Reni Abina - The Lagos Cool-Girl with the Booming Fashion Brand, Rendoll
Image by Felix Ezema
“ I don't like being the smartest person in the room because then you don't learn anything.”
When I was growing up as a young girl in Nigeria, we thought the height of cool was to wear American clothes, listen to American music and soak in American pop culture. Basically, anything foreign was cool and anything imported was superior. I’m very proud and happy to say that things are rather different today. The global popularity of Nigerian music and Afrobeats which was driven and promoted by Nigerians demonstrates this. Today, the cool set still dabbles in some foreign cars, designer bags and shoes but they are very much wearing Nigerian clothes. From traditional to contemporary styles, they aren’t looking abroad anymore to signal luxury, taste or quality. Our feature guest, Reni Abina, founder and creative director of Rendoll is one of the creatives contributing to this phenomenon.
At only twenty-nine years old, the former lawyer is already on her second career. While growing up, she was a fan of the television show, Suits, which made being a lawyer look glamorous and exciting. So she pursued a law career which included three years at the University of Reading and another year of law school in Lagos. After all that, on her very first day in court, she quickly figured out the she and a law career were not a match made in heaven. Luckily, Reni is a fast thinker who knows herself deeply. She leaned into her entrepreneurial spirit and turned a little side hustle making clothes into a full on business. Et voila! Rendoll was born.
Contrary to what many young women feel, Reni is super excited to turn thirty! With a growing business, exciting plans and a fantastic husband, why wouldn’t she be? In this interview, she takes us through her career journey and very generously shares the ups and downs of running a growing fashion business. She opens up on the topics of summer plans, her marriage, and her dreams. Reni is thoughtful, humble, goal-driven and refreshingly frank. Her vulnerability is inspiring.
Dear reader, you’ll want to grab your notepad, a cup of tea or glass of wine, and get comfortable, as we enter the racing mind and exciting life of a Lagos “cool girl.”
Image by Felix Ezema
Welcome to In Vibrant Company. Thank you for joining all the way from Lagos. Do you have any fun plans for the summer?
Yes, actually I turn thirty next month. I'm so excited. I'm going on holiday to Croatia with a couple of my friends and then London for the rest of it.
I saw that you were in Istanbul, not too long ago.
Yeah, it was supposed to be a work trip. But then plans changed. But I'm like, “well, I booked it anyway, so I'm just going to go and have fun”. Life is balance. You have to do a bit of both.
Can you tell us a little bit about your family background and how it influenced your career and life choices?
I grew up, I would say, in a working class family. Both my parents worked pretty hard and they kind of did all that they could for us to go to the good schools. I would say I've been a bit privileged in that aspect because I did go to a good primary school, secondary school. And then when I was 16, I went to England for A-levels. I did two years A-levels and three years university and then moved back to Nigeria to do law school.
What was that like, moving to the UK alone at 16?
I didn't feel like I was just being dropped off in a brand new place because we had gone there during summers. We had a lot of family who lived there, so it felt pretty familiar. So for me, it was almost like, “yeah, freedom!” I just get to be on my own in a different country. So it was an easy transition just because I was already familiar with the country.
And then you finished that and went to university also in the UK.
Yes, I went to University of Reading. There I had no problem making friends. In Reading they have a very big Afro -Caribbean society. So there were a lot of Nigerians, people who you would actually see when you're out in Lagos, people who you had gone to secondary school with or been at the same parties with. So university I would say, was easy to integrate.
How did you end up in Law?
In my final year of secondary school, I didn't know what I wanted to be and my parent’s were like, “well, you like to talk so much, so why not become a lawyer? And your grandpa was a judge anyway.” That's how I found myself there. And around the same time, I had started watching Suits. I was like “this is a glamorous lifestyle. I would love to do this.” Little did I know that it was not for me. After uni, I went to Nigeria for law school. And I enjoyed it because it was very close knit. You have a lot more freedom when you go to school in the UK and America. You are basically in charge of your own education. But in Nigerian law school, you have to go to class. You have to have 85 % attendance. And they actually used to make us take fingerprints going into class in the morning at nine and when it finished at four. Yeah, it was very rigid. And you know how if you go to school abroad, you have your phone, you literally do anything. It was a collective struggle.
