“I have always been interested in Japanese culture and fashion” ……… Esther Oyelese of Shobikan Bags

The Shobikān brand is an offbeat fusion of East Asian and West African contemporary fashion and lifestyle. As soon as it secured its space in the Nigerian fashion accessory shelf , no sooner curiosity grew as to who was behind this exclusive craftsmanship Esther Oyelese, a fashion designer cum accessory designer . In the season of collaborations , this is not one that alters  the norm as Esther has succeeded in merging two extreme cultures to create a unique tribe of fashion awesomeness, A sister to Kunbi Oyelese – who is the  renowned fashion designer behind April by Kunbi , Esther has not fallen far from the tree of creativity from which her family bloomed from . In this interview with Kenny Wiley , Esther speaks about Shobikan – and why its such a unique fashion accessory.

Shobikān is obviously a Yoruba word but it sounds Japanese too. Tell us the story behind that.

My father comes from a royal family and our ancestral name is Shobikān. However, it wasn’t until I went to England that it came to me. I saw a bulletin board that had “Shotokan Karate Class”; of course it sounded like Shobikān so I got intrigued and did a little Google search. Turns out there’s a place in Japan called Shobikān and that was how I started piecing together the brand.

Would you say you were versed in Japanese culture and fashion before you decided to merge both fashion identities?

I’ve always been interested in Japanese culture and fashion even from when I was younger. I’ve always admired the Japanese way of doing things. They’re known for their precision and minimalism which are factors that I put into my work as well.

Do you sell to the Japanese market as well?

I have a Japanese partner who’s also a friend, his name is Shinju. He’s helping to develop a presence for the brand in Japan. However, as I said, the pandemic has slowed us down a little but it’s just a bit of delay, it’s something we are eventually going to achieve. So we’re working on a presence in Asia, starting from Japan of course. It’s refreshing that they find the content of the brand interesting as well and are intrigued by the African culture just as much as we are with theirs.

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How did you come up with the idea for the 3D Shobikan bags?

I did my research before that and there aren’t bags with actual art paintings on them so I knew it was a niche market. We tried it out and the first sample came out encouraging *laughs* so I went back to the drawing board and worked on perfecting it till we got to this point.

So I work with indigenous artists because there are so many talented Nigerian artists with good potential but just don’t have the right platform to push their work so this bag acts like a vehicle that carries their artwork around. For instance, if someone sees the bag and likes the art on it, I can commission the artist to make it into any style they want so it’s a win-win situation for me and any artist I work with.

Seeing that the bags are handmade here in Nigeria, have you ever come across some issues that manufacturers experience?

I’ve been very lucky with my production team. Of course, we have challenges sometimes like anyone in the fashion industry would tell you. Sometimes, it’s hard putting together raw materials but over time, we’ve been able to sort out that part of the production and have easier access to materials; also meeting up with demand.

When it comes to Quality Control, how have you been able to handle that ?

With what I do, the 3D art bag, in particular, the design is trademarked. So anyone that tries to replicate it might just about make me a lot of money because they’ll hear from my lawyers *laughs*

Which of the bags is the best seller?

Right now, I would say it is the Doro Bucket bag. Under the Shobikān brand umbrella, there’s the Shobikān bags and the Shobikān handcrafted bags. The art bags fall under the latter, so it’s a more exclusive and high-end part of the brand, which makes the pricing different. This makes the Doro Bucket bag our best seller as it is more accessible to a wider spectrum of our customers. As for the art bags, they get a lot of interests too and we make good business from it as well. However, it remains what we intend for it to be which is to be as exclusive and personal as possible. Our signature 3D bags.