Amaka osakwe biography

Amaka Osakwe (born 1987) is a Nigerian fashion designer and creator of the African-based fashion label named Maki Oh. She has led her womanswear label since.
Raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Osakwe received a BA in fashion studies from Arts University Bournemouth in the UK, before returning to Nigeria to launch her fashion.
She and her siblings designed clothes, and their mother made them, from fabric she selected at Tejuosho Market.

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Maki Oh

Raised in Lagos, Nigeria, founding designer Amaka Osakwe studied at Arts University Bournemouth in the UK before launching her ready-to-wear fashion label Maki Oh in 2010. The designer blends traditional, indigenous textiles and motifs with Western silhouettes, and her brand is centered strongly around her own West African identity and culture, and incorporates a traditional Nigerian dye method known as adire. In a conversation with Interview Magazine, Osakwe explained the significance behind the adire process, saying “We used adire because we believe in ethical and sustainable practices, and more importantly, we believe in keeping our cultural heritage alive. It’s is a beautiful art, but it is also a dying art.” Her emphasis on sustainable, slow production processes and a reverence for the female form has resulted in an aesthetic that is wearably feminine and flattering, and has seen Maki Oh receive a 2014 LVMH Prize nomination, as well as recognition from leading international titles including Vogue, WWD, and The New York Times.

In 2012, Maki Oh presented at N

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MaKi Oh

Photography Amaka Osakwe

Nigeria’s rising star has shot an exclusive story for Nataal featuring her SS16 collection

Amaka Osakwe always stitches deep meanings into her sensual, intelligent womenswear. But for SS16 she’s excelled herself by taking us on an existential journey through French philosophy, Yoruba legend, Spanish cinema and Greek mythology only to come to the conclusion life’s a bitch and then you die. “The collection explores the ideas of finding purpose through actions of futility,” Osakwe explains. “The Maki Oh woman is reflective this season, giving rise to questions about life and how in it, we find both nothingness and meaning.”

The designer drew on Pedro Almodovar’s moribund film Talk To Her as well as Albert Camus’ essay on Sisyphus, the king who was condemned to forever push a bolder up a mountain just to watch it roll down again. “Camus muses that Sisyphus must find happiness in this pointless endeavour. He expresses that life is built on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death.” Osakwe was also remi

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Amaka Osakwe Keynote Speaker

Amaka Osakwe Speaker Profile:

Born 1987, Amaka Osakwe is a Nigerian fashion designer and creator of the African-based fashion label named Maki Oh. She has led her womenswear label since 2010 from Lagos, and it is one of the few Nigerian-based brands to be globally acknowledged. Osakwe studied at the Arts University Bournemouth where she received a BA in fashion studies. In autumn/winter 2010 she launched her label. Inspired by rural Ghana’s Dipo rites-of-passage ceremony, during which girls taking part are partially naked and ornately adorned, Osakwe has played with cloaking and ornamentation using traditional African fabrics. Recently her label was discovered by the U.S. fashion scene in 2012 when she presented her designs at the New York Fashion Week. She relates the legacy of their country with one if they dyed their brands by hand with indigo leaves and painted the pattern with a paste made from cassava. Adire is the traditional method.

International stars such as singers Beyoncé and Rihanna or Hollywood actress Kerry Washington have worn o