Adekemi… for culture, women, environment

THE uniqueness of Mojisola Adekemi Adegoke’s MAWI design stems from its multicultural flavour. A deeply talented and passionate creative artist, Adekemi is reputed for her rare, colorful African prints.

In every inch of every piece, Adekemi infuses passion and love. What’s distinctive about her work is that she uses her designs to interpret different stories. She explores the nexus between traditional African and Western fabric and style; giving her clients a sense of genuine freedom. MAWI’s designs does not only make their clients stand out, but also feel comfortable.

Her designs incorporate the rich culture, spirit, and diversity of the Nigerian people; also celebrate women making huge marks for themselves.

In an interview with, she spoke about her challenges, inspirations and her brand, Mawi.

MAWI was first an acronym — Mojisola Alaso’s Wears and Interiors. Later on, we decided not to limit our brand by the name. There are a whole lot of creative things we can do, we didn’t want the name to be a barrier. 
Then, we decided it will be just MAWI. In Yoruba, Mawi can be loosely translated as “keep talking”. Our brand is focused on story telling. So, we keep talking about creativity, our culture, history and women who are hardworking and things happening in our environment. We also want people to keep talking about our brand, hence, MAWI.

Inspiration
God is my inspiration. My inspiration also comes from my immediate environment. Sometimes, I see things around me and it strikes me that I can make a print out of them. Sometimes, I’m watching the television; an idea hits me and I pen it down. At other times, I see some prints in my sleep. Funny but true.

Promoting African fabric and culture
I am an African woman and a proud one. I express myself more with my hand-dyed textile fabrics. All our fabrics are handcrafted and focused on promoting our African culture.
We make premium hand-dyed adire fabrics. Adire is mostly African. I love to tell stories with our prints. We recently launched a collection where we celebrated Chief Dr. Mrs Nike Okundaye and told her story with our prints. 
However, we also have customers in the diaspora. We sometimes make prints that are a blend of two cultures but we always try to maintain our African authenticity.
We are always creating new designs. We also style our fabrics by creating outfits that will suit the taste of our customers.

Journey into fashion designing 
My journey has been an amazing one. I have always had passion for creativity. I would watch tailors while they paddle the machine. I used to draft patterns and keep them in my diary. I get frustrated when I give the images to some tailors and they find it difficult to interpret the style.
I learnt how to paddle the machine by myself. During the lockdown period last year, I learnt how to sew from my younger sister. She was amazed at how fast I was able to learn. Within a few days of learning, I started sewing and I drafted patterns from the images I pictured in my mind.
After a while, I decided to launch a ready to wear line for MAWI,  so I collaborated with fashion designers to achieve this. Textile and fashion designing is interesting to me. I look forward to strutting the runway.

Challenges
God had been my rock, I trust Him completely 
Recently after the #EndSARS protest, we lost all our fabrics when our store was vandalised. It was a very sad one but we were able to scale through and we launched our Ìrìn Àjò collection.
Just like gold passes through fire and comes out beautiful, I have decided to get stronger as I face challenges at every point in life. I am better and stronger each passing day.

Fashion muse
My customers are my Muse. Once I see them, I immediately get ideas of the kind of prints that would suit their skin colour, their class and lifestyle. So yes, my customers are my muse.

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‘It all started in my childhood…’

How was growing up like
I grew up in a closely knit family of six. I have a brother and two sisters. That’s three siblings altogether. 
I spent the first 20 years of my life on McNeil Road, Yaba. My mum was very strict. I was not too expressive as a child and I used to get into trouble with my mum a lot. 
I’ve always been creative. As a child, I used to save up my money to buy art materials. I made small paintings and greeting cards. I had great passion for art. This fueled my interest in studying Creative Arts in the university.
My parents were supportive.

Family and education background
I grew up in a family of six as I mentioned earlier. My mum is a caterer and my dad, an electrical engineer. We lived at Yaba together in our family house. Growing up was fun for me. 
I had my primary education at St Patrick’s Primary School, Yaba. Then, I proceeded to Reagan Memorial Secondary School for my Secondary education. I had my university education at the Tai Solarin University of Education where I studied Creative Arts.

Style of dressing
My style is comfort and simplicity. You can never go wrong with these two.

Favorite signature scent(s)
I like mild and sweet fragrances. Vanilla is always a go to for me.

What she  won’t be caught dead wearing

Lol… I think I won’t be caught dead wearing lingerie.

Favorite fashion,/accessory and make up brand
I love earrings and bangles a lot. I am not really a makeup person. When I need to wear make up, I pay make up artists to do it for me.

What she would have done differently
I would have started business since I was in school. It would have helped me to be more daring when I started MAWI.