How did you realize a Law career wasn’t for you?
On my first day in court, I was like, this is not for me. First of all, I went in there all flustered. I was wearing heels and they were making noise in the court and the judge was looking at me disapprovingly. It was not a great experience. The firm I was with did litigation. I went to court a lot. And I just found that I just wasn't really enjoying it. I had the capability, but I just wasn't enjoying it. Also cases take a very long time to get concluded. I didn't like that whole idea of things going on and on and I just really wanted to wake up and be happy about what I'm going to do.
Image by Felix Ezema
Image by Felix Ezema
“A lot of people come up with ideas and then they spend too long on the idea and they basically talk themselves out of it.”
So what did you do?
I knew people do MBAs and use it to move into a different career path. I started the MBA and I've just gone the business path ever since.
And then how did you go from there to starting your own business?
When I was doing my MBA, randomly the idea of Rendoll came up and it was one of those things I just threw myself into it. When I decided to do Rendoll, because I had been making my own clothes in terms of designing and getting tailors to get it made, jumping into it wasn't completely brand new. It was brand new in terms of scale, but I had already started doing it for myself and people were always asking me where I got my clothes from. Let me just kind of do this on the side while I'm doing my MBA.
Wow. So were you initially selling it through word of mouth or straight to the website? How were you doing it?
It started with Instagram. I think it was at the time where everyone was starting a business on Instagram. I started it in June of 2019 and I didn't get my website until May of the next year. So I'm saying for the first year it was literally just Instagram. People kind of just DM’d me to place an order.
And you would take measurements? Was it custom?
I had a standard size guide but then I would take measurements if you kind of fall in between sizes, which is kind of what we still do now, because I find that it reduces returns if your clothes fit you well. And a lot of people don't fit into the average size. Even I am three different sizes when I look at a size guide. So we were usually willing to tweak sizes here and there.
Did you have formal training in sewing and tailoring?
I've actually had to learn a lot on the job just by watching my tailor. Luckily for me, I produce here in Nigeria, so everything is literally made under my nose. At a point I was like, “do I want to learn how to sew?” But I decided no, I’ll hire those who sew and do the designing and the business side. I can't do every single thing. So a lot I've had to learn from the tailors, but I've also had to be open with them that I actually don't know how to sew. Sewing is their expertise and I'm willing to learn from them. They don't know how to design, so I do that. We can basically meet each other halfway. The things that I can do, I can do really well.
It's very important with a business to surround yourself with people who sometimes know more than you in different areas and can push back.
100%. I don't even like being the smartest person in the room because then you don't learn anything.
When I think of starting a business in Lagos, I find that very intimidating. What were some of the obstacles or things that people should know if they want to start their own business in Lagos? And what did you come across as a young woman too? Cause you're not very old.
I think that the perspective you have going into it is very important. So I went into it with the “failure can't happen” mindset. Like it wasn't something that was weighing on my mind that, “what if I fail?” I just thought“this is what I want to do and I'm going to do it.” So I think I went into it with a very confident perspective and I just told myself that anything that I don't know, I'm willing to learn and I'm willing to learn on the job.
What advice do you have for would-be entrepreneurs?
I think that really helped at first because I didn't really know what I was getting myself into but I was fully sure that whatever it is that comes, I'm ready to face it. I came up with the idea in May, by June I had registered the company, opened a bank account and then by July, I had released a collection. One thing I would say, is that a lot of people come up with ideas and then they spend too long on the idea and then basically talk themselves out of it. So what I did was when I came up with the idea in May and I had registered the company in June, that same month I put it on Instagram! I just registered and put the name there. At that point it was Rendoll Lagos. I put “coming soon”. I posted it on my page and I was thinking “ well, now you've told the world that it's coming!” I didn't really give myself any time to talk myself out of it.
