Budding Blue RTWBYFIOLAKEMI is ready to present Nigerian culture at Fashions Finest S/S25 showcase with a collection infused with colours and vitality.
About Budding Blue RTWBYFIOLAKEMI By Olufolake Isiwele Owodunni
Olufolake Isiwele Owodunni, a Nigerian designer passionate about sustainability, is the founder and lead creative at the Budding Blue RTWBYFIOLAKEMI, based in Lagos. She graduated in actuarial science from the Prestigious University of Lagos and followed her passion for fashion and styling, establishing the Budding Blue Brand in 2015. A brand for women of all ages and sizes aiming to make women feel beautiful and confident in their skin. In 2020, just after her mum of blessed Memory, Queen Elizabeth Abegbe Isiwele’s call to glory, she started designing and dyeing custom adire fabrics to launch the Budding Blue designs, naming the first collection of agbada after her mother and mentor OLOLADE.
Sustainability and social responsibility form the core of her label. She works supporting local artisans, and mainly designs with aso-oke, a woven high-end fabric from the Western Yoruba-speaking part of Nigeria; adire, a long-lived hand-dyed fabric popular in many parts of Nigeria, and the Kofa Mata dye pits in Kano. This approach birthed the Zero Tolerance to Waste Policy at the Budding Blue Brand. The "Hadassah Coat of Many Colours" collection exemplifies Budding Blue Brand's policies. It comprises designs made with pieces of otherwise waste fabrics, painstakingly pieced together into some of the Brand’s bestsellers.
Olufolake is a humanitarian and through the Queen Elizabeth Abegbe Foundation, set up in memory of her late mother, fulfils various community service initiatives for vulnerable women and those in need. This initiative is solely funded by a tiny percentage accrued from proceeds and profits of every piece sold at the Budding Blue Brand. A lover of bright and bold colours, a lover of culture and heritage, she enjoys designing, experimenting and taking risks which has been pivotal to the Budding Blue Brand.
Budding Blue RTWBYFIOLAKEMI Presents The Owu Ayo (Threads of Joy) Waste to Wealth Collection
Budding Blue RTWBYFIOLAKEMI is going to present the "Owu Ayo (Threads of Joy) Waste to Wealth Collection" borne out of the brand’s passion for sustainability: a collection of beautiful aso-oke and custom design batik adire pieces.
