From his razor-sharp bespoke tailoring and luxury bridal wear to creating red-carpet looks for some of Africa’s biggest stars, Nigerian fashion designer Mai Atafo has built a brand around exclusivity. Now, he is immersed in preparations for a Lagos fashion show coming later this month.
After pulling off an outstanding 90-minute show in Lagos in 2023, that had 800 people sitting front row, with 50 models wearing 83 outfits and walking on six lanes, he plans on outdoing himself this October. “It’s got to be bigger, better,” he told CNN’s Larry Madowo in Lagos.
Having a standout fashion show is on brand for Atafo, who in April 2019 had supermodel Naomi Campbell, a long-time champion of African design, grace his runway during the ARISE Fashion Week show in Lagos.
It came as a surprise to him. Atafo was getting ready for the event when the show’s director told him that Campbell would be walking in his show. “I didn’t have anything made for her,” Atafo recalled.
He hastily rearranged his show, with Campbell opening it. The moment she hit the runway, “the crowd just goes crazy,” Atafo said. For the finale, she walked with Atafo and kissed his cheek. “I’m like, ‘Oh, did I get a kiss too from Naomi Campbell?’ Oh my god!” he added
In an interview with CNN in April 2019, days before the ARISE fashion show, Campbell talked about her love for Africa and her desire to help its creatives gain international recognition for their work.
“It makes me proud to say I’m wearing an African designer,” she said. “Our great world of fashion has ignored this continent. … For me, Africa is very rich in so many ways and has been so untapped… and so this is the time.”
As chief creative officer of his eponymous fashion brand ATAFO, whose designs embody the idea of sartorial elegance, he hopes to one day be viewed as an equal to that select group of luxury designers whose brands are identified by a single name: Versace, Valentino and Gucci.
Atafo’s clientele includes some of Nigeria’s most prominent politicians, celebrities and business leaders, many of whom visit his Lagos store to get custom-made designs. Media mogul Mo Abudu, singers Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage and “Big Brother Naija” host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu have all been seen in ATAFO. Actor and singer Banky Wellington and his wife, actress Adesua Etomi, are both friends and clients.
“He’s made some of the most important pieces my wife and I have ever worn, including our wedding outfits,” Wellington said in a message to CNN.
“I genuinely believe he is one of the finest designers we’ve encountered anywhere in the world,” Wellington added, praising Atafo’s craftsmanship and attention to detail. “He has that rare ability to understand who you are, what the moment requires, and then create something that feels distinctly like you while still carrying his signature.”
In August 2021, South African actress Thuso Mbedu wore a beautiful red tulle gown designed by Atafo to the Hollywood Critics Association Awards, where she received the TV Breakout Star Award for “The Underground Railroad.”
A month later, The Hollywood Reporter recognized Atafo as being part of a wave of international designers grabbing the attention of Hollywood’s most prominent stylists and celebrities.
Beyond the recognition for his creativity, Atafo has been invited to speak at the Africa Business Conference at Harvard University multiple times. “That made me feel like I was doing something right. It’s moments like that or moments that my garments are showcased at the Africa Fashion exhibition at [London’s] Victoria and Albert Museum, which moves on to the Brooklyn Museum, which is moving to Paris. … They’re really, really good moments. I cherish them,” he said.
Atafo, who holds a master’s degree in information systems and technology, did not set out to be a fashion designer — he only wanted to have his own unique style. He joked that If he was starting out in the Instagram era, he would “probably be a fashion influencer, because it was about me wearing clothes and looking good, not necessarily making people look good. I didn’t want anyone [else] to look good, I wanted to look the best.”
He said that he took his first steps into design because in those early days, his long arms meant that he had to alter the suits and shirts he bought, sometimes removing cuffs and replacing sleeves with ones in a different fabric.
“I used to do all those tricks … And that’s how the journey started,” he said.
For the past 16 years, Atafo has been perfecting his craft, attending fashion school in Italy and becoming certified as a tailor at the Savile Row Academy. He even had his team trained by a master tailor from Saville Row, the London street known for bespoke tailoring that’s popular with celebrities, politicians and royalty.
And since most of his clients are from the upper echelon of Nigerian society, Atafo wanted to bring that standard to them. He said: “We [Africans] do this thing where we go, like ‘it’s good enough for here,’ and for me that’s not the standard. It has to be good enough for everywhere.
“The world is a global village … I can be walking anywhere in the world right now and someone will see my suit, and I go like ‘I made it and I made it in Africa’ — and that’s something I want to be proud of.”
Source: www.cnn.com
