Serial Style Entrepreneur and Creator of OUCH, a Nigerian Fashion brand Uche Nnaji has said that one of the huge milestones in the industry is how the Nigerian traditional kaftan and Senator outfits have taken the formal business staple for men. “After graduation, I had saved up to 4,000 Pounds as a youth corps member to go to the University of Westminster, but I was not issued visa. I was very sad but I got encouragement from a number of mentors to take up fashion as a career, especially, since I was doing well at it.
So, I wrote to Westminster and demanded for a refund of my 4000 Pounds and it was sent back to me. I used the money to open the first ‘Ouch’ outlet at Onigbongbo. “OUCH as the brand name emanated when I was in UNILAG.
A particular student with an American accent would always see me all dressed and say Ouch! you look so good it hurts! So, we decided to go with the name OUCH because we realised it’s an expression, and style is an expression. Although some would say Ouch is an expression of pain but in that context it wasn’t, it was a wow expression of stunning style and look. More so I wanted a name that would not have a pronunciation boundary and OUCH was just perfect.
” Narrating the emergence of his passion for styling people, he said he would go to Lagos Island Berlin market, a second hand clothing market and buy imported used designers shirt (okrika) and then go to Yaba market to buy fabrics made with Egyptian cotton that have equivalent texture.