 Absolutely fantastic, you're still hanging out with us right here and this is one in the morning, this is the last segment of today's show but first things first, you can always interact with us on our social media at www.youtube.com for a full channel everywhere. Mine is at Bronson, Kowano 1 and the hashtag is one in the morning by the way, just a recap for the previous guest who's been here, Geoffrey Munai, if you want to be in touch with him, his number is 0707 161 298 or 0707 161 298, that's definitely how you can catch him and get to engage with him regarding what exactly he was talking about right here where the color may vary but brought to the business at hand, my good name is Sakwa and welcome back. We're going to talk about the world of fashion and events organizing, how do you go about it and what are some of the interesting opportunities that are in there for you especially as a young man and joining us live in studio with us is Julius Kibagendi, he is the CEO of, let me get the name right, Julimo Collection, so he's going to tell us how he became a CEO and if he's hiring very soon by the way, you can always drop your CVs, you know, everybody's looking for a job, me too, me too, you never know but welcome, welcome bro, first of all, good morning. Good morning, thank you for the invite, thank you for the invite to the interview. All right, you're welcome, you know when when CEO pops up in any in any sitting, the perception is this person has some level of cash, this person has some level of networks, I don't know from your experience and what you hold in your company and all the things that you do, does it ring a bell, is it a relevant conversation that you know, once I'm a CEO, there's some expectations that come towards me, like people are like hey boy now soon it up to your 50k, do you meet that a lot? Yeah, I can say I have a sustainable amount to sustain my business and to sustain my operation, okay about business is about growth, when you are young, you remember when you were, we used to be young, there's levels that would take, you started from nursery, you grew, you grew, you grew, so as a young CEO, okay there's much expectation from our society but time with time we are working on ourselves and soon enough will be big and huge brands to the world, so we don't succumb to the pressures that comes with the society whenever you tell somebody you're a CEO, but every day I'm working on myself, I'm bettering on myself and also I'm attracting someone to sustain me, okay sounds like a humble story, but now back to you, just a brief background of how you became you know what you are and then now combining two events, perhaps we can start with the fashion part since you're a fashionista, yeah the the journey of fashion started when I was young, my mom was my greatest mentor in fashion because when when I was young, we used to go to the market bring me some hot stuff like shoes, like nice clothes and everybody in our estate we used to live in Coyola was like wow that's a nice dress, that's a nice heart hair, so I grew up with that passion, I level up so when I when I was in actually in second school I started developing passion towards fashion and event organizing, so I think everything was came up because the way I was brought up, so I wanted to venture into fashion industry because I wanted to impact life for many people because many people want to look nice and presentable whenever they go to places or work or whenever they want to do wedding or whenever they want to go to event they want to look nice, so actually that was my main game of venturing to this business, I cut that part where you're from Coyola, there are so many names and so many songs around it, you know big in Coyola and now you here that you also went to the University of Nairobi you'll tell us what you studied there, you know there's usually like faint hopes when you come from such a community because the way it has a reputation of you know people that are not so much successful even when it comes to the music industry which is purely also intercepted with what you do, there are so many stories of like you know I just come from Coyola and yeah but again it seems like you had a lot of inspiration you mentioned your mom you know supporting you like who are some of the hottest guys in fashion that you looked up to during that time in Coyola? Okay for me my dream was above Coyola because I wasn't looking for the people in the local fashion industry I was looking for people like Gucci who are doing really who have done really amazing job for me my inspiration even leaving the hoods of Coyola you remember it was an accomplishment it was not such an accomplishment but it was a motivation for me because personally what inspires me most is whenever you're you're given an obstacle you have to raise beyond it, so yeah mostly by the ghetto people, yeah by the ghetto people so I've seen guys who have moved from Coyola they are now living in Kilimani they have made good life as I want to show like an inspiration to to the guys who are living even in ghetto. Okay sorry is that shengwar that you use for that? Do you feel like you may talk a block? Of course I may talk a block but still I'm going on going. All right do you know the likes of Diman Mukare, Dwayne Sharpa, you've heard of them I think they were big during those 2015-2014 I had just joined campus for my diploma they were like the guys who are going to check two five four get a fashion or go on in the house so you thought maybe you started together with the rest of the color fashion