Olayebi has been making bags since 1992
Her pieces are edgy and colourful and she is pushing the boundaries with her bespoke, leather handbags. In this interview, FEMI OLAYEBI, creative director, My World of Bags, tells FUNKE OSAE-BROWN how she is making a bold statement with her luxury brand, FemiHandbags.
Earlier in January, I was browsing through Facebook when I stumbled on her Facebook page. I was impressed by the quality of handbags on display as I went through her assortment of pictures for the launch of her latest collection.
The FemiHandbags brand is eclectic, quirky, edgy, colourful and fun. This explains why I was attracted to the images of the bags I saw on the Facebook page of Femi Olayebi, the creative director, My World of Bags and FemiHandbags. Immediately, I got in touch with her for TLR to tell her amazing story.
“I have always had a pretty clear idea of the direction with regards to the styling of the bags,” she tells me when I asked about her brand, “and even though the plan was not to reinvent the wheel in terms of shapes and silhouettes, I never let those distinguishing hallmarks slip from my consciousness.”
Initially, her dream was to become a translator. She was prepared to do everything to achieve that goal and spent the earlier part of her life trying to become the translator she always dreamt she would be. In pursuance of that goal, she did her BA in French at the University of Ibadan, and then went off to Strasbourg in France for a Masters in Translation. However, God had other plans; she found herself thrust into a new world after making her first baby bag.
“I have not looked back and I have done nothing else but hone my skills and get better at my craft. I believe I got a lot of my tenacity and my quest for excellence from my dad, who was an extremely meticulous man. It has been a pretty amazing journey, with its many ups and downs but truth be told, it is this tenacity, and my passion, that has kept me going twenty-four years on.”
Her pieces are bespoke, tailor-made to suit the needs of her clients. Olayebi’s attention to detail has always been a subject of conversation with her handmade bags. Her pieces are easily recognisable by the signature elements embedded within the bag. One of her principal signatures is the infusion of Aso-oke in the creation of her luxury handmade deluxe bags and this has become an intrinsic part of her brand. “And I think we have done that quite successfully,” she adds, “blended sophistication with traditional elements.”
The FemiHandbags brand is eclectic, quirky, edgy, colourful and fun.
Olayebi has been making bags since 1992. However, in 2010 she decided to separate her two lines, corporate and luxury. FemiHandbags offers a wide range of products including overnighters, leather folios, tablet cases, and an exciting range of small leather goods. In the last 24 years, FemiHandbags has gradually grown to become an iconic luxury brand.
Olayebi describes herself as the daughter of serendipity, the accidental entrepreneur. “There simply was no idea,” she says playfully while recalling her sojourn into becoming an entrepreneur and venturing into manufacturing luxury leather goods.
“FemiHandbags was certainly not the result of nights and nights of business-planning or strategy meetings. I simply stumbled into the world of designing and manufacturing bags by pure chance. It simply happened. Period. I wanted to buy myself a baby bag, couldn’t find one I liked and because I had just learnt how to use a sewing machine, I felt that the logical thing to do would be to head to the market, buy some fabric, sit at my machine, and attempt to make my own,” she enthuses.
And that decision paid off. It has birthed the luxury leather goods brand, FemiHandbags with pieces are conceptualised, designed and manufactured at its Ibadan facility. “Once we have decided on the styles and silhouettes,” she says while explaining the process of designing the bags, “we prepare cutting tickets for each design and assign the styles to specific workmen and women. The leathers are selected accordingly, and we ensure that all the hardware necessary for the designs are available before proceeding. The process of manufacturing then starts.
“The different parts of the bag are cut using patterns which have been developed for every style, heavier leathers are skived (thinned out) with skiving knives or a skiving machine to prepare them for sewing, and the parts are glued together in preparation. The different parts are then sewn together, while some parts are hand-stitched. Once the bag is ready, it is checked for errors, cleaned, tagged and stored away ready to be shipped off to a concession or a client.”
Beyond leather goods, she says the brand has evolved gradually over the years from using different types of fabric to make the bags. For her at the beginning, fabric was certainly a cheaper option and for years she experimented with different types of materials and found a way of coming up with interesting designs. However, 2010 was the tipping point. She was about to take part in her first ever stand-alone international exhibition in London, and she was not very sure how to go about it. She and Duro Olowu, the UK-based Nigerian designer, crossed paths. She turned to him for advice, Olowu encouraged her to use leather and she has consistently worked with leather ever since.
“Since then, we have continued to expand the leather range not just within the Femi luxury line but also within the corporate line and have added leather folios, phone pouches and other e-accessories and SLGs (small leather goods) to our range.”
Beyond leather goods, she says the brand has evolved gradually over the years from using different types of fabric to make the bags.
With a target market spanning high-income earners who can afford to spend good money on the things they love, Olayebi has been extending her brand presence to other parts of the country. Operating from her base in Ibadan, Oyo State, her brand has a strong presence in Lagos.
“Our clients are discerning and sophisticated and have an appreciation for unique and beautifully hand-crafted products. In terms of the strongest presence, the answer is easily Lagos. For a while we lay low and didn’t do much merchandising, as we needed to review our marketing strategy, and so we concentrated on our corporate line, which is our bread and butter. “
For a while Olayebi only sold the handbags to the walk-in customers in Ibadan or to those that placed orders through her website. Last December, she decided to aggressively kick-start her sales with an exclusive private sale in Lagos.
“For the first time, we had a lot of our target market in one space, ‘o-ohing’ and ‘a-ahing’ at the quality of the craftsmanship and wondering where we had been all their lives! It was great fun and we had some people cart off up to three pieces for themselves. The event was beyond amazing and has had a lot of positive ripple effects. The feedback was precious and helped us re-evaluate some business decisions.”
She says her unique selling point is the quality of the work and the high level of the craftsmanship. “We are constantly striving to achieve excellence – from the smallest details to the final packaging, we ensure that our products stand out. Furthermore, even though the silhouettes are very Western, we always manage to weave our tradition into most of our pieces with the use of Aso-oke – that singular aspect gives each bag that signature FEMI look.
“Another unique selling point is the colour-splashed nature of our bags, so we do make a difference with our boldly coloured pieces. Finally, to maintain the exclusive nature of the brand, there are only ever one or two pieces of each style and colour and this makes the consumer believe that they are purchasing a product that can’t be found anywhere else.”
When asked how affordable her pieces are, she has this to say: “It’s all relative really. I recently read somewhere that price is only ever an issue in the absence of value. Love that! So true! We have a pretty wide range, and whatever it is you purchase, whether it is from the low five figures to the high six figures, it always provides value for money.”
FemiHandbags are already available in a few concessions in Lagos.
FemiHandbags are already available in a few concessions in Lagos. Recently, Olayebi also began supplying to concessions in Port Harcourt and Abuja. “We definitely intend to gradually extend our reach beyond these shores and hope to expand to a few African countries in the nearest future. For now, we are carefully watching the buying patterns of the different customers in the different states. It’s a really interesting journey and we’re quite excited to be spreading our tentacles not just within Nigeria but internationally.”
The handbags are also available on their website www.femihandbags.com or you can send a mail to info@femihandbags.com to place your order. “If we have the desired bag in stock, we ship it to the customer. If we don’t, we proceed to manufacture. However, this is about to change as we are in the process of re-designing our website to enable online purchases. For the brand, the future certainly beckons.”
About The Author