I think also don't be afraid of your business changing structure. For example, when I first started, I was doing really small things. I would just go to the market, buy some fabric and only be able to make five pieces. And once it's done, it's done. I was young so my purchasing power was not that high. So I was making clothes that were on the same level as I was at that time. I would maybe make a dress, my cheapest thing was 9 ,000 Naira. 9 ,000 Naira is about five pounds. And the most expensive thing was 25 ,000 Naira, which is about thirteen pounds. And that's where I was at that time. But as I've grown, my taste has grown, my access has grown, even just in terms of fabrics and the whole structural business has changed into a more attainable luxury. So my advice to entrepreneurs is to not box yourself into one thing. Just because you started with one thing doesn't mean that you always have to continue with that.
In Nigeria doing business is really tough because it's almost like every day you wake up it's like “okay what problem am I solving today” because there's always a problem. But I also have the mindset that no matter what the problem is, it has a solution. There's always a solution! So even if you have to take a minute to just recalibrate, there's always a solution but you have to be willing to find it. For me I don't want to go back to law, so there's no fallback plan. This is it. It has to work out so every time something goes wrong I'm like “how are we fixing this?”
Talk about like the personality style you need to have because when you have your own business, you have to be unashamed to push it, promote it, talk about it. And it holds some people back. It used to hold me back. I hate talking about myself, which is why I interview other people, you know?
This is literally me, honestly, I see some of my fellow business owners who have clothes and they're on Instagram every day making videos talking about their products. And I'm like, “I don't want to talk.” And then even the person at my company in charge of marketing, she keeps telling me “you need to make a TikTok”. I'm like, “I don't want to do that. I just want to, I just want to design my clothes.” But with the age that we're in, social media really helps move small brands. Especially when you don’t have like the big advertising, budget.
I think generally to be an entrepreneur you need to be very organized. Luckily I'm organized to a fault. And I also have that personality trait where I have to finish things. So if I'm working on something and I know that it doesn't have to be finished tonight, I can't finish it tomorrow. Sometimes I actually have to tell myself to go to bed, it will still be there in the morning.
If you’re not on top of things it's kind of easy for things to fall through the cracks. And I think also when you can't do it by yourself you need to get someone else. I feel like as a small brand, when you don't have a budget or you don't have a big budget, you try to do every single thing yourself and you have your strengths and your weaknesses. So it's, I think you have to be able to identify the parts that you can't do and find someone else who will be able to do it for you. I also think persistence and realizing that Rome actually wasn't built in a day. A lot of the time, we also compare where we are, in your second year to someone else's fifteenth year and you don't know what struggles that they went through before. I remember when the brand Telfar became really big and everybody was like, “where all of a sudden did this come from?” But I think I read that he had been there working at it for seventeen years or doing it for such a long time! So when you see someone has basically made it, you don't know what the long struggle was like before they got there. We don't all have the same journey.
What's next for Rendoll? Can you tell us, or is it a secret?
So for our first four years, it was just direct to consumer but now we're doing a lot more wholesale partnerships. So very soon you should be able to shop Rendoll on the fashion websites that you usually go to. I'm waiting for one to actually launch maybe next month before I announce it. I don't want to jinx it. And then I want to do more pop -ups because we do have a big international community.
I also think with the growing brand and growing community, it's very important to meet the community, to interact with them and so on. So we did a pop-up in London for the first time last year. and it was a leap of faith because while we have delivered to London before, it wasn't huge enough numbers that I was sure a pop -up would be successful. So I did that and the turnout was great. When we did London last year, because we actually have a bigger community in America, a lot of the customers were commenting like, “hello, why are you only going to London?” So this year I'm doing, Lagos, London and New York. For New York, I'm collaborating with three other brands. We've got a big space because it's during Fashion Week and during Fashion Week, there's a lot going on. So we wanted to make it worth their while. I think it's the first time that any of the brands there are doing New York. So we're also kind of trying to play safe a little bit. Like, I know rent in New York is very expensive, so you don't want to go and rent this massive space. But I have faith. I mean London was good, so I have faith that it will be good.
