 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Welkom to youth in action. Tudia, we have Stuart Jeffriesocheng. He is a PR practitioner and a fashion designer. Let's dive in to know more. My name is Grenis Niamwesu. So, stay with us. Tell us more about your PR practice. So, my PR practice came as a result of my performance, especially in my good performance in the languages. Back in high school. In high school I was quite good in languages, that is English and Kiswaiili. But I was even good at chemistry. I actually wanted to be a pharmacist. So I applied for pharmacy as the top choice in all of the four choices that I had. But come the results I didn't perform well in the sciences. I had an aim in chemistry, but for biology I didn't perform quite well in physics. I had bees. So I resorted for a second option, which was media and public relations in general. So I applied and I got invited to more university to study communication and public relations. Bachel of science. Okay, and at what point did you know that you wanted to be a fashion designer? Being a fashion designer, in terms of now being a professional mainstream fashion designer, I made that decision in 2016 when there was the advert for Blaise BYOB TV shop, the first season. That's when I decided I wanted to do fashion design as a career. And I applied, but at that point I didn't make it. I made it into film, which is also another interest which I had. So I pursued film for a few years until this year when I got now a scholarship by KCB to Nigeria to study fashion design. That is when I became fully now a fashion designer. I made up my mind and I registered my brand in fashion. Why did you go for PR first instead of fashion design in your choices of courses? In a household such as ours, in most households in Kenya, fashion design is not taken as a career. Most people take it as a hobby and especially there are very few fashion designers in Kenya. We have tailors mostly and dressmakers. So when you say you want to be a fashion designer, most people take it in the sense that you want to be a tailor. And most people take tailoring or craftsmen in the fashion industry as the last resort. For people who have either not gone to school or people who failed their exams, those are the kind of people who become tailor. So if you tell anybody that you want to be a fashion designer, they immediately dismiss it because no parent sacrifices in Kenya to take their kids to a good school and support them and then this person has passed their exams. So how can you explain to your parent that you want to go and study fashion design? It was actually out of the question. And even back when I was applying for campus, there were very few institutions if at all there was any that was offering fashion designers a course. There are diploma programs of fashion design, etc. but not for job, for joint admissions board. There were either none or very few. How do you balance PR and fashion design? PR and fashion design, even before starting fashion design as a career or as a business, I was still doing fashion design though as a hobby. In 2014, I actually clenched Mr. Kachamu University, which was a title I carried for two years. For two and a half years, that was 2014, 2015 and 2016 until around December. It was when I handed over the crown. So back then, I just used to do it as a hobby as something to just feel good as something you do on your leisure time. Then slowly by slowly the interest started developing. I started working as a stylist. For music videos, people would invite me to dress them for photo shoots, people would invite me. People were going to weddings, who needed suits, they needed designs. So I just started drawing up designs, working with different tailors to make the garments and sell to different people. Someone would call me, I need a suit and trench coat and then I fix them with the right color, with the right color combinations, the right fabric. I purchase the fabric, I get a good fundi and then they make the outfit. In any occasion, do you combine both works, the PR and fashion design or you just do them separately? I actually do both as one. In public relations practice, image consultancy is a major facet. Among the top things about public relations, we focus a lot on the image. When you're building the image or you're building the brand, you have to think about the style. When you think about style, you think about design. When you think about design, you think about fashion design now. Fashion is a broad industry. So what key areas do you venture in? I'm focused on design. I'm focused on design and in Kenya, if I put it in the right context in terms of the global industry, I'm a creative director. But in Kenya, being a creative director in itself is not a sufficient career in the current ecosystem. So I'm a creative director and I'm also a fashion designer. Creative director is somebody who tells a story and somebody who expresses a feeling or a story through garment. But a fashion designer is somebody who creates the illusion that tells the story. The creative director is the person who has the idea. They may not be necessarily good at deciding which color, which color, which style is involved in the process but they can tell you maybe a 70s look and maybe in a mid brown something that tells an African story. So for me, I think maybe I need to use some off-white, mid brown and then when I get to that point now, I'm thinking as a designer. Interesting. So I'm both a creative director and apparently, I'm also a craftsman because sometimes you have to make the garment so that your vision comes to life. Sometimes you can explain to a very good craftsman but if they don't see into your vision, they cannot give you exactly what you want. So how often do you become the craftsman? I'm just done with fashion school as a craftsman. I've just finished my grade 3 training when I was working in a studio setting and working with a real fundi was the experience trying to get to none or deeper. So as a craftsman, I'm just starting. Though my interest as a craftsman is more into making bags than making garment. Interesting. So basing the fact that fashion is not an everyday activity for you, what else do you do to keep yourself busy? I have a company and the other is what I do on the full time and actually the clothing line is part of the media company. You see, I can't say that I don't do fashion on the daily. I do fashion on the daily only that my day is divided in such a way that I handle public relations. I have time for public relations and if you cannot find me during those hours as a public relations practitioner there are ways in which you can reach me later or there are ways in which you can communicate if it is something urgent and then I can either give somebody else the job or we can find out of scheduling it and I also have time during the day for fashion design. And what can you tell us