guru since you said you know him. Yeah okay those people also inspired me into fashion but for me I wanted to you know when you are starting something maybe your passion you know you have to follow your own route at the end of the day so okay they are great people but I said I was not only inspired by the local people but I was inspired by international guys because what is happening even in in our fashion industry it is because we just want to dwell here in Kenya right but if we expand our mind and see how can we how can you produce to the international markets right then we'll first we'll really thrive okay yeah we don't look at only on the local people and the local market but also we look into international markets yeah so that has really made me flourish I've got clients from even from international like Nigeria Tanzania yeah even from Switzerland and how do you deliver since you now have clients from Switzerland how do you make an effort and get to them during events I usually get a lot of clients in events because whenever they see your outfit they say I want to rock out with this like this one you have somewhere I don't know Friday and then somebody says yeah I just want this and then he's telling I will catch a flight by around three days I tell him okay let me deliver by that time I'll give back to you so that's how it gets international clients all right so my point of view is like my youths if you have a passion you have also to be self-driven for you to achieve your goals right so you have to go how said they are you have to be crazy for that dream just tell people you know I'm doing this and this and I have this idea please promote me right yeah sure I think we should also get to the name of your brand clearly uh what is the name of your brand and what does it represent okay my the name of my brand is called julie mo collection okay julie is my name julias and then m m o that's mo gaka that's my father's name all right so it is like abbreviation but it sounds cool because it was a nickname in a high school okay I used to entertain people I used to dance so they like nicknamed me julie mo so it was really fantastic dancer fashion because it was because it was in akwonga twins yeah they're like twins yeah so that's how it stuck and now here it is it's a business you know yeah it's now business and officially when did you like um spread your roots and finally get grounding in the Kenyan market the fashion fashion market in Kenya uh it was like three years ago but the whole plan started like three years like five years ago so in every business I think if you want to venture to business first of all you have to know the risk you have to know the people you have to connect well you don't just wake up and start a business you have to reconnect you have to know the risk of that business the people to hire the people to work with your target audience the target audience what is the profit margin do you want to achieve at the end of the day how you want to deal with the pressures that comes with the business yeah the bad times and the good times the good times how will you succumb to the pressures all right and everything looking for a building a place to start your business it took me time so it took me like three years of preparation when I kick started my business so one officially did it pick up you can't talk about the customers actually let me let me let me say 2022 that's last year yeah because I started 2021 so it uh it was not easy but uh not easy meaning in a lot of people say it was not easy but it was not easy because when you enter officially to a business you know you have a lot of expectation okay now when you enter the business now you real you face the real challenges right so the ones you first is it like what come again it took a long time to get uh clients who'd really trust me because trust which is like a co-ingredient of every business every business and also relationships a lot of those who do like um uh tailor made suits they have a lot of trust issues with their fundies and whatever in what sense exactly because our fundi will tell you that you know I'll take like three days to finish your heart and you're going to an event so you come there after three days so that's trust issues that's the trust issue whenever I could approach someone to tell me no you know I don't trust fundies but I begged for them I just told them just give me the job you see I'll deliver okay so with time I developed reliable clients who trusted me right and they brought me a lot of people they uh my business actually works through referral because whenever I do a good job somebody will refer me to another person right so you've established that relationship get trust trust is the most important thing in business business yeah all right now also but like initially before you started your business who are who are like what are some what what I'd say what were some of the inputs especially financially because every business anyway so you call it capital who are the main supporters of your business and maybe what did they contribute or maybe you personally started from a point of savings I said you know people say nearly seven consia high school and then you can't just uh uh keep on the size any kind of shopping mall I don't know your story with your brand how did you come up with the capital did you get some handouts here and there was it like a gift did you save a loan or something etc I can say uh during back in the days I think there's one trend that Kenyan knows a student in campus they usually do writing a