Uche Nnaji shares journey to building global fashion power house ‘OUCH’

Like most successful entrepreneurs, Uche Nnaji started small. In his university days, he would buy shirts from a second-hand market in Lagos Island to sell. He turned his passion into a business enterprise when he founded OUCH, a fashion powerhouse that prides itself on having a global perspective but an unwavering passion for local platforms.

Variously celebrated for being a globally oriented brand, OUCH and Uche Nnaji, its founder continues to receive wide acclaim for being innovative, inspirational and ‘truly Naija’. The brand which was established in 2016 currently has OUCHlets Lagos, and Port Harcourt.

February 2010 marked the beginning of a new phase of Nnaji when OUCH was featured amongst global fashion heavyweights at the New York Fashion Week. The Couture Week that was staged at the prestigious Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, saw the international launch of ‘The platinum collection and the unveiling of the indefatigable Fela Durotoye as the face of the collection. The collection was warmly received by the international fashion community and received wide reviews by the international media.

Nnaji is dedicated to creating a wholesome fashion experience for Men from the styling to the quality and finishing. Presently the label parades on its apparels, product lines for suits, blazers, pants and shirts made to measure (shirts, pants kaftan, formula1, polos and suits). On its accessories line, it stocks a wide variety of ties, pocket squares, socks, cufflinks, tie clips, tie pins, lapel pins etc. And its leather products include belts, bags, slippers, shoes, wallets, etc.

In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, he spoke on his humble beginnings, the iconic suit he made for ex-president Muhammadu Buhari while he was still president and the evolution of the Nigerian fashion industry since he entered the space.

Take us through your journey of founding OUCH. How did it start and where are you today?

The journey as a style entrepreneur and creator has been an interesting one. We started during the days when it was not fashionable to be into fashion. We are talking about the university days when it was just all about passion. Passion was what was driving me to assist other students to look fashionable. And when I say this, I’m talking about the whole formal dapper, jacket wearing kind of look and not just generally fashion but more on that formal aspect. That was what inspired this whole thing because afterwards, we saw that we followed this path. I followed the path of fashion and I never looked back. In school when I studied political science, I never knew that I was going to do fashion. In school, I was already making money. Fellow students were already paying and patronising me for my service but I never knew that I was going to follow fashion all through. I had saved up money up to 4,000 pounds then even as a Youth corper to go to the University of Westminster in the UK. I studied political science as my first degree in the University of Lagos but wanted to go further in International Diplomacy at the University of Westminster but I wasn’t issued the student visa. Frank Aigbogun, the publisher of BusinessDay was one of the people I went to for advice at that time and he encouraged me and told me that for a youth corper that has handwork, was I sure I did not want to concentrate on this? That word from Aigbogun and words from some other mentors just made me write to the University of Westminster and demanded for 4,000 pounds to be sent back and it was sent back and I used that money to open the first OUCH outlet at Onigbongbo, Lagos; a 12 square meters outlet and the rest is history.

Has the name always been OUCH?

In school, there was this student who always went with the expression ‘Ouch’ when he saw me dressed up. He had this American accent and he just goes like ‘Ouch men, you look good, it hurts.’ We now decided to go with the name ‘OUCH’ because we realised it has an expression. Style is also an expression. For the guy, the style he was seeing on me made him go ‘OUCH’. But we understand that style is individualistic and each individual has their personal style. We also wanted a name that is global. I think I was just ahead of my time. I wanted four letter words. If you look at some of my contemporaries, they had started this decade of four, three and two letter words. We went with OUCH also because we wanted a name that would not have boundaries for pronunciation. Anyone from any country can pronounce the name.

Did your family background influence your passion for fashion and style?

My father was British trained. First I’ll say the sartorial angle came from my dad. If my dad was alive now, he would be close to 90 years old. So you can imagine those people who were British trained then. Everything was prim and proper. My father had this very creative handwriting. My father was just so prim and proper that I picked the sartorial side from him.

In your university days, were you designing and making the clothes or were you just all about putting things together or just buying and selling?