about the skill sets needed to be a successful fashion designer? To be a successful fashion designer in the actual sense the skills that are needed are dressmaking skills you need design skills and that is in terms of design I'm speaking both the idea and also putting it down into maybe a drawing and not even maybe you have to learn how to put your idea into a drawing and put your idea into maybe a graphic drawing in terms of a computer using different softwares also there is a colorist people were just good at coming up with good color combinations unique color combinations for a design or for a collection apart from that we also have printers we have people who now they are specialized in different printing mechanisms different printing techniques there is waxing, there is wax printing there is tie and die there is screen printing so whatever you are creating you will be obviously working with a very specific print design embroidery design embroidery printing etc etc and then we also have knitting and crochet embroidery you need to have skills or have somebody who has skills in embroidery also in terms of as a fashion designer you need to have a creative director and you also need to have a business director somebody who who can be able to tell you the commercial value of your products and somebody who can be able to inform you of your relevant market where you can sell well your niche somebody who can be able to help you to cut costs in terms of production distribution somebody who understands distribution somebody who understands marketing okay speaking of skills tell us about your outfit I see it's a unique outfit thank you what kind of outfit is it so this outfit it's based on the palette that I'm working with I'm creating a collection for an event that I have in December that is like Victoria Fashion Week so I'm working on green I'm working on green tones so right now I'm trying to work with different types of shades of green like teal black green and this outfit is the first outfit that I actually came up with so this checked the fabrics they are all imported there is none that is made here locally this is crown this fabric is called crown and the lower one is woolen woolen suiting material I drew the design and I sourced the fabric and I stitched it so it's purely your work yeah it's purely I would say apart from the fabric the company that made the fabric and the thread the rest is my work so what are the work ethics needed in this industry the fashion design industry in the fashion design industry in terms of ethics they are standard ethics but again they are personal their personal values that you have to attach as a person so that you give a unique value proposition to your clients and that includes honesty first of all honesty in terms of pricing you should not be in a hurry to rape people off just because somebody looks like they can afford 20,000 you should not be quick to tell them this is 20,000 I'm not saying that you should not price your staff up there but now the disadvantage with being dishonest in terms of your value proposition and what you're asking from the client is that one day they will find the same product at the actual price and then that is how you will have lost that client also there is aspect of time keeping or time consciousness especially for somebody starting like me I don't have so many people working for me so I have if I agree with a client that I should take 3 days to make an outfit I have to make efforts too to make sure that that deadline is kept if I have a fitting maybe I need to meet a client to do fittings for a project I should be very focused on being there in time so that I don't waste the client's time and give a bad a bad review or even make the client to have an negative perspective of my brand and then there's also diligence diligence in terms of of being really who you say you are you know a lot of people in the art industry they ape they try to ape other people and now when the rubber hits the road and then a client realizes that you're not who you say you are then there is a disconnect and once you lose a client once you lose that footing it's very hard to gain it back so how do you get to connect to your clients do you look for them personally or they find you funnily enough I haven't invested yet in marketing but most people just refer I actually started receiving jobs fashion jobs because of the way I dress people see me on Instagram and then somebody is on my DM I need this kind of audition and you're the right guy you can fix me with this and then now from there you worked it I will say social media is top of my list so how do you keep up with the trends how do you know this a new trend in town I will say for for somebody who follows trends that might be an issue but personally I take myself as somebody who sets the trends so when the trends are changing people like me who are changing it so I like to as I mentioned earlier we want to predict the future of popular culture by creating it we look at what is missing the collections that I'm working on I'm trying to get what is the market missing because all designers in Kenya focus on Kitange you mentioned that your Kenyan designer and African designer everybody expects you to chan out Kitange outfits but personally Kitange is not my favorite I like to experiment with different kinds of fields what kind of challenges have you come across and how did you tackle them capital is one giant in the room because machine costs 117,000 so you can imagine a young person who is starting off where will you find 117,000 to buy a machine and that is the machine you need an overlock machine you need a buttonhole machine you see you need an embroidery machine you need a printing machine if you are a serious fashion designer you need certain types of equipment that are quite expensive so capital or lack of access to capital is a big issue also as a fashion designer in Kenya there is the challenge of acceptance of this career something which is serious you will find that for example they produce their outfits in Nairobi this is a naiva these corporate shards they are things like these reflectors they are made outside they are even these brooches and flowers if you tell somebody I'm from Kisumu and I make this they look at your product like is it really of good quality so there is that challenge there is that stereotype that anything that is made in Kenya is second grade and then you find somebody buying something of the same value something of the same quality at a higher value than what they would have bought for my disease for example if I tell somebody that I sell my bag the little bag at 3000 people will not buy but if you look at maybe such a bag made by Louis Vuitton or Vasachi or Gucci somebody is willing to spend 10,000 on it without thinking twice the last one I will say is lack of access to skilled labor right now if I need somebody who can do