What do you want people in general and your customers to know about you?
I want them to know that I am very particular about their satisfaction. It's definitely not just about the money. Customer satisfaction is so high for me. I enjoy when they wear it and they tell me: “this is how it made me feel. I got so many compliments, I wore it to my best friend's wedding.” That happiness that they feel is literally the most important thing to me and I try to pass that on to my staff as well. I'm like “you have to always think of your customer as if it was you. How would you want to feel?" So it's not just about will you buy something, it's an experience from when you place that order right up until you wear it. And you have to be like very intentional about how you make the person feel.” So yeah, I really want them to know that they're at the forefront of my thoughts every day.
“I think sometimes it's easy to forget the family side. You forget that we're actually on this earth to make connections and family.”
How do you define success? If you were looking back on your life at old age, what would you consider a successful life for you?
Success for me, I think it would be a mix of things. So there would be family and friends and then there would be the career. I am very career -driven and I think I got that from my mom. She was always at the top of everything that she was doing. And I was very inspired by that. So I think career -wise, I would want to be at the top of my field without compromising my values. And then family wise, I think sometimes it's easy to forget the family side. You forget that we're actually on this earth to make connections and family. A good relationship with my family, spend a lot of time with them so I can go back and say, “yes, we've spent so much time together, we supported each other, we've given each other the things that each person needed.”
And just freedom to do what I want to do. So if I want to go to Bali next week, I can go to Bali next week. So I think success for me is just being able to control my own time and not living my life on any other person's terms. I always also say that we literally have one life to live and I would hate to look back at seventy and feel I never really did what I wanted to do because I was afraid of being judged or I was scared that I wouldn't be accepted. I think for me, every day I wake up and it's very important for me to do exactly what I want to do.
I talk a lot on the site and interviews and with the women I mentor about confidence and self -doubt because so many really accomplished people still have so many difficult thoughts in their head and they're so hard on themselves. They get achievements and invited into spaces and still don't believe that they belong there. Is that something you've ever dealt with? And if you have, how did you get out of it?
Yes I deal with this a lot, a lot. So for example, last year we did our first showing at Lagos Fashion Week and they invited me to speak on a panel. It was a panel by Lagos Fashion Week and the UN. So when I first got the investigation I'm like, “you want me to speak at the UN? Like, what am I going to say then?” But I did it and everyone's reaction was so good. So I think after that I tell myself that you are worthy of being in these spaces that you're called into and you need to believe that.
In the first year and a half of launching Rendoll, I had gotten an email on my website from someone who works at Vogue. And they were like, we really like what you're doing and we would like to feature you in Vogue. I thought it was fraud or 4-1-9 like what we say in Nigeria. So I sent it to my auntie and I was like, “these fraud guys are here again.” She Googled the person who sent it and she was like, “I think it's legit!” So I responded. It kind of maybe went on for about a month or two, giving them all the info, but I didn't actually believe it until I saw my face in print. So I think it's normal to always kind of feel like you're not worthy of things but you also have to like sit back and reflect on what you've done and be like “actually I am a big deal. I do deserve to be in these spaces.”
It’s funny I just finished designing my runway collection for July and I really struggled with what to design because we had seen a change in our sales. I had released a collection but the sales were not what I was used to. So I was having conversations with my marketing manager. I was trying to figure out like okay what went wrong. I started having self doubt. Like maybe my designs are not good enough. I mentioned to my marketing manager that I was really struggling with this collection. She said to me “you need to remember that you've done this for five years and your work has brought Rendoll this far. People have bought into whatever it is that you're selling. So you just kind of need to believe in yourself a bit more.” And literally, three days after, I was done with the collection. So I think that it's good to surround yourself with people who see your value and are there to remind you whenever it is that you forget.
