“I Don’t Make Dresses For Celebrities Who Speak Foreign Language, ‘English’”- Mercy Aigbe’s Tailor Reveals

Popular celebrity designer, Abiodun Folashade Tokunbo, the CEO of Anjy Luminee Couture, also known as House of Luminee who styles celebrities like Mercy Aigbe has revealed that despite her success, she avoids English speaking clients.

She noted that she has difficulties expressing herself in English, so she tries to avoid friends who understand English more than she does to avoid any trouble with her client. The fact that she does not want to be misunderstood by her English speakers, keeps her away from them because of mockery.

Seye Kehinde engaged her in an interview where she explained a lot of things. She was asked a series of questions where she answered all.

She said: “When God gives you talents from heaven then it makes things easy for you because I didn’t learn this, Nobody can come out and lay claims to the fact that I once learnt tailoring from him or her. It was a gift from God. Most times when I have plans of making a particular design after cutting, I end up getting another masterpiece. I can’t even explain where the inspiration comes from.  I even get really surprised at some of my designs after adding one or two things together, it always turns out beautiful and they end up looking like clothes designed from abroad.

What has been your experience in the fashion industry?

Sir, you know I have been working with lots of stars and they always want me to attend to them personally so it has not been easy but it is well, I don’t have any friend because if anything happens I won’t be able to express myself in English, so I avoid friends who understand English more than I do and I avoid anywhere they argue about international designers because I don’t want people to misunderstand me, I am very original and with this little English, I understand they mock me with my English but I don’t care, all this packaging won’t give me money, my work speaks for me.

I have had so many experiences in this industry, some will bring clothes and wants it ready within 3 days, I will collect it and find a way around it, if you don’t train yourself to be a champion in this field your workers will misbehave and run you down, then the students too coupled with family issues but I give God all the glory that I am married to a wonderful husband, most times I tell myself I don’t deserve such a man, he understands me, even as a doctor he makes out time for me, there are lots of jealousy and envy in the industry, the moment they see big clients with you, they start getting angry forgetting the fact that it is not my doing but God’s grace, life is turn by turn, imagine designing for over 100 people with different designs and they will all be looking good, it is not easy at all.

How do you satisfy all your client?

It’s not easy, but I know I am blessed if it is book I will have F9, but if it is nylon I am given to make a dress it will come out excellent, God has blessed me with that, I went to Mountain of Fire for 7 days for prayers and fasting before I started my work because I don’t want to make mistakes in life, I have a lot of talents and didn’t know which one to settle for so I seek for God’s grace to make the right decision, I make my hair, makeup myself I always go to God first before making any decision, without tape rule, I can make clothes, lots of clients are not even in Nigeria, some I have never seen them for years but yet I make clothes for them and we have not had any issue the only thing I ask for is their measurement and people don’t come back to my shop for amendment, no matter the shape I will make a good dress for you.

What about your charges?

Before you start charging people so high, you have to start from somewhere, when I started this job, I was collecting 1,000 naira but honestly, it is not all about the money but I am happy someone is wearing what I made, to me, it is a privilege but later it was 5k, then from 20k to 30k.

It all depends on their job, I charge 500k, 1 million, it all depends on the nature of the job, I am not just collecting money but people or clients will see what they are spending so much on, people complain I don’t respond to messages but it is not my fault, I am not arrogant, as I am talking to you I have over 10,000 messages on my phone which I have not responded to, I always try as much as possible to finish a particular job before collecting another so I can concentrate and the workload won’t be much, I derive joy seeing my clients happy, if you come to my house you can see traces of sewing clothes in my house because I don’t like collecting too many clothes at the same time.