Fashion goddess, Toyin Lawani
hardly grants interviews. She prefers for her range of businesses to speak for
her. They surely do. She runs 32 of such businesses and all of it has to do
with Fashion, Beauty, Skincare, Food, real estate, many more. She is the CEO of
Tiannah’s Empire. She is also the big boss at Elegante by Tiannah styling. She
is a ‘serial entrepreneur. She set Trends. She creates trends. Yesterday, this
pretty babe who is a style icon and mother of 2 talked about her life. She
spoke to City People Publisher SEYE KEHINDE.
Let’s talk about Tiannahs
Empire. It has become very big and massive. You are into so many things. How
does it make you feel each time you sit down to look at what you have been able
to build?
To be honest, and let me
quickly say, I am a very honest person when it comes to things like this, I am
still not fulfilled because my aim is to go global and open my brand worldwide.
Yes, I have worked with a lot of international celebrities. I am trying to open
a lot of doors.
When I look back to when I
started, I can’t say its a surprise I am here, or I am where I am. We actually
get what we work for. What you work for is what you will get. If you put
efforts in your business you will get success. If you don’t put efforts in it
you will lose. I can say it is still a
journey for me. Everybody feels that, ok, our brand is so big. But no, I am
still striving to make Nigeria proud. I am still striving to open doors for us
internationally, to take this brand abroad.
How did you get into business?
I am very happy now to see a
lot of young people aspiring to be serial entrepreneurs, business moguls, that
want to juggle many businesses. When I started 20 years ago, it was only me.
I was 16 when I started. It
took me a year to set up my business then. I was in UNILAG at the time. I had a
Supermarket, Everybody was buying from me. I had a boutique but it was a very
small store. I then went into hair. I started first with Skin business. I
started with Beauty business. Most people say I have 15 businesses. No. I have
32 businesses.
That is why I call my business
an empire. It is easy for other people to initate you by saying they have an
empire with only one line of business. Most people claim they have empires on
even social media. They talk of empires that are not existing. If you have an
empire, people need to see you run those businesses, day in, day out.
Each time I say it, people
find it unbelievable to believe that
this lady (that is me) is actually running these 32 businesses and that they
are actually up and running businesses. But the truth is that they are running.
You can’t do it alone.
You need to involve other
people. Take my salon business. I put a lady in charge that is running it. I
push my clients to her. I am the model. I have various managers for all my
various businesses. At the early stages, I was the one practically running my
Restaurant, the Fashion, the Spa, the School, it was so very tiring for me.
So, I realised that I need to
get different managers to run the different businesses. I still manage some of
them though. I create all my pieces by myself. I design them and I stay with
the tailors. They help me bring all my ideas to life and when they can’t get
the idea I will have to do it by myself, because at the end of the day it is
your vision. Nobody can interprete your vision the way you will interprete it.
So to be very honest, I am
grateful to God that I am here today and I am praying to God that I want to be
more than this. I want to be bigger than Gucci & Versace. Its a dream. When
you have other businesses that you are running, like I am into Real Estate, I
am running a school, it is a bit distracting. It will distract you from even
following one.
I am doing all these, day in,
day out, fully. It is tasking. It is stressful. But when you have passion for
what you do, it is not going to be stress to you. You won’t even feel the pain.
You won’t even feel tired because of the Passion. Passion is unbeatable.
Can you let us into the wide
range of businesses you do?
Of course I will tell you. We
have Tiannah’s Beauty Salon. We have Tiannah’s Tatoo Parlour. We have Tiannah’s
Real Estate through which we sell land. We buy properties. We resell. We build
houses for people. We set up businesses, hotels. We have Tiannah Consultancy
which helps you set up your brand. We are fashion consultants, business
consultants.
If you want to expand your
business ideas, I can help you set it up without even putting my name on that
brand. I have done that for many, both locally and internationally. I helped a
lady set up her fashion brand in London. She is so big now.
I have my empowerment programme
where I train the Deaf and Dump on how to sew and how to do Make Up. How to do
Gele. How to do braids, wigs. Most of them have their own outfits now. They are
all doing their own thing now. They are not really under me any longer. I trained
them and let them go ahead to set up their own businesses.
And I have my Master Class. I
call it the Toyin Lawani Master Class where I empower a lot of people and train
them for free. I train them for free, at my Tiannah Styling Fashion Academy, where
we train them on Pattern Drafting, Designs, Styling, basically to be able to be
their own person, to give them exposure into the market. Let them know how to
feed themselves without anybody’s help.
I also have Tiannah
Videography. Many don’t know I direct Music videos. I direct short movies. I am
sure you have seen a lot of jobs I have done a lot like for Kola Kolagbo. I was
the Creative Director at the last Big Brother. I styled the whole Big Brother
people. I have directed most of the major artistes in Nigeria. I have either
directed or styled their videos which was how I got into the styling business,
as well.
I also have Tiannah Photo
Studio. We do photoshoots for occasions. We travel. We go to locations. We go
for weddings, we do pre-wedding shoots. We do creative Editorial Photoshoots. I am also the Creative
Director of many magazines in Nigeria. I help them with Concepts and the
packaging and presentation of their Covers for the month.
I also have Elegante Kids, it
is my junior line. My son and daughter are in charge of that brand. My daughter
is in America now schooling. So my son is running the brand. And we have been
able to get a lot of little clients because of his own swags and appearances.