Reni in one of her designs.
Reni at work on a Rendoll shoot.
Rendoll at Lagos Fashion Week.
Have you ever had a negative experience that in the end worked out in your favor?
Yes, this year actually. I got a wholesale order, maybe about 350 pieces. And I was supposed usually what happens is if my regular day -to -day production I produce here in Nigeria, because I have had a small team, but the team is able to deal with like regular orders. But if I have a wholesale order, I have a factory in China who produces wholesale for me. It wasn't a very long delivery window. I think it was about two and a half months they gave us to produce the order and ship it out. And I had been in conversation with my manufacturer in China and then all of a sudden she just goes yeah we can't produce the order. I was actually begging at this point I was almost on my knees I was like, “you can't do this like I don't have enough time!”
Why couldn’t they produce it?
So she had tried to charge me for something that wasn't mine to pay and I was like, “I'm not paying that” and I think she got upset. So I actually think that it may have been a petty thing, but she says that they didn't have the capacity to actually make it at that time, which may also be true. So I guess two things can be true at the same time. So for her, it was like, new designer, and she didn't want me to put that pressure on her on. She didn't want it to be a situation where they don't do it properly because she didn't feel like they had enough time. But I felt like we've already been discussing about this for a month. So telling me a month into it that you can't do it puts me at a very serious disadvantage. So I kept trying to beg and beg. And then I realized that, okay, she's not budging. So I have to find a solution. So eventually I was like, “okay, you know what, I'll buy the fabrics off you and I'll get them made here in Nigeria.” I had to hire an extra tailor! But here’s the part where I’m glad with it worked out this way. So one of, two of the dresses, the same style, but one is like maxi, one is mini. What usually happens in China is if they're making it there, I make the size guides here and send them the measurements to do there. So we had done all the dresses here. I had packed everything and then the last one, I tried it on, it has a cowl back and I realized that my whole bum was out! So I had to open everything and remeasure. And then we realized that when we're making the size guide, we had gotten the measurements wrong. So the only reason I was able to spot that is because I decided to try on a piece that was there with me in Nigeria. But if they had made it in China, she would have used the measurements that I gave her, and then she would have shipped it to this wholesaler. Everybody who bought that dress would have returned it because it was unwearable. And I was like, I only realized this because we ended up having to make it in Nigeria and something told me to try it on. I was also happy that we could write “Made in Nigeria” on the clothes and not Made in China. to put Nigeria on the map. So it's usually a blessing in disguise and this one was definitely a blessing in disguise
This is such a good story and it's such a good example. A really important lesson.
Yeah, I still go back and think about it and I'm like, “wow, like that would have been like thousands of dollars that I would have had to basically pay the wholesaler back”. It's literally enough money to bankrupt the business at this stage. It would have been such a disaster. And I would have been so embarrassed because I'm someone who is very serious about what I do and I want you to know that I'm very serious about it. And then all the new customers would have been like, what is this brand? And never bought it. No, it worked out well.
Reni in one of her Rendoll designs. Image from her @reniabina
Reni in one of her Rendoll designs. Image from her @reniabina
“I can't think of anything worse than deciding to spend your life with the wrong person. I think it can derail your life path. It's a very important decision to make and I think you must make it based on important things.”
What character traits do you have that you feel have really contributed to your success?
I'm very organized, very motivated. I plan for things, I always have to do lists, I always have timetables. I always write everything down. I have folders for every little thing. There's just so many things that I'm doing at the same time. So currently I'm designing two collections, doing samples for that. I'm planning the London pop -up, New York pop -up, we have a creator event in London and I'm also managing three wholesale orders. So I feel like if I wasn't very organized, it's easy to just give up. I don't leave things to the last minute because some other things still pop up at the last minute.
We're going to switch to a bit more personal questions. A lot of our readers are looking for love and looking for inspiration. Can you tell us how you met your husband?
