Nigerian native Nere Emiko builds fashion house here
By Marques G. Harper
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 6:33 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Nere Emiko has quietly built a fashion house step by step.
Three years ago, Emiko, an engineer-turned-fashion designer, began designing modern and traditional wedding gowns. Last year, she opened a luxury boutique, Gilda Grace Collections, off MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) on West 35th Street.
In the past few weeks, Emiko, 28, has been working on her summer projects. She's designing a custom wedding gown for a local boutique owner, a dress for a woman in West Texas, stage clothes for a jazz singer and women's outfits for a destination wedding in Malta.
But that's not all.
She's ready to expand her fashion repertoire. She and her design team are creating a women's ready-to-wear line for the fall.
"I really haven't had time for my hobbies," said Emiko, an avid reader, traveler and music lover.
Sitting at a table in her boutique's bridal salon, Emiko said she plans to have a lengthy career in fashion. However, there's still that part of her, the part that's deeply rooted in her childhood in Africa, that wants to juggle a number of passions. After all, she started a food distribution business in Nigeria at the same time she left her engineering job at Freescale Semiconductor to pursue a fashion career.
Emiko, the oldest of four children, grew up in a city near Lagos, Nigeria. Her father is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, her mother a college lecturer-turned-entrepreneur.
Troubled by the unsteady university system in Nigeria, Emiko's parents decided it would be best to send her and her three siblings to the United States for college. Emiko, who attended boarding school, earned chemical and computer engineering degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Today, Emiko's youngest brother goes to graduate school in Oklahoma, her other brother is back in Nigeria, and her sister, whom the family calls Little Madam because of her strong personality, is studying in London.
"Me and my sister are ready to take over the world. My brothers are laid-back," she said.
Emiko, who lives in North Austin, is a U.S. permanent resident , and she plans to apply for U.S. citizenship next year. She moved to Austin seven years ago to work for Freescale.
She left her job in 2009 determined to reinvent herself as a fashion designer, a secret dream that kept pulling at her. Earlier, she noticed her friends who were getting married had a difficult time finding unique dresses, so she thought designing wedding gowns would be a fulfilling challenge. She was attracted to tackling their design complications as well as the chance to work with luxurious material.
"I love expensive fabric," she said with a smile. "I saw the need. I don't say never to anything."
Emiko was familiar with the basics of fashion design, having worked on a fashion show at Carnegie Mellon. In her new role, she used her engineer skills and discipline to make mock-ups of wedding dresses. It took time, but she said she figured out the intricacies.
She was told to take her designs to the bridal market in New York, so she created a website and began chatting with fashion editors.
"When I went to the first market, the buyers loved it, but they didn't love the price," she said, adding she learned a valuable lesson and had to fine-tune her creations.
Emiko, who speaks with a trace of an accent, is now one of a handful of fashion designers of color in Austin. She oversees and designs her Beth Elis bridal collection (www.bethelis.com), a line of modern and traditional dress selections from $3,000 to $10,000. She uses silks, burnout velvet, lace and metallic fabrics. Among her other favorite fabrics are chiffon, organza, charmeuse, tulle, damask, satin, crepe, shantung and taffeta.
She said inspiration for her bridal collection comes from her everyday life - whether it's the smell of coffee or thoughts about her homeland, where men are known to be more flamboyant in their dress than women.
"My dad is really into fashion," she said. "The men in my tribe have simmered down a little, but they take fashion very seriously."
Emiko's Beth Elis line is sold at her boutique, Gilda Grace. Gilda is a variation of the Old English word meaning "covered in gold."
"I wanted the store to be surrounded by gilding and a celebration of what gold represents," she said.
The space was once home to Gardens, the high-end gardening, nursery and landscaping retailer that closed in early 2010.
Emiko discovered the space while driving with her mother, who was visiting. Emiko said she fell for the property's farmhouse architecture.
"I really like old buildings and architecture," she said. "I walked in and literally saw the store."
Emiko leases the space from Gardens' original owners, Gary Peese and James David.
Since opening in November, Emiko said, she has had a few regrets. She wishes she had opened during the summer to capitalize on the fall season and had a retail partner going into the business instead of learning about retail on the job.
Gilda Grace is a mix of gifts items, books and paper products, jewelry, scarves, shoes, home goods, and antique furniture in the $90 to $3,000 range. Emiko began selling lines such as Bajra, Christopher Kon, Franco Ferrari, Peter Cohen and Parker Blue. She also carries selections from University of Texas instructor Ockhee Bego and 81 Poppies from local designer Michelle Weisman.
On the building's second floor, Emiko has a bridal salon of her gowns. Her design studio and seamstresses are in Northwest Austin.
"I want the store to be an experience," she said. "As much as I'd love for you to buy, I want you to leave with a good experience. You leave inspired."
