Saturday, September 11, 2010

People You Should Know: The Fagbure Twins

So I recently reached 200 followers this past Tuesday! You all don’t know how happy that made me, especially since I’ve only been doing this for about 2 months. I want to give a very big thank you to all of you who have been following & commenting & just showing me love. If it wasn’t for ya’ll I’d just be talking to myself on here so I really appreciate the support. So since I reached this goal I thought to myself, girl it’s time to do something different. With that being said I am happy to present you with my very first (of hopefully many) interview! So without further ado, allow me to introduce:

The Fagbure Twins

I have always been greatly inspired by those who are able to take a vision, an abstract idea formulated from one's deepest dreams & desires, and mold it into something tangible. Something real & something great. Something that others can look upon and be not only inspired, but also be encouraged to step outside of our comfort zones and to dare to dream big. Being this way takes passion, persistence, sterling work ethic, and a strong faith in your own abilities…qualities that sometimes take years and years to acquire. However, there are some individuals who possess all of these qualities at a young age and who are able to utilize them in order to achieve the goals they set for themselves in life and to become the people they wish to be. 

I feel that Fela & Fola Fagbure exemplify this idea.
Fela & Fola are quite a dynamic duo. These entrepreneurial brothers are originally from Nigeria (like me!) but now reside and are based out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada where they are students in college. What makes these two so amazing, however, are their extra-curricular activities. While most people spend their weekends typing papers, going to parties, solving mathematical equations, playing sports, wasting the day away on facebook and/or twitter, etc., these two young men are doing all of those things PLUS managing their own company: Alex Folzi. Alex Folzi is the name of the brand that these brothers founded in January of this year and registered/branded in April. So far, Alex Folzi is a line of vintage inspired trunks that are available in a wide range of colors and in a classic brown print.


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Who is “Alex Folzi” & what was the inspiration behind this brand?
We are Alex Folzi. Well Alex is the short form of Fola’s English name “Alexander” and Folzi comes from Fola as well. That was the nickname given to him back in high school. People often ask why we decided to use one person’s name for the brand. But to us it doesn’t really matter. We decided to use Alex Folzi because Fola had the first idea to start the line. The inspiration for the brand came from our “Entrepreneurship Sprit” like our mum would say. We always had a huge passion for fashion. So we decided to mix that with the little knowledge of business to start our own line.
How did you two go about starting this brand?
I remember it was last year back in December after a trip from New York we decided to start this company because we had so many designs already drawn on paper. So we figured, why don’t we make it a reality by making what we already have drawn on paper exist?

What types of people are your trunks designed for?
We designed this collection for all sorts of people and all sorts of age group as well. Our target originally was from ages of 15-25 but a month after we launched the products the numbers increased more than we expected. We had skateboarders, dapper kids, preppy ones, working class, street style, vintage collectors etc. All sorts of people and ages rushed it. We came out with unique, elegant and colorful design. That, in relation to fashion today, is on point. So it made it a wider market range for our brand and it also increased the publicity as well.
Who are your favorite designers and do you look to them for inspiration when creating your trunks?

Funny enough we didn’t get inspirations from any designer. The trunk collection was inspired by the old Northern American/European couture. We remember watching an old movie, where we saw travelers using trunks to travel by train. Then we were like “Hey why don’t we design and make something like that because, it looks cool". But we would say Karl Lagerfeld and Ralph Lauren are still our favorite designers to date.
What is the story behind the Alex Folzi logo?

There is a lot to know about the logo. Here is the definition of our logo:
• Nature loving: -the flowers on the letters “AF” (note: - the "AF" stands for Alex Folzi) stands for nature as well as the leaf on the eagle's right wing. It represents our freedom of expression and our passion for fashion.

• Fashion oriented: -The boot on the eagle’s leg expresses style.
• Photography: -The eagle is known as the bird with the sharpest eye in the sky. So we decided to portray the eye as the lenses of a camera and as we know a camera is the eye for fashion.
• Vintage: -Milan and Paris has always been known for the vintage old and beautiful structural buildings. So we decided to use that to represent vintage.
• Classy and Elegant: -The eagle is known as the leader of the sky. So we decided to use the eagle to represent classy and elegant.

• Four major cities of fashion: -London, Milan, New York, and Paris are the four major cities of fashion. So we decided to portray them as a street coming together connecting to the shield to form strength and unity.
• Strength: -The shield and the eagle are represented as strength.

How successful has your brand been thus far and what do you guys have planned for the future?

It has been going good so far. We are very impressed with the procedures we have taken so far and how much we have done as a starting up company within this short period of time. Sales have been going smoother than expected and publicity is coming up just fine. We are currently working on new designs for the apparel and accessories. By the grace of God they should be out in the market before October. We are also looking forward to the opening of our first retail store in Edmonton, Canada before the end of the year. There are so many exciting things coming up for the company before the end of the year, but due to sequential reasons we can only disclose as much as we have said above.

“God gives every bird its food, but He doesn't throw it into their nest. All the so-called "secrets of success" will not work unless you do. Start by writing out your plan, there is no time for frolic.” 
This quote is actually straight from Fela's current facebook status and I feel like it speaks volumes about why these two have been so successful in such a short amount of time. In order to be successful, you have to know what you want and to go after it with everything you've got. But how far you go in this world is essentially up to you! Life gives you so many natural tools but it is up to you to take those tools and to utilize them towards reaching your destiny. For many young people, including myself even, this is a difficult concept to grab because most of us are only living for the present and not looking ahead towards the future. We figure that all the big moves we will make in life can be delayed into our later years when we should really be viewing everyday as another opportunity to be bigger and better than the people we already are. There aren't a lot of people like Fela & Fola in the world which is why I felt the need to feature them on my blog. They took a huge leap of faith by deciding to build and own their own company but look at how far they have come! Like Jay-Z said in his song entitled So Ambitious, “I can’t base what I’m gonna be off what everybody isn’t”. And that is exactly the type of attitude Fela & Fola have. They've got that GOOD GOOD.

Oh yeah, did I mention that they are only 19 years old?
To learn more about these go-getters, check out these links:



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