Okay. So we actually have different stories and I'm glad he's not here because now I can tell you my version. There was a Jameson party on Independence Day (in October) and I was with a group of people and I think he knew everyone that I was with. He had said “hi” to them and it would kind of have been rude if he didn't say “hi” to me. So he did. I think that was the first time that we kind of noticed each other. But you know this thing where when you see someone once, you start seeing them everywhere? So after that, I kind of started seeing him at a bunch of other places throughout like October and November. And then in December, because he also hosts weddings and events, my friend's family was having this big Christmas party and he was hosting it. So that's where we started of speaking. And it's so funny because I had gone to the party with someone else. So after the party he had DM'd me, “I hope you go home safe”. And that's kind of how we started talking. It's funny because if you ask him, he'll say that I was basically chasing him around Lagos! I have the DMs to prove that he messaged me first. So yeah the Christmas party was at the end of December and then by like March, we were basically officially dating.
And how did you know as your relationship progressed that he was the guy for you?
I think there was a lot of ease and there was just no doubt. Also he's not a fighter, if that makes sense. So he believes that it's me and you against the problem. It's not me against you. And I was so used to fighting. So sometimes when I was fighting about something, he was looking at me like, “why does this have to be an argument? Like, why can't it just be a conversation? We can actually just have a conversation about this.” Also, he's actually such a good person that sometimes I'm like, “okay, I don't want to do that, Koye would be disappointed.” So I think it's the making me a better person that made me think, “yeah, this is a safe environment.”
The words that you're using are really resonating with me because that word “safe” was huge for me when I met my husband. I felt safe with him. I could tell him anything. I believed the things he said. I felt my nervous system was calm. And not saying it's always perfect, right? But I'm happy to hear such a beautiful story because there are so many bad stories and negativity about dating and horror stories about men non -stop and I don't want women to think that it's really that dire. There are good people out there. I also think people get so focused on all these traits like tall, rich, funny. But the that you said he's a really good person and he doesn't fight and you guys tackle things together. Life is long. I always say everyone says life is short but it's long. We're gonna live to be be 75, 80. That’s a long time to be with someone.
Yeah, exactly. I've been married now for four years. In fact, hold on. Yeah, four years in September. And it feels like we've spent a chunk of time together. And if we're lucky and we live to like 80, we still have another 50 years to go. So it can be very long. I think you don't want to decide based on things that are very trivial because this is literally your life that we're talking about.
I was just laughing because I always think it's a good sign when the woman doesn't even know how long they've been married. Some people ask me, I'm like, wait, and I start counting. Because you're just kind of going through life. You're not thinking about it.
Yeah. I can't think of anything worse than deciding to spend your life with the wrong person. I think it can derail your life path. It's a very important decision to make and I think you must make it based on important things.
You’re a business owner, you're on socials, pushing your business, you're sharing a bit of your life. Your husband besides being a lawyer, he's also a master of ceremonies and an actor with a public profile as well. I'm obviously Nigerian too, our culture expects us, especially as women, to be very private. But in this day and age to really maximize your life and find success, you have to put yourself out there. So talk to me a little bit about that balance of living out loud and of people thinking you're cringe, people judging you.
So I think with me, I have like a pretty good balance with what I decide to keep private and what I put on social media. I think it's just deciding what you want to share and what you don't want to share. So for me, for example, I don't have kids yet, but I do feel when I do have kids, a lot of that will be private because the world can also be a very scary place. And the thing with social media is I can post a picture of my child and anybody can screenshot it. So I think that there are things in my life where I've just decided that I just don't really feel very comfortable sharing that and the parts that I do want to share, I'm happy sharing. And I think I'm also kind of like surrounded with family. So even my family and my in -laws, just let me do what I want to do. So if I want to... Share my holiday picture with uncle. I may have like one or two aunties that may frown on a bikini picture. They're not gonna be like, you have to take that down. So I think I've been blessed to be surrounded by people that kind of just let me be me and make my own decision. And I think luckily, Koye and I kind of align on the things that we want to share and things that we want to be private.
