In 2016, Yoanna Chikezie put her years of experience in styling, media, PR and consulting into The Assembly. The fashion and creative enterprise hub launched to help creative entrepreneurs structure and scale their businesses globally. At 9,000 members and six years down the line, Chikezie discusses The Assembly's past, successes and future.
When Co-Creation Hub, the first technology hub launched in Lagos, its goal was to provide a space to nurture and grow the city's technology ideas and talents. And it did just that. Start-ups like medical logistics company, LifeBank, were among the early-days ideas that the hub helped nurture and build into a quickly-expanding and profitable business. Yoanna Chikezie thought this model could work for the creative and fashion industry in Nigeria. In her experience as a stylist and media consultant, it was evident many fashion businesses needed help with structuring a business and positioning it to be profitable, and to scale beyond Lagos. By putting together a network of industry experts she had encountered in her career, Chikezie has built a home for brands to access the knowledge, talent and partnerships they need to succeed. At the core of The Assembly's mission is a need to foster collaboration and to build fashion businesses that have the potential to become household names beyond the shores of Nigeria and the continent.
The African American Building an E-Commerce Platform to Connect African Fashion Brands to The Global Marketplace
AMAKA: Hubs have been critical to the growth of the tech industry across the continent since the 2010s. It has served as the best sandbox and springboards for some of the continent’s most influential technology companies. Did this influence your idea for a fashion and creative hub when you began thinking about how to do more to grow the industry?
Yoanna Chikezie: I had been in the industry for a while, and developed this amazing network from connecting people for one thing or the other. Then I saw these challenges and realised there was nothing that existed by way of a collaborative space where you’re learning and connecting at the same time. That’s how The Assembly came about. It was about bringing together pieces of a puzzle. The name “The Assembly” was indicative of a gathering, people coming together for a common goal and a shared passion for fashion. At the time, I was speaking to a few of my friends who happened to be in the tech industry and a friend was like, what you’re trying to do sounds very much like what is happening in tech. Co-Creation Hub was one of the companies I admired and I could definitely see its structure working for the fashion industry. A friend connected me to the founder and when I look back, it was one of the most important conversations I had towards the development of The Assembly. I was definitely inspired by the tech industry and how hubs were pivotal to discovering talent and helping talent to scale.
Tell us about The Assembly?
The Assembly is an open network. All you need to be a part of the hub is an idea, a business or an interest in the industry. The reason it’s designed that way is because we are not trying to create another form of gatekeeping or a platform where you have to be, look, or sound a certain way to be a part of it. Of course, every programme has a criteria but at a base level, the community is open. We have another type of membership which is a paid membership. This is an opportunity to get more access to resources and support that will help you grow your business and connect you to like-minded people in the industry as an entrepreneur. We have about 9,000 creative entrepreneurs in our network and have directly supported over 2,000 entrepreneurs in the last two years.
Recognising the problem, creating a solution
You started as a stylist, then worked in the media space before launching The Assembly. What were the experiences you had in these roles that brought the need for a solution like The Assembly Hub to fore?
I came in as a stylist, ended up becoming a fashion editor and had to commission stylists. Back then as a fashion editor, I found it was tricky finding stylists who could style a shoot and tell a story. It was also tricky getting photographers, makeup artists, and whoever you needed for editorials.
The global pandemic expanded what possibilities existed in technology for the fashion and creative industries perhaps outside of e-commerce. We saw 3D-simulated models walk down runways and one-person fashion shows on Instagram Stories. As the pandemic morphed and created new demands for how we live and interact, what lasting impact do you think will stay with the fashion industry and how it utilises technology moving forward?
Another thing I also noticed was [the industry] being susceptible to remote working. Fashion is a very physical industry. It's not feasible to have your production staff sew from home and send in garments or collections. You could, however, see designers opening to the idea of hybrid teams where those that don’t need to come in can work from home. And because we recruit for a lot of fashion brands, we were trying to encourage businesses to think about human resources and the capacity to manage a team remotely because it’s going to become a common thread in the way of working. Technology has definitely helped in the management of remote teams and how remote teams deliver their work. In our case, we all worked remotely and are heavily dependent on technology. We ran about three programmes virtually and this is something we were doing physically in the last four years. COVID-19 definitely pushed us to rethink the way we do things.
Do you think technology also has the ability to remove the notion of gatekeeping in the fashion industry?
I think that even before the pandemic we already saw a shift in how young creative entrepreneurs were exploring and utilising direct-to-consumer models. And it’s thanks to social media and e-commerce. You find really young brands with a serious cult following and they don’t need to go through a buyer or publicist or fashion editor and I think that’s going to continue. I’m not saying the middlemen do not have any role to play. But now, the tables have almost turned in a way. You find young brands with a substantial amount of online following, engagement, and sales, and editors and stylists are the ones coming after them.
Funding, collaboration and sustainability
What are the missing, overlooked needs in the industry? Is there room for more investments, more focus, more conscientious effort from stakeholders?
Where investments are really needed is education—and when I say education, I mean in all of its ramifications—from understanding our local textiles and resources, to technology know-how, to better designs and waste management. We need more investment in research. You find that in other countries and regions, there are research facilities for the creative industry and creative practice. There are standards and regulations you must understand before you begin making products for a market. It’ll be great if universities had research facilities where you can test your ideas and not be in so much of a hurry to release a collection because you want to sell. Then, infrastructure, logistics and manufacturing—we don’t have that many smart factories on the continent. Right now, we are not competitive when it comes to China, India, or Turkey. There needs to be a lot more support in how creatives access finance. There needs to be other types of funding tools [outside of traditional banks] to support SMES in the fashion industry on the continent.
Thinking of the presence of African fashion globally, The Assembly worked on Project UNLEASH, in collaboration with the Condé Nast College of Fashion. What new lessons and insights did you and your team learn from that experience?
What we found was that a lot of the entrepreneurs call themselves CEOs and Creative Directors, but they are not necessarily leading. One of the training modules we had was on leadership because they were going to lean on their leadership skills in order to manage a new team for a project as part of the module. A lot of the feedback afterwards was that founders thought they were leading in their businesses but it actually helped them develop new habits. For the students from Condé Nast, one of the things they shared was that they were able to work on an international brand beyond theoretical education. The programme also helped build their confidence and they achieved so much in just a couple of months.
Sustainability was at the core of this partnership with the Condé Nast College of Fashion. Are we or should we be having the same conversations around sustainability locally as with the global fashion industry?
I don’t think this is an African or Western problem. It’s a global challenge. Whatever happens by way of climate change in Asia will certainly affect Africa. We are all under the same sun. The only thing I would say is that when we have these conversations, it has to be tailored to the local environment. If the UK chooses to tackle climate change with certain policies, it’s because they understand the environment, the people etcetera. You cannot take that same policy and lump it on Nigeria or Ghana. The policy has to be tailored to the local environment. I think what’s happening is that everyone is shouting sustainability and climate change but no one is thinking of local solutions.
The conversation we should be having is; for our context, here is how we live, here is what we need, and here is what we can do. When it comes to fashion, sustainability is now becoming important, but there is greenwashing and there’s intentionality about your contributions to a sustainable planet.