Joan Ibuzor is the founder of House of Marie, a leading fashion label that accentuates the everyday living of Nigerians. Ibuzor recently launched a collection entitled ‘Urban Struggles’. In this interview with ORUKPE NELSON, she speaks about her passion, family and how she discovered Agbani Darego.

What exactly does Ann Marie symbolize?

Ann Marie is a lovely label borne out of the necessity to emphasise what we face in our country which we titled ‘Urban Struggle’. No matter the class you belong or where you come from, whatever brought you to a certain place to settle down has a reason. And you know for example; you’re a banker and there’s a certain time you would close and get to the bus stop to get an okada (motorbike) as fast as possible to get home. And when you finally get into a bus, you’d remove your Louis Vuitton and wear your slippers.

And at this point, you’re sure to get home about 11pm or around 12am. When you look at the other side, you’d still see a woman selling boli (roasted plantain) or akara (bean cake), you’d quickly buy this because once you get home, it would be too late to make food. These are the struggles we are talking about.

Let’s be real, why am I going to start manufacturing prints that don’t depict what I’m going through? I want a situation where you’re going anywhere around the world and you wear a piece of where you’re coming from. And they’ll ask you, why are you wearing this? You’d simply reply, “these are what I really face.” Actually, under the label, Ann Marie, there’s a whole lot of things we’re going to talk about, but we’re trying to interpret our arts like this.

We want to talk about the girl-child, the Niger-Delta and issues that bother us so much like our religion. We want to employ fashion as our platform of communication locally and internationally through the use of fabrics. This is the story of Ann Marie.

How affordable will items from Ann Marie be?

They’re actually very affordable because we realize that if we have to stick to Ann Marie from the House of Marie where we source fabrics which are very expensive on their own, you’d look for manpower and the rest that goes into the production.

This really starts from getting an artist to draw the scene of our urban struggle and finding someone that can interpret it on the fabric of choice that will be good for our temperature. We put all these in our items yet we made them very affordable.

There’s actually a collection which stemmed from one of my team members who with others came together and said: ‘you know House of Marie has always done mature things, we want to do things that 20, 10 and five-year old can wear. So, this is very affordable.”

But the launch held at Lekki, Lagos, a highbrow area…

We’re also located at Maryland, Lagos. You can never quantify your time, your arts and who can truly tell you this is the value for this or that? But to God be the glory, we have decided to preach it and practically use it at a reasonable price because a lot of people are going to continue talking about it.

How many times do people go to offices wearing cropped tops and everything that feels nice and easy? But you can actually wear it and every day too. The younger and more youthful generations are the ones that will spread the news.

What have you been doing previously before Ann Marie?

I’ve had a label called House of Marie and we’ve done quite some shows. We’ve been part of the Lagos Fashion Week and many others. However, I’m a very introverted person. I never wanted to be seen. I didn’t want to be in people’s faces. I don’t party and hardly even socialize.

I tell people that I’m only used to keeping my home and taking care of my family. I also don’t want to sacrifice my family over my art called my passion. When I was in Silverbird Television, I stayed back till 3am sometimes. We would be struggling and there were days we left about 5am. And I had a little child then and that’s been about 16years, I had done banking too and I’m out of that career, so, why must I continue that vicious cycle of struggle? As a woman, I have a bread winner who is a man, so if he chooses to provide for me, what I need is to impact the little love and the attention I have on my children. The only thing they can also learn from me is that a woman does have respect. I can choose to do something I’m passionate about and make money through it, but it doesn’t mean I would sacrifice my home.

Why did you leave Silverbird?

I left when the ovation was loud. I’d discovered Agbani Darego who became Miss World, what other thing would I rather hope for? Matilda Kerry was my first queen, and I’d done all the marketing, looked for the beauty queens, God bless late Ogbonna Amadi, we’d done all the struggles.

It used to be that in Miss Surulere today, you’re the judge and you’re getting to be a judge again on Miss Nigeria, I’d done all that. Like the case of Agbani Darego, before she became Miss World, she’d already got offers from Naomi Campbell, and another from Donald Trump, so let’s be honest, we’d already given her a good platform for her to propel herself to whatever she wanted to be.

Either she wanted to use modeling to get scholarship to attend the best schools she wanted to help her life or any other way she wanted to grow. So, how loud again would one want to be? I had to leave to face my family.

Does that mean you don’t miss those days when you called the shots at pageants?

I think I’m satisfied. I’m happy and I look it. Why should I sacrifice my happiness because I want people to know my face? It’s never been my style. I’m happy being someone’s mom, being a wife but also doing something I’m passionate about. I’m showing people the birth of something and like I tell people, I’m not a politician and I don’t know how to play politics. There are people who recognize my efforts and see that this lady does a good job. I have clients who know what I’m worth and works.

