One Nigerian Boy Takes a Closer Look at the RE BAHIA for Vlisco Collection

 

  19 year old Nigerian budding talent Orire Omatsola is one half of the mother and daughter team behind London based new label RE BAHIA. The FAB Magazine in conjunction with Vlisco’s night out provided the opportunity for the new label to make its debut showing in Nigeria. With such a momentous occasion, loads of hard work and emotions resulted into one of my favorite collections from the Vlisco Show. The designer was working strictly with batik prints for the first time too, and put her craft to good use.

 

  The signature threading style of the label originated from her mom’s native Sierra Leone.

What was the strongest inspiration for your collection ?

My strongest inspiration for the Vlisco show was honestly the fabric itself. I get inspired by fabrics, its 

colours and textures. Ankara fabrics are all about print and what's important to me is that I create

 garments that respect the fabrics design.   

 
What kind of woman were you designing the clothes for?

To me there is no specific type of woman. I design for every kind of woman. I am still young and I 

know I have a lot more to learn about pleasing all types of woman. But for now I make pieces that I hope

 make women feel unique and special.  

 

 What challenges did you have working with batik prints? 

 At first I thought it was going to be such a challenge, especially not being able to choose the fabrics. 

But because I have instilled in me that what's most important is the fabric itself, it turned out to be a 

dream experimenting with them and figuring out what best suits the fabric. 

 

What was it like showing in Nigeria for the first time?

 Words will never be able to describe how it felt. I know I had dreamt about it for years. It was honestly 

the best day of my life. But nothing will ever compare to the look on my mums face after the show.

 

 

A closer look at the signature threading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: Impressive stuff, without doubt one of the labels to look forward to in the future.

Orire Omatsola