FAB Cover: Ronke Ademiluyi of Africa Fashion Week London Covers Vanguard Allure

With three weeks left to London’s premier African event Africa Fashion Week London 2012 to take place on 3-4 August at London Spitalfields, the excitements is building up towards this fine fashion extravaganza expected to attract over 20,000 guests. It is no wonder that the media spotlight is on Ronke Ademiluyi, the CEO and founder and the brain (and beauty) behind the AFWL brand.

Ronke graced the cover of Nigeria’s Vanguard Allure on Sunday 15 July and featured with a three-page interview inside. Here is what the fab lady had to say about African fashion.

On the inception of Africa Fashion Week London

First of all, London has a lot of Africans in Diaspora; Africans in London run into millions. there was not a single platform where they could go to access African designs. if you wanted something African, you would have to call a tailor in your country to make it and then send it over to you. Then, we had African designers in london that people didn’t know about because, they were not accessible.

What we have done is to create a platform to access these designers. We have a directory of designers on our website so if you want to make an African outfit, you don’t necessarily need to send it to your country. That was where the inspiration came from.

On What to expect from AFWL 2012

It is going to be bigger because the venue can sit 15,000. The whole of London is going to be filled with visitors, so we can expect Africa Fashion Week London to be a lot better than (what we had) last year; bigger with more designers.

On Her Foray into Fashion

I have been in retail fashion for about 11 years now. I have a couple of boutiques called Rukkies and that was how I started.

On Her Plans for Africa Fashion Week Global

We are hoping to do an African fashion show during the Olympics in 2016. So, we are hoping to have the Africa Fashion Week in Brazil because there are lots of African there as well. We need to show them new designers from Africa as part of showcasing emerging designers.

On Life Lessons

Life has taught me to be grateful, to be humble, to be hard working, that nothing comes easy. You have to work hard for everything you want or aspire to get. You have to work hard for it; no freebies.