Saturday 8 December 2012

Designer Biography: House Of DEO – Deola Sagoe


Deola Sagoe is one of the highly celebrated haute couture fashion designers from Nigeria that has attained and maintained an internationally accepted brand. As she currently showcases her collection as one of the 35 selected designers for the Mercedes-Benz Africa Fashion Week happening in Johannesburg, South Africa, it’s amazing to think of how she juggles life as one of the biggest designer with being a mother to three girls.
In 1998, Deola Sagoe began designing and gradually gained an international notoriety for her vibrant, lively and colorful designs. Deola Sagoe has not always been this big. With her roots in Ondo State of Nigeria, she studied at the University of Miami and University of Lagos for a Masters degree in Finance and Management.

In April 2006 she was appointed to represent Nigeria in a new international campaign organized by the United Nations World Food Program, with a goal to raise money towards halving the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.

With a tight schedule and a wide audience to please, Deola Sagoe has exhibited her different collections at Cape Town Fashion Week, South Africa Fashion Week, ARISE, New York Fashion Week, and more. She is currently showing her designs at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa.

Some Pieces from Deola Sagoe’s Vintage Spring/ Summer 2010-11 at Africa Fashion Week

Pieces From ARISE Magazine African Fashion Collective III – Deola Sagoe Fall 2010

Pieces From The Deola Sagoe Fall/Winter 2011 (ORI OKE) Collection

Deola Sagoe, who has famous fans such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith, has several achievements such as winning the “Africa Designs” and the MNET/ Anglo Gold African Designs 2000 awards.

For more than two decades Deola Sagoe has had a singular aim and achievement, which according to her is to enable customers reveal their unique, albeit inexplicable characters through her designs.

Deola Sagoe is a fashion visionary with a unique approach to her craft that has endeared her to fans and followers all over the world. She uses African fabrics, hand-woven materials, and by contemporizing almost-lost traditional African techniques, Deola’s designs present a unique vision and attitude for the modern woman.

Deola Sagoe was once quoted, describing the woman that she designs for: “The Deola Sagoe woman has the mysterious and engaging complexity that is a gift to all women. One day she is dead serious the next she has the naughtiest sense of humor. One day she is all woman, the next she is ingénue. She definitely enjoys standing out, she is not a worker bee, but finds it far more interesting when everyone has a different point of view and yet everyone can still get along. She is colorful – she uses color to mirror her mood. She is vital – energetic – not the shy, retiring, type, but she also knows the appropriate time to hold her peace. I like the Deola Sagoe woman because she’s really like a contribution to life…”

 Deola Sagoe

In person, Deola is a personality with many layers, much like the multilayered designs she crafts. She is a wondrous contradiction, a charismatic yet serene figure, outgoing yet shy, enterprising yet protective, rebellious yet a believer in age-old traditions.

Interestingly, her three daughters, Teni, Aba and Tiwa, have seemingly followed the footsteps of their mother and recently launched their own fashion designer label called “CLAN”.
The House of Deola Sagoe was established in 1989 in Lagos, Nigeria. The brand celebrates the inherent, ethnic glamour found in local African fabrics and hand-woven materials.

For more information, contact:
The Flagship store at: 292F Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Telephone: 01-791 8383

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