Talking With Fadesola of AdeFashion RetailBlackFabulousity

In three words, Ade Fashion is Unique. African. Authentic.

First up in our interview series, we’re putting the spotlight on Adé Fashion, a relatively new online retail store launched in the early days of November 2014. Dedicated to providing authentic African fashion to stylish women on the global stage, Adé Fashion seeks to displace the belief that African fashion comprise solely of tribal prints. They are not about corny “African prints” or cliché “tribal wear”, instead they are about showing the realness, diversity and quality of our continent’s creative designers.

We caught up with Fadesola Adedayo, one of the three behind the brand for a quick chat on the brand, goals and buying process.

What influenced your love for African Fashion?

I lived most of my formative years in Nigeria. And as an adolescent and young adult, I developed an interest in fashion and well-made clothing. I think anyone who has eyes can appreciate the talents of so many fashion houses from the continent. As a diasporic African, it makes me proud that such skills are being appreciated across the globe on the same platform as established fashion designers in the Western world. No one is looking at people like Tiffany Amber or CLAN as “well they are good for Africans“. It is more like, “They are good. Period”

How did you come up with the concept for Adé Fashion?

It started with my sister. She really wanted a dress from Viv La Resistance, while she lived in the United States. And it was just a tedious process to get a dress from Nigeria to be bought and mailed to her. She told me about the frustration and we thought “it shouldn’t be this difficult to buy a dress. Not in the global village we live in“

Walk us through your buying/selection process.

It goes either of 2 ways: We either contact designers we love or they contact us about working with us. Our buyer goes through their lookbook and see what we would love; what we think our audience will love. And the rest is logistics: shipping, contracts etcetera.

What is your target market?

18- 35 crowd that understands fashion is beyond trends; but about unique style and self-expression.

How does Adé Fashion differ from other stores that stock African designs?

Check out our website, our layout, our photographs and I think it’s pretty clear that we are distinct.

What other brands should we expect to see on Adé Fashion?

Right now, we are loving everything CLAN, Ejiro Amos Tafiri and Grey. Oh, we definitely have a fashion crush on Taibo Bacar.

Where is the brand based?

Mostly out of the East coast and Canada.

At what cost Do you ship to Nigeria?

At this point, we are not shipping to Nigeria. We want to offer free shipping to all of our customers, and logistically, that’s not something we can do to Nigeria at this time. We do free shipping to North America and Europe though!

How do you envision the growth of the brand?

The fashion scene, mostly in West and South Africa is flying and we want to be on that flight together.

We believe in the universality of great design- from our photography, to our storefront, to our packaging and let’s not forget the clothing, we are truly the best at what we do.