My name is Onyeka Okolo, a plus size fashion designer. I
loved to sketch beautiful designs for myself and some friends while I was in
school. It was just a hobby until I travelled with my older sister who happens
to be on the big side, and every time we went shopping I noticed it was quite
challenging to get her perfect size. She never used to feel the need to dress
up and I felt it was time to do something about it.
My dream was to get to a point where the plus size would
look so nice that slim people would wish to dress like them; this was the
inspiration behind my clothing line – CURVE. It is happening now, as slim
people now call me to shop designs they’ve seen on plus size ladies; this makes
me really happy and fulfilled.
I think creativity is what makes a great fashion designer; I
once had a collection with crop tops and some of my customers were like “oh I’m
plus size, I can’t wear crop tops”, I had to explain to them that they can
actually wear crop tops with a kind of cut suitable for curvy women. You also
need to be unique and have great customer relations.
One of my greatest challenges as a fashion designer is
convincing plus size ladies to be confident; you see that they have good legs
or arms to flaunt but they are not just confident enough to do so. For example,
I have a client who ensures that all the clothes I make for her come in black.
It is really hard to convince most plus size ladies to step out of their
comfort zone.
I think being big or thick has always been an African thing
so I don’t know why it became a problem to the point where
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