“Comfortable, Fabulous & Timelessness Guide My Sense Of Style - Meg Doris Alabi
Meg Doris Alabi, CEO, ALABI Couture, has come a long way as far as fashion and modelling is concerned, with her ensemble, she has been a regular feature at the Africa fashion Week, London. She has been at the Nigeria fashion show, 2011; the Nigeria Television Fashion show, 2012; City People Magazine Ankara Fashion Show, 2012 and lots more of the fashion circuit. She tells NICK UWERU what informs her fashion sense.
What informs your fashion sense? I mean what are those things you put at the back of your mind when you design any piece of clothing?
What informs my fashion sense is comfort, primarily. I believe strongly that those who wear our fabric should be comfortable doing so. It has to be stylish. Also I come to use this expression, ‘Fab’, to describe my style. I coined it from the word fabulous. Thirdly it has to be timeless. It has to be a piece that you pick up in the next three years and it will still be relevant. So stylish, trendy, comfortable and then fab, these are what guides my sense of style.
From what we know about you, you graduated as a Mass COMMUNICATION professional. Where did the fashion thing come from?
Yes, I graduated with Mass Comm honours. But I modelled for a very long time even before I got into the university. I started modelling in my final year in the secondary school. I was introduced into modelling by my aunty, Sefinat Mohammed. She owned a boutique at the Federal Palace at the time. I did a photo shoot for her and it came out in a magazine. So myself and my sister had a Photo shoot for her and it came out in the Poise magazine. That got me in to trouble in school. One of my teachers saw the publication, brought it to school and then called me into the staff room. She opened the page and showed me, but at first I didn’t quiet see anything familiar and then I flipped through it. I then told the teacher that I don’t quite know what to look for. The next thing, she gave a slap and said, ‘are you acting up’ and all that. She then opened up the same page and showed me a second time. It was when I saw my sister that it came to me. ‘Oh, I remember doing this!’ ‘That is my sister,’ I said and then looked at the second person in the next page and, ‘Oh that is me,’ I had to scream right in the staff room. But of course it became a major issue in school and the principal was involved and there was threat to expel me from school. My dad got involved and said there was nothing wrong with what I did since I did it after school hours. Well that incident built my interest in modelling. With my height and meeting the right people who taught me how to catwalk and all that, it was easy for me. In modelling for top labels my interest in fashion began.
How?
In the process of modelling I opened a boutique called MD’s Clothing. And basically what we do is to source for unique brands and sell them. While doing that I made cloths for myself. This was because I had a unique height at 6’2 and so getting pants for my length was challenging. So I made my own cloths. Ironically people tend to like what I made and they request that I make same for them.