Deola Sagoe: The Designer who makes Brides glow

Read about Deola Sagoe and her style and principles in the fashion industry

There are a lot of fashion designers in Nigeria. And all of them have their various characteristic and design style. Mai Atafo is the Male suit maestro, while Ejiro is the Western wear artist. One name that comes to mind when it comes to classy Yoruba weddings is Deola Sagoe. Schooled in the United States and Nigeria, Deola is one woman who knows how to blend Yoruba traditional design styles and western Vogue. What makes her special is the way a critic or fashion enthusiast can tell certainly that she is making western designs. But will eventually tell that her designs are Yoruba designs-is totally special. She could makes a critic look stupid when telling her design origin. Buba(Yoruba traditional blouse) and Rapper or long skirts shaped  as rappers is her major and classiest design. This is because in every ten designs made by Deola, six will be a Buba and Rapper. Or a long gown shaped like a Buba and Rapper. Observing her intsagram page which is her virtual display gallery, one can not but appreciate her skills in arranging of fabric. Below are some of the elements of her designs that makes her brand classy.

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Her strong opposition to Nudity

Cillacritic as a brand have never paid a visit to Deola Sagoe or her factories. But from her designs, one could deduce that she opposes nudity. Most of her designs cover every inches of one’s body from the ankle to the neck. Finding a way to cover every part of a woman’s body is what she does without stress. She achieves this by designing long skirts and most times long sleeved blouses. One would want to ask: “How does she create emphasis?”. The answer to that question is in her ability to choose different fabrics and folding styles. She also uses a stack of motifs to create a perfect emphasis on her design which is particularly classy.

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Her Love for Brown and Purple

Colours are very important to designers and that can be seen in their designs. Every designer has the type of colour he or she is comfortable with. Just like Guo Pei of China that loves gold/yellow, Deola loves anything with brown on it. Going through her virtual gallery, all one can see are different types of brown colours- from very dark brown to light onces. Brown is definitely not her only comfortable colours because she also loves working with purple.  Although Brown is the dominant colour used by Deola, she create very good purple dresses.

Her use of Motif on plain designed fabrics

Motifs are small design pieces or prints that are used to decorate artworks and fabrics. Deola who her designs are made off plain materials tries to add variety using fine motif. These motif are normally added at the neck area of a blouse (Buba). It can also be found around the hands or at the tip of the rapper, skirt or gown. These motif could vary in size and shape. Most times what an admirer sees are the perforated designs on the regions which have been stated above.

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Her obsession with waist Bows

One may want to ask why this particular observation. The truth is that, Deola looks for every small opportunity to add a waist bow to her design. Just like ancient Nigeria school uniforms that were characterized by bow belts, Deola adds this unique western feature to her designs. She adds it to the back of the dress to create a visual emphasis on the waist of the designs. Many people will agree that the back of a dress is usually not as beautiful as the front. But what Deola and her fashion house does is to provide an beautiful bow to the back of the clothing.