lot of online writing yeah I started by doing writing but writing is quite uh tiresome and boring at the same time so I started by writing I saved some amount and I also had a couple of guys who believed in my dream so some people invested to my business so that's how I started my business all right so I'm looking at also you know when you're in campus your your guardian plays a huge role in support system did you have support from your mother your father or in general any guardian that actually injected in something uh it is completely opposite I didn't see if they are their support but uh we're supporting them oh you are supporting them but they were not supporting you all right you know but you know you but uh I thank god that you're here you know yeah sure as well as they say there's always a broken there's always a broken part or a broken story about yeah so I knew the the story of my parents so I couldn't stress them but they are really proud of me right now right now are you like the first one uh I'm actually the last last one but uh good thing about kusumbo how many siblings we are four siblings there are three ladies and I'm the last the only boy child where we're we're we're like a but anyway it's also good to be a last maybe uh as as uh now for your business uh how or maybe what are some of the designs that you focused on in terms of uh serving your clients okay do you want to okay and I could you leave more definitely me abcd abcd types of outfits which ones are you mainly uh producing from your business okay before I answer your question also I also offer like um uh support to people who want to I can dress people I'm a fashionista right and also I offer technical support and advice to maybe people who want to look good so even that's a fashion consultant or an image consultant yeah sure all right uh that's also a business on its own okay um so you have a red card or something if you want to dress someone here you definitely quote some amount yeah definitely but uh you can find me on my page so we can really discuss on that okay so it depends on what you want what you want to acquire still on that for a person now before you answer the question so if somebody is watching right now and they want to consult on how they should dress like uh what should they expect should they have some certain amount of money set aside before they talk to you because this is consultancy yeah of course you know it's business so business you have to have some resources so it's not about even a person also it's about connection there's a guy who connected me to so I really I really miss the ex governor so I really did everything fashion consultants for free so sometimes if you bring something on board which is good harder than money than money we can also talk business it's not all about money because wherever I am today is because of connection from friends and those who have supported connections in Nairobi now back to the question yeah what are some of the main designs that you produce I do african also I do african I do suits yeah slim fit suits like the one you're wearing is a slim fit suit yeah why is it called slim fit I'm from the word for slim people who are not no uh yeah there's people have different sizes okay so there's some people whenever they go to the shop to do maybe they want to and pick their suits it's so hard to get their their size perfectly so we call it a slim fit because it fits you the way you are so it is very comfortable with you you know you can wear something and you don't feel like you're comfortable with it yeah so usually too buggy yeah we deal with the what the clients want so we sit in the table you tell me you want maybe a buggy or a skinny one or just a moderate things so we put those details in the table and then we come up with something that you really you're looking for all right uh like a brief outfit like the one you've got right now possibly how much does it go for for if I want to buy it or someone watching wants to buy it how much does it go for and also do you offer like ready made outfits like is it already polite or display when there's a come or pick I might definitely have to start from scratch uh as I said before we do with the we deal with the slim fit mostly so we don't have ready ready but we have display you can check on the display display but we usually deal with the you just come you just tell what you want and then we do the design for you so like my suit it's the only cost so this one is a slim fit the one you got a slim fit okay yeah it's a two piece the two pieces trouser and blazer only 15 000 15 000 which is some good amount of money yeah some good amount of money right yes all right now also also when it when it comes to our fabric because uh because I believe your industry is more it's it's it's like you guys are in the textile industry yeah meaning you have to buy fabric all the time and you know times you know maybe some of the types of fabric now for you for your business what do you get the fabric oh we have different sources of where we source our fabric from and uh being in the industry for thing for the last five years I've studied a lot of I've done research on fabrics so I can I know where to source them I know how to source them but that one you can maybe if you come to my shop I'll really advise you because there is fabric that you can wear during cold times there's a during when it is so hot in Kenya so there's fabric for those times for weather for the weather and also I like my clan to be satisfied because I don't want to give you a suit