plating for example I have designs that need plating so in Kenya I doubt if there is a company that does plating if I have to now do a commercial version of those because if I want to do one or two pieces I can use an iron box but if I want to make now let's say 50,000 copies to sell in Garisa Lodge to sell in Isili I need a serious company that can do plating so you find that I have to go to the UK I have to go to China to Singapore to Turkey to find something like these ones and there are very many people who are unemployed here in Kenya they have not thought that I can just be doing plating and making a living out of it so lack of skilled labor is a huge factor what are your greatest achievements? my greatest achievement is a recognition that came recently very recently and I really cross fingers for it I got a call from New York they are film producers for Netflix they want to produce a film and they want to feature my designs they want me to style the film according to their proposing so we are still talking but for me even though it has not yet happened but just getting that call that somebody from New York has identified my work and is pleased with it the greatest right now secondly what gives me the most gratification is trying to to make a mark in the life of somebody who cannot repay me or who I don't expect to repay me and that comes in terms of charity I am very proud of the charity projects that I have taken part in I have done a prison visit to Eldorit GK visits to schools autistic schools visiting children with autism inspiring them hanging out with them cooking for them washing for them slam donations market cleanups I get the best feeling when I go out there and do something where nobody is going to pay me another my greatest achievements is also another recognition Awin I was Awina for Safarikom BYOB that is always Safarikom creation camp Blaise creation camp it was a creative competition for different young people who create different stuff and I managed to participate and win it feels good to win even if I was to quit I will have no regrets because every day I look out there and I see people who I have worked with I see people who have mentored keeping up with the dream they are also now carving their own parts they are also doing their own things and some of them may even now mentoring other people and that is satisfying so what are your future ambitions like 5 years to come 10 years to come where do you see yourself in 5 years time I am positioning myself to create an institute of fashion I am positioning myself to create an institute of fashion that does training for skilled labor that produces apparel at the same time and that even outsources human resource in terms of we can have people who have trained facilitating other people now even other institutions getting hired to go and train other institutions and I am focused on that because to have something original you have to create it from the ground and do the dirty work so I want people who if I want somebody who can do a great embroidery and they are not available I want to be in a position to train them and we have if you want somebody who is great in print technology we want to be in a position to train them and I started by saying I am positioning myself because it will not just happen so through events I am doing, I am very big on events fashion events networking events where I bring different young people with ideas together and even old people together we share ideas we share visions on financial financial training and financial education I educate myself a lot in matters finance in terms of creating business plans creating financial plan books of accounts in terms of economizing tax law knowing how taxes work in terms of scaling knowing how to wear to buy machines when to sell them different aspects that are going to enable my company to have a very firm understanding of what we are doing so in 5 years time the institute of fashion is the priority and is the goal in 10 years time the goal is now to become a global brand what can you tell the youths out there who are languishing in regret because of lack of employment lack of employment I cannot say there is lack of employment there is lack of employment in Kenya though it is the it is the notion personally I am not a complainer people say there is no employment yet kumjengo there is always space joakali there is always space wukenda kumofundi okshona there are always people who are demanding for their clothes if you go to any tailor today right now you will find that they have too much work to do if you go to the plumbing you find that there is somebody who has been waiting for a plumber for the last 2 weeks if you go to electrical you find there is somebody who has been waiting for an electrician you see like this car right now it has a puncture if the youths of Kenya had taken their future into their own hands there will be no puncture I would have had like 5 people knocking me kuna kazi is there anything I can do to make a living because you can create a job out of a vacuum I have told you right now I used to sell mandazis I have personally never been employed but I have never been unemployed because if there is no job in PR today there are jobs in dobi there are jobs in slashing do whatever you are doing as time moves I work with the principle of Napoleon Bonaparte who said that you should negotiate while advancing what is not there in Kenya is permanent and pensionable jobs we don't have that but we have jobs you have to ask yourself what is needed in the community that is not there and do it and now that there is the challenge of capital in Kenya what you know for me personally right now I am in a scholarship program they are supposed to be funding me but I have already bought my machine and how did I buy my machine I was training kids for drama how did I get that job I went knocking from place to place until I found somebody who said yes I trained there I got some little capital now I have started but if you are sitting and waiting you will keep waiting there is this I don't know if it is a historic problem that has been put in your head Afrika is a poor country Afrikaans are third grade in terms of their thinking Afrikaans are dependent on the west toa kwaakili take it out of your head just do anything just start if you think you are good at being a DJ if you are good at chicken farming get one hen and if you have no capital of getting it ask yourself what am I good at if you know how to wash clothes very fast go and wash somebody's clothes get 500 bob get a hen just take your life into your own hands nobody will do it for you wow you have heard it if you do not work hard as young people we will keep being told that we are the leaders of tomorrow and yet we are living in the now and today so let us rise up and keep negotiating as we advance till next time this has been youth in action I am Nyango Sokrenis