Even proper designers know my brand but most of them don’t even know what I look like. The most important thing is not only knowing the brand; it is, who are the people coming to buy it? You see my brand every time on EbonyLife Television and at Studio 53, they wear a lot of my brand. But I’m saying that enough is enough of selling only tie and die now, that’s not the only thing Nigeria has.

We have issues on women kidnapped from home and their schools because they want to better their lives. Most of them want to be another Chimamanda. I want to use that platform to talk all that and this is the only way we can reach out.

What’s your expansion plan since Ann Marie collection targets everybody telling their ‘Urban Struggle’ stories?

I’m first of all an economist. That’s why when I left banking and Silverbird, I wanted something I could do without friction because the banking life can be so regimented.

How long did you work in the bank?

It was merely two years plus.

How about Silverbird Television?

I was at Silverbird for just two and a half years and that was 16years ago. My baby is going to be 16 because he was a month old when I was in Silverbird. I thank God. After that, I went to Lagos Business School and you learn things that let you know you can’t own 100 percent of all, it’s only madness to try to.

That’s why if you notice, I’m trying to groom young designers and give them the platform to shine. Even on May 16, in Thisday, House of Marie’s collection was published because I do collections every year. And what I did was that I tagged this year’s collection; “The Name of the Young Designer”. They asked me why and I said to myself, if John Galliano is that big today, how was he given that platform? It’s because someone saw him and said, “You know what? I will not be selfish, let these people come up.”

Alexander McQueen is dead but he lives on because he allowed young designers to work under him. As long as I build the brand and the basement, let people come and shine. That’s why when these young people came to tell me, “we can do this in this way, we want young people’s things” and I said to them, carry on.

That’s my succession plan. You can imagine that I have time for my family because there are able people that can be doing some other things that we all love, but my inputs is very important because there are setting principles that guide me.

On the average, how many of these young designers are you working with at the moment?

Right now, I have two interns and I’ve had four proper designers and illustrators work with me. Right now I have one designer, two interns and a PR executive that is amazing. She’s a young lady but she’s as much as possible trying to rise tall.

How would you describe your transition from banking to media and now to fashion?

Truth be told, this is what I’ve always wanted to do as a child. I’ve always loved beautiful things. I’ve always loved to give people my clothes and make them look great. I give clothes and when they want to give me credit, I’d say, ‘no, I don’t want to be there’.

Don’t call me but you can wear it for pageant. So, people have always known that part of me. And fashion-wise, I’ve always been a nonconformist. My mother would tell you I never wore the same dress with my siblings. I’ve wanted to wear something different.

Even when my siblings got married, I never wore the ‘aso-ebi’ (uniform; ceremonial dress), I don’t wear aso-ebi with people. I always want to be in my space if I ever step out at all. I want to wear what I’m happy that I wore. Even when I got the job at Silverbird, when the recruitment firm was looking for pageant manager, it was someone who knew me in school that recommended me. And I’m very strict when it comes to women and children. Like my daughter, she sews very well.

When she complained about the hurts from the needles, I told her, these are the benefits, the sacrifices God blesses for you to propel yourself. For over forty years of my life, I’ve always loved what I’m doing. It’s my comfort zone. But I chose my home over my passion.

In achieving these things, how do you deal with challenges?

I’ve had a lot, but I’m a Nigerian, we’re so resilient that we surmount them one after the other. Truly and honestly, I don’t allow those headaches get the better part of me.

At the end of the day, how do you unwind?

I dance and sometimes I sing. If you have headache you’d take Panadol and that’s it. I’ve always slept by 8.30pm and 9.00pm latest. It was Silverbird that made that impossible for me once upon a time. When I have a job at hand, I have an adrenaline rush and I can’t sleep or shut down until I’ve done the work. I don’t sleep and whatever be the case, if I sleep, by 3.00am I’m awake.

What would you have done differently if you had a second chance?

Nothing at all, I have the best life now honestly. Thanks to God, it’s been a big lesson.

What’s your eating habit like from breakfast?

I eat a lot, but I’ve never been the type that liked sweetened drinks. I can shut off and I think where I watch it. I love water and I can drink it for a living and I don’t exercise. It’s because I don’t exercise that I have to ensure that my body parts function well by watching my meals.

Do you have your personal style?

I honestly like to be unique. I’m not boasting, but I’m just a rebel who doesn’t follow designers or colours. I don’t even know how to pull off fashion forecast. And I don’t wear revealing things, it’s one thing I don’t know how to do.