Someone like Koye is very likable. So everyone thinks they're his friend. Like literally, I remember when we were getting married and I was like, “God, people are like, we can't wait for your wedding!” And I'm like, “but you're not invited. Like, you're not on the list…” So he's one of those people who everyone feels like they're his friend. And everyone feels like they know him, but then because I'm married to him, he lives like a completely different side of him that he doesn't share with them online. So I think like we have that good balance between like sharing our likes and things that we want to do and keeping what we decide we want private.
But it sounds like it's up to you. I mean, you're not allowing the outside influences on either way, making you share more or making you not put up what you want to put up.
100 % yeah. I think also with a lot of time that we need to realize that a lot of social media is entertainment so a lot of things that you're putting there it's just a story for Monday. Tomorrow there will be another story. There are some things that you go through that I don't feel like everything has to be online because you're here telling your whole business and people are using you for entertainment for today and tomorrow they're going to move to something else and then you can't take those things back. Once something has gone online it stays there forever. So I think yeah for us it's definitely like what do we want to share and what do we not want to share.
“ I genuinely love a successful woman. I love someone who decides they want to be on top and they make all the plans and sacrifices to get there and they get there.”
Couple of fun questions before we end this. If you could only wear three designers for the rest of your life, not including Rendoll, because obviously Rendoll is number one. What brands really get you going?
Cult Gaia, I absolutely love that brand. The clothes, accessories. But I would say more of the accessories though. Clothes wise, I would say Christopher Esber. He's an Australian designer. I just really like his clothes. Finally Miu Miu at the moment because everything that they're making is just calling my name. Something is going on in that brand, I would really love to live in a Miu Miu closet right now.
If somebody were to come to Lagos, what are the three places you'd tell them they had to go?
Hmm you have to go to the Ilashe beach. For restaurant, I would say RSVP because they've stayed consistent for fifteen years and it's very difficult to get consistency in Lagos. For night life I don't really go out anymore so I may not have the best recommendation but somewhere that I always have fun is Zaza.
If you could have any famous person at your dinner party, dead or alive, from any walk of life, poet, royalty, whoever, who would it be?
Beyoncé. You know what it is for me? I wouldn't even say that I'm so in there with the beehive, but I genuinely love a successful woman. I love someone who decides they want to be on top and they make all the plans and sacrifices to get there and they get there. So I'm actually very inspired by her success. She also doesn't speak to us. So we don't know what's going on with her. She just comes out when she wants to come out and she goes back into hiding. I think it would be very interesting to just kind of know what goes on in her head.
I'd love to gossip with her. Like, what does she really think of everything?
Yeah how can you be so big and known everywhere in the world? I went to her concert in Amsterdam and there were people who spoke different languages, but everyone is there singing along to your music. And we don't know what she goes on in her everyday life, we have no clue. I love it.
With Rendoll can you share with us what the future would look like? Your dreams.
I really want to have a concept store in Lagos and I have an idea of what I want it to look like. So what I need is prayers and support! I'm someone who doesn’t like to start small, and I don't want to have a small store. And that's what my mind is focused on. So I'm really hoping that before like the 10 year mark, I can have that. Cause I want somewhere that you can come to and you you look at it and you get the whole feeling. So I think after I'm done with the pop -ups and the vision that I'm in at the moment, expanding to more retailers, my next focus would be a concept store.
Do you have a quote that exemplifies your outlook on life?
“It's a bad day, not a bad life.” I think I can be dramatic. When something happens, I think my life is falling apart. And that quote reminds me, so today wasn’t a great day, but you can go to bed and wake up and tomorrow will be better.
Thank you for giving us your time. I know you've got so much going on and we’ll be on the lookout for your London and New York pop -ups and I have no doubt that this store that you're dreaming about will be open in the near future. Good luck with everything and we will see more of you in the future.
I can't wait. Amen. Thank you.
