Yemi osunkoya biography sample
Even though it was almost 8 years ago, I remember vividly the excitement I felt when I decided to look for my dream wedding dress. The plan was to buy something off the rack, an elegant statement piece, one that people would ooh and aah and one that would take my groom’s breath away upon first sight. However, my dress was designed and made just for me, my first haute couture experience.
Shall we fast-forward 8 years as I walk into Kosibah to meet with the owner Yemi Osunkoya. Yemi is an impressive man, tall and charming yet eloquent in his approach. As he guides me through his journey, his labor of love shines through when he describes to me his journey of how he came to be one of the foremost British black haute couture bridal designers, still standing for 23 years. I ask if there is any significance with the name Kosibah. It turns out to be a derivation of his mother’s name. She was born on a Sunday and named Cosiba; he changed the spelling to make it a little more user friendly yet different and Kosibah was born.
Image courtesy of Damien Lovegrove Image courtesy of Alakija Studios
I wanted to know more about this important designer, so I delved into his background and how he came to be a designer. He explains that the compromise he made with his parents when he told them he wanted to be a designer it would be for that reason he would go to university. “If I could have gone to university to study fashion design in Nigeria, I would have done so, but there wasn’t any university offering fashion design courses at that time. So I decided to study textile design because I thought fashion and textiles go hand in hand and it could always come in useful afterwards. So when I came to England, I didn’t want to go through another 4 years of fashion school; I just wanted to learn how to sew, how to draft a pattern, how to cut fabric and other practical skills relevant to creating clothes because I could already design and was pretty good a Yemi Osunkoya Yemi Osunkoya Nigeria Yemi Osunkoya (born ) is a London-based Nigerian fashion designer and the founder and creative director of Kosibah Creations - a couture bridal and eveningwear fashion brand. His haute couture brand, "Kosibah" label was named after his mother's name "Cosiba", which, in the Republic of Benin, represents the "day name" of a female child born on a Sunday. His company Kosibah Creations designs luxury bridal gowns and evening wears for high-value women across the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, US and Caribeans. Osunkayo was born in Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria and attended International School, Ibadan from to before proceeding to study at the Obafemi Awolowo University where he graduated with BA in Fine Arts and Textile Design in He then migrated to the United Kingdom and completed fashion diploma at the Paris Academy School of Fashion, London. After graduating from a private London fashion school called the "Paris Academy School of Fashion", which is now closed, where he learned how to design, cut and sew both womenwear and menwear, Osunkoya launched his fashion company "Kosibah Creations" in London in His Kosibah bridal brand features in many high end bridal salons and fashion shows across the globe and has many celebrated clients like Dianne Abbott MP; singer & TV personality Alesha Dixon; Janet Boateng the wife of Paul Boateng MP; actress Louise Rose; singer Stephanie Benson; Miss World Agbani Darego; Hollywood actress Indra Ove as well as Kelly Rowland; Sheila Ferguson of The Three Degrees; ac Editor’s Note: Hey, fam! We are super pumped to bring you our new series called “12 Conversations With 12 Incredible vendors Across 6 Cities“. For the next few days, we will be featuring talented wedding vendors from Lagos, Accra, Toronto and the United Kingdom on different aspects of the wedding industry. Today, we will be having the award-winning New York-based bridal couture designer, Yemi Osunkoya ofKosibah. Yemi Osunkoya is the designer behind the Kosibah label. Kosibah is an exclusive brand specialising in bespoke Bridal and Evening wear. Based in NYC, and with a satellite atelier in London, the Kosibah brand is known for creating figure-enhancing gowns using luxurious fabrics and sumptuous embellishments. Yemi’s signature use of corsetry and boned bodices cleverly recreates the classical and elegant hourglass figure, producing gowns that curve, shape and flatter the wearer. All dresses are made to measure. The team at Kosibah are committed to providing exceptional quality of service and meticulous attention to detail. The designs made from individual body measurements, use luxurious fabrics, sumptuous embellishments and couture techniques. We asked Yemi a few questions. Here are his responses: Kosibah was established as a company on 1st September so on the 1st of September , it will be 29 years. It is a bit difficult for me to answer this question because the premise is quite presumptuous. If I had to take a guess, I would, however, say I contributed to the uplifting of bridalwear as fashion niche. I’ve also noticed a lot of dresses now have the removable illusion or mesh top worn under strapless gowns to give the initial impression of modesty in a gown. This was something I’d been doing over 20 years ago as an answer to the ‘bolero problem. Most churche .Yemi Osunkoya
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(age5556)Nationality Nigerian, British Almamater Paris Academy School of Fashion; Obafemi Awolowo University Occupation fashion designer Knownfor Kosibah brand label
designing haute couture bridal gowns and elegant eveningwearsWebsite
blog: Early life and education
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