits are over before my tailoring / fashion designing
business eventually picks up, and I am constantly working back to back to
satisfy my clients from September to
January, which is usually the parties / celebrations season for Spanish
residence.
Also, the winter in Palma de
Mallorca, Spain, is never as cold as some other part of Spain e.g. Barcelona,
the northern part of Spain. In fact, Palma de Mallorca is never likely to
experience snowfall, due to the mildness of the weather in this location. Therefore, the residence can get away with
rocking native attire during the September to January season, the women can
just throwing a light shawl around their necks rocking their African attire
while the men could just wear a light jumper.
Where do you see your business in
the next 5 years?
God willing, I hold Him in trust
for everything, ours is just to keep trying. I see my business growing globally
and becoming a household name. Funny enough, one of our younger brothers,
usually refers to her business as AF Gucci – Gucci, which sounds and seems like
a scary vision to become as big and well recognised as a “Gucci brand”. But I
am a believer of possibilities, if one works hard with prayers, nothing shall
be impossible to achieve having God’s backing.
This also reminds me of the plan
to launch our clothing line in Spain, in the next 2years, in a physical Store,
not an online store, God willing.
The biggest vision is seeing
myself running a clothing store in all the cities in Spain and across Europe,
in the nearest future, by God’s grace.
In conclusion, I wish you all the
best with your passion and career paths, Mrs. Victoria Monjonolaoluwa Thomas.
A.k.a, Iya Alaje Spain, like I usually refer to you, seeing how amazingly well
your business visions are unfolding and growing over the years. The sky is just
your stepping stone in Jesus Mighty name…Amen!
What are your social media
handles?
Facebook handle are:
Afri2daworld, AF Beauty & AF Signature
Instagram handle is
Afri2daworld_mallorca
Pinterest handle is Afri2daworld.
Website address is www.Afri2daworld.com
And soon to be given birth baby,
for strictly Owanbe online shopping is called owanbe.afri2daworld.com
 Businesswoman, Founder & CEO of Afri2daworld.com (Mrs. Victoria Monjolaoluwa Thomas) ){kind=link}
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