that with time if you take it to a laundry after some few days it start fading so we usually concentrate on the on the quality of fabric okay so in Kenya okay then a lot of fabric in Kenya textile but also they are a lot of fake fabric yeah in there how do you decide for fake and real yeah it's through research I'm a scholar I'm a I'm a student so I do research on my own so I could buy a lot I could like maybe make a short of something or a blazer and with time I can test this this fabric is legit or not so with time we are we are having trusted people who we really source suppliers we really source the fabric from so they're like constant suppliers to your business yeah they're constant but it also depends sometimes we even import their fabric from what country exactly like Turkey Turkey they have a good fabric even though they are quite expensive but China often people yeah but Turkey has the best I can say they have the best fabric somebody told me Ankara is best from Nigeria in South Africa I don't know if you agree best Ankara African print is from South South Africa Nigeria yeah I met I met some Nigerian designers they really do amazing job as in the fashion industry in Nigeria has really grown okay so I believe it can be true to some extent but they are really doing an amazing job in the fashion industry and also because most Nigerians have really embraced their culture and the African culture so they really prefer the African wear other than to the maybe to the western wear so they even the western world is boring the Nigerian now we say now it's African culture they're boring some of their outfits or ensembles and using them in the music videos fashion events are you able to tell a material is real or not real just by looking at it or feeling it for me I believe I can it's like being able to distinguish a real do and affect do yeah I can really distinguish just by touching a feeling yeah okay just by feeling the texture and even a closed room if I look it closely I'll just all right let's deep dive a little bit to your events side you mentioned you also do events your network a lot with the people in that space as well yeah but now it seems like fashion and events be any twins yeah what what are some of the recent ones in Kenya that you'd say they have put your business on the map that you can recall me Leander Nick attend and it was really fine I met some great people after that we could get a caution and mango and we are kicking it till right now there's an event that happened recently it's called a common us common as an event that brings people from the whole world actually it is about environmental conservation so this event brought literally everybody from all over the world okay like people from Sweden for people from Switzerland people from from Indonesia yeah people from from Canada UK and then I think that I got a lot of clients because there's people who didn't carry their suits the event they tell me that can you do for us this and this because they were supposed to present yeah and that one actually increased the the computation to my business and also I would like to appreciate even our president he gave me an opportunity to be one of these events called Gabam Kononi they were launching the reason this happened last week actually last week yeah are you among the the people who got some I was I was invited are you invited I was invited to the event so what was your role in that event my role I okay because I do events also I do I do social media management so there was one of the guy who contacted me to do some social media management during the time during that event to run the hashtag there so that's also his side asshole you know Kenya is very tough so you have to like think big like you're everywhere in business yeah so also I got some clients to to do business with to do business why you paid for the gig because that was a big one man it was a big one it was like the president launching over 5000 actually it's 5000 and 84 services I remember was watching that were launched online yeah from health to interior yeah sure yeah did I pay you I was paid but hey we were you guys yeah we do some because I've done I've done some I told you I've done some writing okay so it really exposed me to even doing articles blogs I did some social media awareness during that day it was a great thing I was also invited to the event got some connection there yeah yeah sure and and and you feel like it's also going to boost your business as time goes by yeah it's boost because business every day you have to increase your like the circle the client base you have to increase it day by day for you to sustain your business okay you can't rely on only on the holder people all the your holder clients so you have to like to keep it sustainable you have to go to look you have to look for other people you have to network really well for your business to flourish right nice I'm what you're saying that I remember I think it is yesterday there's this fashion it's a French fashion thing that happened in states and I was seeing the Kenanayome Campbell's and the Kadibis and is the outfit so I'll come if I like outfits I'll see normal yeah normal meaning uh I'm a funicoso the new must do and it's called it's like I'm a seriously celebrated fashion event yeah I was trying to look at it in Kenya uh when you compare like the fashion industry overseas and here in Kenya what do you think makes us copy what they do and why will you say umesema vizuri sana why can't we not use our African culture and export it instead of us