Bovi and AY might not be the best of pals right now. And they are both so good at glossing over questions along that line. However, not too many years ago, they were ride-or-die buddies.
If Yomi Casual is a brand in the fashion industry today, the roots were fed by nutrients from the fertile brotherliness Bovi and AY once shared. In this maiden edition of “Lunch with Vanguard”, Yomi Casual explains his journey and, most seminal, how a suggestion by Bovi made AY buy him a sewing machine from where the luxury fashion brand began.
Talking about his journey, Yomi recounted how Bovi Ugboma, popularly called Bovi influenced AY to buy him a sewing machine, from where he said his luxury fashion brand began.
Yomi, who is one of the foremost fashion designers in Nigeria noted that his brand (Yomi Casual) became a force to reckon with in the fashion industry today due to what he described as the fertile brotherliness Bovi and AY once shared.
The luxury fashion designer, who Studied Fashion Designing at Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, talked about how a platform could help talents blow.
He said, “You can be very talented and what you need is just a platform and the platform I had then was the AY Show to put my brand out there. AY did not come online and start shouting, “Buy Yomi Casual outfit.” There was no time. It was later when the brand became a name that you started seeing my pose on AY page.”
Talking about insinuations of AY giving him a huge fund to launch, Yomi said, “Bovi said to AY, “Get this guy a sewing machine now,” because then I used to do alterations for them. They would go and buy big clothes and shirts and I would take them to the market to amend for them, so they saw all these things and Bovi just pushed AY to get a sewing machine for me and that was my first sewing machine. That was it and he left the rest for me. There was no time when AY came and said take this money to go and do this,” Yomi added.
Explaining further, Yomi recalled that he was living in AY house after AY had forced me to move to Lagos, saying, “and then I had no sewing machine. I was working as his secretary, because I was the one in charge of AY Live; I did the ticketing and everything; I was the one paying the staff salaries; I was more or less like a Mini Manager without a position.
“I was doing everything, buying fuel; I was the personal consultant for clothing. I moved to Lagos as a tailor. I didn’t move to Lagos to practice this profession. I didn’t believe in that dream very much. So, there was a day I saw Bovi’s outfit in his closet and I googled the designer who made it. That was when I realised a designer could be this big.” he added.
Yomi never believed his dream could become big considering where he came from.
“I came from Auchi Polytechnic. All the lecturers that were teaching us, God help me, were not doing so well. There was not so much hope then. The dream was not even in my list at all until I saw Bovi’s outfit in AY’s closet,” he said.
