Fashion entrepreneur and content creator, Toheeb Opeyemi, has spoken about what he hopes to achieve in the fashion business, reflecting on his journey from tailoring and fashion design to retail and wholesale.
At 27, Opeyemi said he does not consider himself to have arrived, despite the progress he has made since starting out as a tailor and later establishing his clothing business, OTP Label.
‘I don’t feel like I have arrived yet. There is still a lot I want to achieve,’ he said.
Opeyemi, who lost his father when he was five months old and later his mother, said growing up without both parents taught him to take responsibility for his future and find ways of dealing with difficult circumstances.
He also recalled the influence of his mother, who worked as a hairdresser, saying her resilience and consistency shaped his approach to work.
‘When things are difficult, my first thought is always about how I can find another way forward,’ he said.
He said he started out in tailoring and fashion design but eventually realised that the income from tailoring alone was not enough for the future he wanted. Rather than leave the fashion industry, he decided to save from his earnings and explore clothing retail.
According to him, he saved ?300,000 as his starting capital for retailing clothes. He admitted that putting the money into a new venture was a difficult decision because it represented a significant amount to him at the time.
Opeyemi said his experience in retail later exposed him to the possibility of supplying other cloth-ing sellers, leading him to move into wholesale.
He recalled that sourcing products and finding reliable suppliers was one of the challenges he encountered during the early stages. He said he searched extensively online and at one point paid for access to a supplier’s contact, while also dealing with concerns over product quality and reliability.
He later raised about ?1.5 million to expand into wholesale, combining his savings with financial support from his wife. He said the decision was a major risk because he had never operated at that level before.
‘My wife believed in what I was trying to build, and her support made a difference,’ he said.
Reflecting on the lessons from his early mistakes, Opeyemi said he learnt that personal prefer-ence could not determine what he stocked for customers. He said understanding what people actually wanted became important to making better decisions about products, money and re-stocking.
Looking ahead, he said he wants to build a business that can serve people who are already in the clothing trade as well as those looking to start.
‘I started as a tailor, saved ?300,000 to enter retail and later raised ?1.5 million with my savings and support from my wife to become a wholesaler,’ he said. ‘But at 27, I don’t feel like I have arrived yet,’ Oyeyemi added.