importing best to us I can say we Kenyans we have low self-esteem wow and we don't believe in ourselves yeah most people that are met from abroad they just tell us we have a great culture we have the Masai culture even from our communities we have our own culture the way we used to dress if you can integrate this to our modern life at least we can have something to share to the whole of the world like most Kenyans if you ask them can you promote me do some African art I defend you know I'll I'll prefer to go to Amutumba other than Gucci store yeah other than to promote your business so it is like we are consumers of the western culture other than embracing our cultures so I think and what makes us do so basically I think we are we are we are it is called neocolonism to some extent got it neocolonism and neocolonism we are made to feel that we are so inferior and the white money is superior yeah so whenever we meet Kenyans the first thing like somebody can meet me with a nice attire instead of appreciating in a positive way we'll give you some negative thoughts you know in your mighty like somebody will literally tell you that yeah they troll you because they can't afford it they are jealous some of the just mad that I think they are just jealous so we have a negative compliment so to a young entrepreneur we're starting a business if you are you don't have that hard heart a stone heart a steel heart my friend you fall down and some people will even tell you men suits are for people who have gone to gym you're so skinny you don't have to wear this yeah so yeah so such kind of things I think that is a mentality that if you consume it and it sinks into your unconsciousness then I think it will destroy your self-esteem so I'm shocked I'm stunned to be honest like somebody would hold such a very strong negative belief towards something that's actually asked most designers in africans people don't appreciate them because whenever you do something and you don't feel appreciated the tendency of you not giving of giving up that's what is so high for example in a school setup you really try your best to perform and nobody notices you you have really pulled you have gone from number last you are now like and nobody appreciates you you are like why am I doing this but whenever you have a support system the people who support you they tell you oh man so you find like you you get encouraged so I get some people who DM me they tell me man you are really doing a great job even they even they don't promote the my business but I feel so appreciated so I think if Kenya we develop that support system of supporting each other and also embracing our culture and going back to our roots I think we can really go far as fashion is concerned right um you make me remember there's there's one of my guests here he passed on I think last month he I'm sorry but say again okay in one of their conversations he said when you dress good you actually feel good and it doubles your confidence so do you believe do you believe in that philosophy when you dress good you absolutely actually I've met a lot of great guys uh a lot of great guys because I dressed well there's a time I met the deputy president of Kenya because of just dressing well because I was just dressing in a suit and I just follow those guys who are with suits and they were just going to the office and I just now came here now in an hour so whenever you dress nicely even you boost your self-esteem self-esteem nobody will judge you I've gone to great events because of just dressing people people will mistake you they'll say maybe this uh security is related to just let him now can't give up wow how did it go like you can't deny me sir how did you see it so they come up a corner cut the cutie will you see mama they were okay the guys started asking me and I was some judges you know I'm from Kayola just say I'm a media personality I just came to to see you what you're doing guys I'm going to cover your stuff and that's how I got some connections from there so it is about if you dress well yeah you feel good you feel good and also you create a certain impression especially when you're meeting people for the first time this is really nice okay and you are actually attractive when you dress well yeah sure sure but then there's also a lot of fashion trends in your industry recently we've seen a lot of color-blocking a lot of bright colors men are now like being encouraged to also dress up in like bold colors like pink Jay-Z called it mauve you know I don't know what you think about that do you encourage men to have bold colors like pink mixed up with another color she's yeah you know fashion is about when you wear something is like you are trying to express yourself so there's some people who feel that they want to attract some people they want to feel that they want to be sent of attraction so if you want to be sent of attraction I will prefer you go through those bright colors and whatever yeah about fashion they are the whole thing about fashion is just feeling comfortable with what you're wearing yes so if somebody tried to blend with the pink and every stuff is a way he just went to express himself or herself because I want to say my pink name I'm a damn son I've seen Jay-Z quite can I say many mauve on a day let's let's let's imagine um just a basic guy uh who has a nine to five a nine to five that means they work in an office uh possibly if you can imagine his outfit in a zakuage since witty but you know it's an ensemble that he's picking up from a shirt to a shoe to some pairs of socks