His impeccable mien, considerably nice gait and vivacity will endear you to Prince Goke Omisore who clocked 66 penultimate Sunday. And the occasion was a convergence of captains of industries and policy makers who joined him at the launch of his latest fashion collection, Legacy N8ive in commemoration of his birthday. He spoke to ORUKPE NELSON about his trail-blazing enterprises, style and life growing up as a prince.
Your gait at 66 is impressive and launching ‘Legacy N8ive’, a fresh line of your fashion brand, Crown Prince, makes it the more gracious. How did you achieve this?
To God be the glory. With one pedigree and degrees, it couldn’t have been otherwise. At 22, I was in New York and you know that’s the fashion centre of the world. Paris is claiming it but we have it. And there’s something about New York that fires my imagination. I’ve always been a lover of one thing, for me nothing is more important than a good name, money no matter how much, it won’t take that 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.
Is Legacy N8ive designed to coincide with your birthday or a mere coincidence?
I look at today as my 24th birthday. I have my first degree in Advertising Design and my second degree in Communication Studies. It’s a world of creation and I’ve always been involved in the fashion aspect designing, but I want to leave a legacy. I look at what to wear- ‘Agbada, Kaftan’ and they are too noisy for my liking. So what I’m doing with Legacy N8ive is to remove all the noise and putting extreme detailing to the craft. Why the Italians? What’s the monopoly in their productions? It’s because they take time to 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 ordinary cap, you package it in such a way that you send it to someone at Christmas as a gift, when he opens it, he’s wowed.
Is that all the revolution in your new collection?
Like I say, let’s leave the native to the natives and step up to N8ive because it’s a digital world now and you can’t just keep doing and hanging it the missionary way. Do you know you could carry lots of Kaftans in little space as this beautiful case and nobody will know what’s in there? You’d send it to a dry cleaner and when he’s done, he folds it back. We are touching every aspect of what we think is wrong with the mundane styles.
Since you started out at 22 in Manhattan, what’s life in fashion 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, it’s not that I was in actual fact into fashion enterprise, but you get influenced one way or the other. If you have known me since the past 30 years, you’d realise that I’m producing in Nigeria. 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 to sightsee and you know at that time there was no competition. And I can tell you confidently that at that time, my showroom was as glamorous as Omisson Emporium (his ultra modern mall in Lekki, Lagos) both in the finishing of the interiors and the pieces of the furniture. People were begging to buy from us because we became a signature item.
What was the name of the outlet?
It was called Higher Ground Furniture.
How successful would you say these enterprises have made you?
This building you see (Omisson Emporium) I designed and built it. 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 to leave behind for the generation coming after you. 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 say fashion is vain, that’s when you’re re-inventing, how does this sincerely 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 30years 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 you’d be feeling guilty to sell a suit for N500,000. And the way things are going now, it’s getting back to that. 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 of 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. Whenever I went to a place and they’d introduce me as Prince Omisore yet it wouldn’t move many, but when they said, ‘meet the owner of Headmaster’, heads turned. We started Headmaster in 1990. We could have had a thousand branches but we didn’t have the infrastructure to support it. We couldn’t continue to complain about the fumes from power generators every time. So, we’re at Ikeja and in the complex in Lekki.
What was the nickname you were known with as a young man?
They called me Omison, Arole, Crown Prince because I’m from Ife. So, if you’re a Yoruba man, you’re my subject. I have six boys and no girl.
How was life growing up as a prince?
Less emphasis on being a prince but as someone from a blessed family, in our time, people were travelling only to England. We were the first that broke the jinx and started travelling to America. It was a big deal. To get American visa in those days was quite a feat. If you made it to America then, you were like an Ambassador of your country.
Where did you get this taste for superior things from?
I got it from my mom and my dad. Ile Ife was the richest town in Nigeria 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. As a young man, I’d sit in my mother’s shop and she was selling damask, lace and gold. So, I grew in these things. If in those days you wore Agbada and didn’t mind the details of carrying yourself in it, he’d 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.
In a previous encounter, your younger brother, Iyiola Omisore said as a wrist watch collector, after about two decades of buying one at a paltry sum, he later sold it for a whopping 1m pounds. Are you a sucker for watch too?
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 assent on good living and not noisy living. You could see a man with a sparkling wrist watch, but we’re not talking of ‘blings’ here, we’re talking Piaget, Patek Philipee, Constantinople. I collect these ones. Dr. Clackson Majomi lived first class when it comes to style. Before the noise started, he was the best style person by all standards. Right now, anything you see a Nigerian do, you’d later see ten of it. But at that time you barely could count two of whatever Majomi used. In fashion, he was king. Every Sunday, he would park his customised Rolls Royce with the finest lady in town and doing his pedicure and manicure. And you know in those days in Lagos, you could hardly count three good salons. There are beautiful ones now everywhere. He had style, may his soul rest in peace. Majomi was the most respected society journalist. He made social coverage. He was the hottest then but later veered to advertising.
What’s your succession plan in these enterprises?
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.
You trained as an advert executive in New York, did you also do any crash course in fashion?
No, I’m a graduate of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and it’s one of the best schools of architecture and designs in America. The beauty of the school is that you can borrow courses from other departments like packaging, architecture, industrial and so on. At age 14, I’d been designing Christmas caps in my hometown and I was selling it. The passion grew when I was in New York because you’d see someone design a car and other things, you’d be astonished. It’s a very practical school.
What won’t you ever do for fashion sake?
Years back when I was going to open the Headmaster salon, I was in the salon with Ray Ekpu and Dan Agbese, we went to a barber’s shop, though it looked nice, coming from New York, I just felt a barber’s shop shouldn’t be like this when there’s someone like me in town, Ray Ekpo and other owner of The Lords, Biyi. When you start something like this, you have created a revolution and don’t worry yourself about the fakes. Do your thing, it’s by how excellent you make yours and before you know it, you’d find people imitating you everywhere. You have the class and the label people want. Even my furniture pieces were copied but people would go all out to buy from us and that’s because when you’re the owner of the concept, you’re expected to excel rather than fakes here and there.
Is this revolution embracing 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. That’s why you’ll see bulging stomachs inside the shirt. 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-cost. We look forward to giving you something extremely comfortable that you can wear to weddings and all kinds of occasions.
In conclusion, what major lessons have you learnt in life?
Life has taught me to always be nice to people.