God bless his soul, Seyi Swob. He had a fashion brand called Swob. With the influence of certain men at the Redeemed church in Apapa, I saw certain kinds of shirts that they were wearing. These were shirts that I could not afford. But a guideline for me was from buying Okrika, (thrift clothes) in the famous Lagos Island Berlin market. I could not afford those kinds of shirts. We are talking about the Harket shirt, like Austin Reed. I had a friend whose father was an Executive Director in Nigerian Breweries back then. So I had access to those shirts and the few I had from my friend. I wore them in school and my very good friend, Princess Yemisi Oniru, who was in the same class with me wondered at the kind of shirts I was wearing. She wondered where I got the shirts from. When I wore a few of those shirts, courtesy of my rich kid friends, I realised that I couldn’t afford those shirts. So, I went to look for them at Lagos Island. When I saw those shirts at Lagos Island Okrika; that was when Seyi came in. I will buy these shirts from the second hand market at Lagos Island and then go to Yaba to buy fabric. This was before going to school in New York and having to take courses on Fabrics. I can identify shirts made in Egyptian cotton. What happened was that when I went to Yaba, I had in mind what I wanted. I didn’t have any formal training then but I could feel the texture. So when my brothers in Lagos Island who were just importers didn’t know what they were carrying, I knew. I went to Seyi for advice on the shirts. I was passing Jibowu, WAEC and I saw a tailoring sign and I went in. Apparently, his younger brother comes to the Redeemed church that I go to and with that connection, he started encouraging me with the kind of shirts I wanted to make. He welcomed me with open arms. I went to him a couple of times and had some things done for him. I picked my fabrics and he was also amazed how I knew about fabrics. I guess that came with the eyes of having something that served as a guide.

Tell us about the challenges since you started. Were there times you felt like you didn’t think you could continue?

I feel that way right now (laughs). One of the generators that run here went bad. The 20kva generator went bad recently. I feel like giving up right now. Because I don’t know how people like myself have been holding on to this dream, inspiring a generation and having people from far and wide looking up to you and thinking that all is so rosy. We made fashion appealing to a generation of young people.

Let us talk about the kind of clothes that you design. Who do you design for?

I do literally everything for men. If you look back almost 18 years ago when we started, one of the things that we did; and I say this in all humility, apart from the fact that we were a trigger for a generation for people to know that they can come into this space; we pioneered off-the-rack men’s suits which were made overseas. Let me break it down.

Before our advent in the late 2000s, before I started going to Europe to make suits in my brand name; nobody was making suits then. I remember meeting one of two older guys in Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. I went on a quest to seek knowledge. I remember then out of love and concern, encouraging me that with the small money I had, if I wanted to make things in my brand name, many people said that Nigerian men won’t buy it. At that time, it was a gamble. I’m talking about the year 2010. So I have pioneered that path. I went ahead to do it. Nigerian men were embracing it. They will have bought my products before they know it’s a Nigerian name on it.

Despite people saying Nigerian men won’t buy your brand, you still went into it. What was the drive for you?

Yes I got into it. Remember we introduced a cut that was not in existence in Nigeria and that cut is still there. These suits are longer than the regular suits that were available then. I factored in the physical body shape of the typical Nigerian man, knowing that most Nigerian men have features of a soma type. So, sitting in Europe, you look at the European suits; it doesn’t sit well on a Nigerian man. So, we created suits that when Nigerian men wear them, it sits well on their somatotype. It covers their waistline. African men, unlike the Europeans, have bum. So we featured this into making the suits. So, when we brought it, what happened was that it was an easy fit. For a lot of them, they had not seen something like that. For some people, it was Zara they were used to amongst other top foreign fashion brands then. So, the suit was a win. Back then, we introduced our suit at N65,000. Nigerian men will come and buy two or three. These were the good old days. Now, those suits are equivalent of N500,000 to N550,000. With the trend that has emerged, we had to go with the times. We have to create pieces that are free wear and not too formal. We still have suits but we do more of custom made now. But the demand for custom is no more. Instead of making one custom suit, you want to use the money to make like four natives. As much as we are trying to innovate and create new things which we are working on seriously, it is also difficult to just do suits because we are making suits overseas with the current foreign exchange scarcity which is making things difficult. This is unlike when you bring in fabrics and people come and pick the fabrics from your catalogue and you have stuff made for them. That is where we are now. We have some ladies we also make pants and shirts for. These people have brought their partners because their wife loved what they were wearing and we made it for them.

The senator seems to have become the outfit for men now. Why is this so?

After styling the former president Buhari in 2015; he was wearing the suit I made. I was the one that put him in that iconic suit. I made a mistake by not blowing it up. I was being quite conservative. A lot of people didn’t know. I have a picture of me dressing him. Buhari wore OUCH. When I was styling him, he told me he had not worn a suit for over 20 years.

The traditional outfits especially the senator and caftans we have today can take the place of suits today. The senator and caftans can take the place of suits, helping our economy grow even though we don’t make the fabrics here, we can also through these, create jobs. The production part is about creating jobs. We can make that a formal wear and it takes the place of suits in Nigeria corporate setting because the more people start embracing and wearing caftans, it would mean that Kaduna textiles mills and all other textile mills will be resuscitated. People will still need to go into textile production. People will then come into tailoring and create jobs and I’m happy about this.