to a tie or maybe a blazer in a zakuage or outfit I'm say and I work nine to five in short not a dress I'm say I'm paying instructions that's what I mean yeah okay nine to five and he's in the office yeah office setup nine to five office setup okay first of all we have if somebody comes to me like that we'll always look for a a fabric that is so light a light so light because in the office setup you know sitting to sitting in one place for a long time you will like accumulate a lot of warmth and everything uh rest of the thing so first of all we start with the fabric a very light fabric if you are sitting in the office and also a comfy like a comfy suit also uh the one that is not so fitting so whenever you're working on your desktop or whenever you're working on your job doing something you feel so comfortable yeah all right on that note as well uh what are some of the first uh I'd say maybe the worst the worst fashion mistakes that men make and you can um some eva every a bro no you're like char you need to do something you need you you need you need you need a facelift for your fashion in short it's a wardrobe malfunction uh function mistakes men make that okay and I don't give up you may show them up we buy us another oh the first one you you find people on the streets they wear a track suit with official shoes yeah my friend doesn't know yeah and also overblending of colors you find that somebody red shirt blue blazer pink trouser red shoes man you are coming from the whole rainbow walking rainbow yeah for me the most disgusting one should be uh uh and and and actually most people are not aware that they're mixing levels you know but then you uh to people who are function conscious or function sensitive like you are you definitely seeing wardrobe malfunction what would you advise people that are not fashion sensitive or fashion savvy or conscious of how they piece up their ensembles every day I think the it is so simple I think the whole game is simplicity stay simple and classy simple classy simple and classy okay you don't have to mix like a lot of stuff for you to look good just pure simple thing you can there's a there's a whole web right right now if you go to pin interest it will give you ideas of how you are supposed to dress how you're supposed to acquire some cloth yeah so it's so simple I think everything is about simplicity you don't have to overdo it for you to really look look nice all right yeah back to the Kenyan industry do you feel like the the industry is going to apply this is actually my last question before before you tell us where people can get you do you feel like the Kenyan in the functional industry is is still pretty young and now we integrate it with the events the events industry it's like they're trying to compete also for the same thing but then we are yes we're in the same business but we are competing for the same market and the same now we end up boring other people's cultures we prefer you'd prefer to wear what Nicki Minaj wore than what a Kenyan designer like you would design the Kenyan fashion industry is not too young the only thing that we are liking as Kenyan fashion industry is support support from the government support from the the people around us policies government policies that will advocate to promote Kenyan fashion industry I think that can really inspire people and also also what we are liking is an exchange program if you can have like top designers from Kenya being taken to other world to go maybe navigate or go just tour how those people go through their their fashion industry it can really work for us and also if the government can bring policies like we make our own things and whenever we import them they are free from those taxes of importation taxes I think as a as a country will go far because even the if the government can go outside and source and we just tell those people that we have a fashion year in Kenya and we want to sell them to your people a lot of people will agree will agree to that so I think what we are liking the Kenyan fashion industry is not young because I met guys who have quit doing electrical engineering to go do fashion like you you studied economics but me I have not dropped out of school I have not dropped out of school because of fashion but I found guys who are really passionate about fashion but the the problem that they had was they didn't have that proper support okay yeah all right we are exiting so if people want to consult you you said you can construct a person's outfit very fast where can they get you a number social media this is your camera oh thank you guys so you can promote my business and also if you want an emcee for your event you can contact collection on twitter on facebook and on instagram and my number is 07 6884 1806 07 6884 1806 thank you guys all right by the way as we go who's the most fashionable politician the one you might come across and say are you fashion sense yeah I can say Mike Sonko Mike Sonko yeah what about recently the president his black outfit I don't know if you saw it the president's also doing right yeah okay good yeah we're helping speaking to Julius Kibagendi he is a CEO of julie mo collection telling us exactly just in case how how now fashion sense by right now at least you know you know your way forward in between front and center my good name is Sonko we take a very short break we are coming back with much more still on that hashtag which is why in the morning I try to fulfill channel everywhere at brand so corner one we take a break we come back with much more stick around