I Want to Leave a Legacy with LegacyN8TIVES – Goke Omisore

There is no slowing down for industrialist, art collector and fashion impresario, Goke Omisore, younger brother to former gubernatorial candidate, Iyiola Omisore, who has taken his fashion business to the next level, with the introduction of LegacyN8TIVES. The new initiative which was unveiled recently, coincided with his 66th birthday ceremony. The trained advertising design executive opens up in this interview about his new brand and his foray into the world of commerce.

You don’t look your age, your gait is impressive as well and it doesn’t look like you are retiring any time soon. How are you able to achieve this, what with the launch of your fashion label,  Legacy N8ive?
To God be the glory. With one’s pedigree and degrees, it couldn’t have been otherwise. I’ve always been a lover of fashion. For me, nothing is more important than a good name. Money, no matter how much, won’t take its place. Whatever you do is not as important as how you do it. You must excel with class and panache. There’s no exclusivity to progress in life and that’s the same across all fields. It may take long, but you have to prove yourself to earn it.

When did you notice that you had an innate ability to design?
I have always been a fashion freak since I was 10 but it wasn’t until I was 22 that my designing latent talent was curiously aroused and honed in New York City where I was domiciled for my studies .  I have been designing and selling Christmas caps since I was a teenager. Powered by my late industrious mother, I grew up designing my own clothes. Besides, my illustrious family, the Omisores were neck deep in all the glorious socials of the ancient town.

Is this addition into the fashion scene, deliberately designed to coincide with your 66th birthday?
t’s a world of creation and I’ve always been involved in the fashion aspect of designing, but I want to leave a legacy.

What sets your designs apart from the rest?
I look at what to wear; Agbada, Kaftan and I consider them too noisy for my liking. So what I’m doing with Legacy N8ive is to remove all the noise and put extreme detailing to the craft. The label is a revolutionary approach to everyday attire and the manifestation of what has been in studied focus on our traditional wears over the years. We are painstakingly and practically reinventing things like the Italians.

Is this revolution going to also embrace the use of Aso-oke, Damask and other native fabrics? Yes, we may consider that direction. Let me tell you a secret, once you’re wearing a shirt made in the West, it’s not made for you. T h a t ’ s why you’ll see bulging stomachs on shirts. Aso-Oke may be too big, French suit is compact and neat and we give you something like a French suit running into Aso-Oke. We’re trying to achieve the finishing of the French and Italian people. We’ll be playing with other fabrics soon. This is because we’re targeting the upper-crust. We look forward to giving you something extremely comfortable that you can wear to weddings and all kinds of occasions.

Why do you want to pattern your designs after the Italians?
It’s because they take time to do what they do. Yes, you charge for it and there’s nothing wrong with that. You create a niche for it and that’s the idea. So, there’s nothing you do ordinarily that cannot be done extraordinarily. And I believe that if you’re going into a field, you must have something unique to offer. Even if it’s an ordinary cap, you package it in such a way that you send it to someone at Christmas as a gift, and when he opens it, he’s wowed. You just can’t keep doing things the missionary way. Do you know you could carry lots of Kaftans in a little box and nobody will know what’s in there? You’d send it to a drycleaner and when he’s done, he folds it back. We are touching every aspect of what we think is wrong with the mundane styles.

Having started out in the fashion world quite early, what’s life in fashion been like?
When you’re in a society that is extremely fashionable like Manhattan and New York, something unique about these places is that they touch all aspects of entertainment. If you live in that society, get influenced one way or the other. I have been a foremost entrepreneur for the past 30years. I was making the best furniture in Nigeria, but when they lifted the ban, it became a mad house. You could bring in anything from anywhere. When we opened our first shop in 1986 on Allen Avenue, people were coming even for sightseeing. You know at that time there was no competition. And I can tell you confidently that at that time, my showroom, Higher Ground Furniture, was glamorous. People were begging to buy from us because we became a signature item.

How successful would you say all the enterprises you have been involved in has made you?
You don’t count grace by money. Every aspect of whatever I do, you will see the instinctive designs in it. And the most pronounced part of it is the legacy I want to leave behind for the generations coming after me. At any age, the emphasis should be on excellence. My manager taunts me with a remark often; anytime anyone comes here and they ask, ‘who owns this place?’ when he says, it’s Goke Omisore, they’d say, yes, that must be him. That’s good name and I can’t ask for more.

 At 66 when many would consider fashion as vain, that’s when you’re reinventing. How does this make you feel?
I don’t belong to that school of thought. To me, age is but a number. I had one of the most elegant boutiques in Ikeja 30 years ago and it was called Status. And we were mainly importing exquisite apparels from the best designers around the world, but the economy dwindled so badly that we felt guilty selling a suit for N500,000. And the way things are going now, it’s getting back to that. Again, fashion, furniture and food industries flow with the rise and fall of the economy. We’re now looking inwards to do things that will be much more competitive and unique. I started from furniture and whatever you see now is just an icing on the cake. It’s actually been a progression and not a transition from one business line to another. I opened my first store in 1986. And we started Headmaster Salon on Allen Avenue, Ikeja. If I go to a place and they introduce me as Prince Omisore, it wouldn’t move many but when they say, “meet the owner of Headmaster,” heads would turn. We started Headmaster in 1990. We could have had a thousand branches but we didn’t have the infrastructure to support it. So, we’re at Ikeja and in Lekki.

You are also a Prince. What fond childhood memories can you readily recall growing up as a prince?
I think there should be less emphasis on my being a prince but as someone from a blessed family, in our time, people were travelling only to England. Were the first that broke the jinx and started travelling to America. It was a big deal. To get an American visa in those days was quite a feat. If you made it to America then, you were like an ambassador of your country.  Ile Ife was the richest town in Nigeria then and I’m not bragging. We were controlling the entire cocoa of the Western Region as the source. My father had a Phantom Rolls Royce, a limited edition; only five of it was made. That’s a fact. My mother sold damask, lace and gold. So, I grew in affluence. If in those days you wore Agbada and you didn’t carry yourself well, my father would call you back and remind you who you are, a prince from Ife. He’d quickly school you on how royalty should reflect in your carriage.

What is your most prized possession?
At certain stages in life, when you’re blessed, few things are collectible. Don’t judge a man by his clothing, judge him by his little accessories, even women, because it speaks volume of who you are. It could be one or two of these items. This is what we call accent on good living and not noisy living.

Nigerians are generally not known to have succession plans. Do you have a succession plan in place?
I have six boys and two grandsons. My third boy is an accountant and he might come in and push Legacy N8ive to where I want it to be. But the good thing about fashion is that you can achieve great things from your comfort zone. And you can handle many things at a time unlike furniture where you have to go to the factory and painstakingly treat issues.

Through it all, what major lessons have you learnt about life?
To always be nice to people.