We also have Elegante By
Tiannah Styling, it was created after Tiannah Styling. Tiannah Styling is a
styling outfit. It is where I can take a paper and use it to style anybody or
take Versace, Gucci, and use it to style anybody. With Tiannah Styling I might
not even be the one that made the clothes, but I can style anybody. You can
even bring your clothe I will style you. But at Elegante By Tiannah Styling, I
wanted people to know that it was still me.
Elegante is the name of our design brand and I still wanted
them to know that haaa! it is still me, that its Tiannahsown. Because I started
Tiannah Styling first, I now put Elegante By Tiannah Styling. So, it caters for
my female clients. But Elegante By Tiannah Styling (Men) is for men. Its my
male line. We do Agbada, Suits, all kinds of creative costumes.
I am a Designer you can’t put
in a box. When you mention the names of most designers in Nigeria they will
tell you, oh yes, she does wedding gowns very well. If you mention, this person
they will say oh yes, she does boubous, oh she does suits. I am someone that
when my clients have a costume that is difficult to design, they will say oh,
go to Tiannah.
She will do it for you. I am a
very creative person. I do stage. I do creative costumes. I can build an ark
just because I want to bring some thing out. I can do anything creative. I am
all over the place. I do Couture as well, Bespoke, Ready to wear, I do
everything. The sad part is that many people erroneously believe that Tiannah
is expensive. But what they don’t know is that I have things of N5,000 and
N10,000. But the thing is that they want to take things of N1.5 million at
N5,000. It's not possible.
We also have Tiannah Homes
& Furnishing Limited which is where we help people to buy land and sell
land, build houses, do decor, for people. We have Amaladot.com1. It is my food
arm. Amaladot.com1 is not only about amala. We do offer Ofada, Pounded yam. We
do outdoor catering. We do Chinese. We all kinds of food like Moin moin. We do
Igbo soup. All the celebrities hang out at my place. They eat there.
We have Tiannahs Barbing Salon.
The barbing salon is for the male, female & kids. Then, we have Tiannahs
Spa. It caters to skin, facials, body polish, microdemabration, weight loss.
Then we have Tiannahs Glow Products. It is a skin line that my mum started
before she passed on. She started it about 25 years ago. When she died, I took
on the product.
The product and the brand have
been there for years now. I have the clients I took over from my mum. I have my
clients, I have rebranded the brand. I have taken it to high heavens. Its all
about production. People talk about Bleaching and they often say Tiannah is
bleaching.
What they don’t realise is
there is a difference between Toning and Bleaching. When you decide to Tone
your skin, you can actually decide to tone your skin with edible stuff.
Ordinary Curry, Tumeric, Tomatoes, Honey, Egg yoke, pigeon egg, fresh milk from
cow, all of these actually lighten your skin.
Everything I do is Organic. We
even do Baby products. Once you buy it for them, you will just see your babie
glowing. We have a factory where we do all of these. We have a lot of products
that can treat many skin challenges like Wrinkles. We have a cream that will
take 10 years off your age. I have been able to cure Acne, blemishes. My skincare
line Tinnah Glow products is one of the strongest arms of my businesses.
A lot of skincare challenges
that a lot of people can’t cure, I have been able to cure it. We have Tiannahs
Make Up Studio. We do Make Up for celebrities, artistic make ups, all kinds of
Make Up. Basically, I want you to step into Tiannahs Place empire and you would
not take my money outside.
If you come now and say you are
doing wedding I am the one that will do your food catering, decor and
everything. We now have Tiannahs Event Limited. We set it up like 3 days ago.
What happened is that I have been doing these event helping people, but I have
never turned it into a business. Two days ago, I told my staff: open a page for
my event company and let me start taking credit for all my ideas and for all my
job and everything that I have been doing.
We have Tenor Biscuits, which
is for my son. It was an idea he had by himself. He wanted to make biscuits and
sell. I supported him. Tenor Biscuits is doing so well now. It is in a few supermarkets
and the product is doing so well. I have so many more businesses.
We also have Elegante Vintage,
we cater for only vintage pieces. We have Elegante Boutique, which sells all
kinds of designs, shoes, bags. We use most of them for styling. We don’t only
create our pieces we also have a boutique.
So, you can see I have my hands
in a lot of pies and it is not easy, Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about
Lingerie By Tianniah. I started my Lingerie line recently and there was a lot
of buzz about it. Many were like: You a boss, why would you be wearing this
lingarie by yourself, in public.
And I am like Hello. A boss is
not a boss by doing big girl and Gapasoke (meaning by being arrogant). A boss
is showing people that yes I am a boss and I can promote my brand you are your
brand. How you promote your brand is how people will receive the message.
As a boss you have to promote
your brand, with your heart, with your soul, and everything you are. People
will see your dedication and they would want to patronise you. Nigerians are
the ones that take things too serious. If you wear bikini they judge you.
When you wear lingerie they
judge you. At the end of the day when you are selling Lingerie, what do you
wear to promote the Lingerie? It is Lingerie. You don’t expect me to wear
Aso-Oke. If I wear bikini at a pool, they will start complaining, taking my pictures
and complaining. What do you wear in a swimming pool? Is it bullet proof. I
don’t understand. Its crazy. They really have to stop that mentality.
We also have Tiannah Fabrics.
We sell fabrics, all kinds of fabrics. We source fabrics for people to sew our
designs I import most of my fabrics.
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