Adenike Ogunlesi
Started sewing children's clothes at her kitchen table because Lagos shops sold nothing she liked
Adenike Ogunlesi was born in Nigeria in 1960 and trained and practised for a period as a lawyer, a respected and conventional career path. Frustrated by the poor quality and limited choice of children's clothing available in Lagos shops, most of it imported and expensive, she began making outfits for her own children at home, using basic sewing skills rather than any formal fashion training.
Friends and neighbours who admired the clothes began asking her to make items for their own children, and in 1996 she formally launched Ruff 'n' Tumble, a children's clothing brand, still working from limited premises with little capital and a small number of staff doing the sewing. Nigeria's manufacturing environment made the business difficult in ways unrelated to design or demand: unreliable electricity supply, poor access to affordable fabric and trims, and competition from cheap imported clothing that Nigerian shoppers often trusted more than a new local brand.
She persisted, gradually building a reputation for durable, well made, brightly patterned clothing designed specifically with Nigerian children and climate in mind rather than copying foreign styles, and opened a chain of retail stores across major Nigerian cities. Ruff 'n' Tumble became one of the most recognised homegrown fashion brands in Nigeria, credited with helping prove that a Nigerian manufacturing and retail brand could compete seriously against imports.
She has mentored other Nigerian entrepreneurs and spoken widely about the practical, unglamorous obstacles, from electricity to logistics, that ambitious local manufacturers in Nigeria still have to solve for themselves.