One of her fans is Georgetown's Chrystle Swain, who met Emiko in 2009 when some of her designs were sold at Chupa Rosa, a store in Georgetown. The two became friends.
"She's got a real future," Swain said. "She's a risk taker. I really love her clothes. She just has to find the right customer base to have the world knocking on her door. She has a business mind. It was one of the freshest eyes I'd seen. I look for somebody who understands women and their body types. And I think she nailed that in what she's doing. "
Not everything is taffeta and charmeuse. Emiko also is deeply concerned about food issues like hunger and childhood obesity.
She saw an opportunity in 2009 that allowed her to help food distribution issues in her native country. Often, she said, farmers have a difficult time getting their crops to market during the harvest. The unsold food often goes to waste, so the farmers have a hard time making money.
Now Emiko, who travels home about twice a year, owns a farm-to-market venture in Nigeria. She buys farmers' crops in the harvest season, stores the goods, which include potatoes, onions and rice, and later sells the harvest to markets.
"It kind of started out by accident," she said, explaining that the venture started after a conversation with her mother. "My mom knows my knack for business. She thinks about investments."
She also wanted to help farmers here. Last year, Emiko surprised Erin Flynn and her husband, Skip Connett, owners of Green Gate Farms , the organic farm with operations in East Austin and Bastrop.
Based on her own research, Emiko decided to help out the farmers' goals. She wrote a $10,000 check to create the farm's sponsor-share food program and support Flynn and Connett's efforts to help the Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity at Dell Children's Medical Center and the University of Texas Elementary School's pilot program to teach obese children about healthy eating habits.
"This is the first time we could do a large-scale program with these established initiatives," Flynn said. "She showed up at our farm one day and said she wanted to feed people. That was sight unseen. She didn't know us. I wish there were 100 more Neres. She helped fulfill the intention of our farm. It helped us know we were heading in the right direction. It funded our dreams."
Because of Emiko's donation, Flynn said she and Connett will start a nonprofit group called New Farm Institute, which will teach a new generation about sustainable farming. Starting at 3 p.m. Saturday , Green Gate will have a community party with hayrides, yodeling and food and other activities to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The event is open to the public.
Emiko's Beth Elis line is sold at her boutique, Gilda Grace. Gilda is a variation of the Old English word meaning "covered in gold."
"I wanted the store to be surrounded by gilding and a celebration of what gold represents," she said.
The space was once home to Gardens, the high-end gardening, nursery and landscaping retailer that closed in early 2010.
Emiko discovered the space while driving with her mother, who was visiting. Emiko said she fell for the property's farmhouse architecture.
"I really like old buildings and architecture," she said. "I walked in and literally saw the store."
Emiko leases the space from Gardens' original owners, Gary Peese and James David.
Since opening in November, Emiko said, she has had a few regrets. She wishes she had opened during the summer to capitalize on the fall season and had a retail partner going into the business instead of learning about retail on the job.
Gilda Grace is a mix of gifts items, books and paper products, jewelry, scarves, shoes, home goods, and antique furniture in the $90 to $3,000 range. Emiko began selling lines such as Bajra, Christopher Kon, Franco Ferrari, Peter Cohen and Parker Blue. She also carries selections from University of Texas instructor Ockhee Bego and 81 Poppies from local designer Michelle Weisman.
On the building's second floor, Emiko has a bridal salon of her gowns. Her design studio and seamstresses are in Northwest Austin.
"I want the store to be an experience," she said. "As much as I'd love for you to buy, I want you to leave with a good experience. You leave inspired."
One of her fans is Georgetown's Chrystle Swain, who met Emiko in 2009 when some of her designs were sold at Chupa Rosa, a store in Georgetown. The two became friends.
"She's got a real future," Swain said. "She's a risk taker. I really love her clothes. She just has to find the right customer base to have the world knocking on her door. She has a business mind. It was one of the freshest eyes I'd seen. I look for somebody who understands women and their body types. And I think she nailed that in what she's doing. "
Not everything is taffeta and charmeuse. Emiko also is deeply concerned about food issues like hunger and childhood obesity.
She saw an opportunity in 2009 that allowed her to help food distribution issues in her native country. Often, she said, farmers have a difficult time getting their crops to market during the harvest. The unsold food often goes to waste, so the farmers have a hard time making money.
Now Emiko, who travels home about twice a year, owns a farm-to-market venture in Nigeria. She buys farmers' crops in the harvest season, stores the goods, which include potatoes, onions and rice, and later sells the harvest to markets.
"It kind of started out by accident," she said, explaining that the venture started after a conversation with her mother. "My mom knows my knack for business. She thinks about investments."
She also wanted to help farmers here. Last year, Emiko surprised Erin Flynn and her husband, Skip Connett, owners of Green Gate Farms , the organic farm with operations in East Austin and Bastrop.
Based on her own research, Emiko decided to help out the farmers' goals. She wrote a $10,000 check to create the farm's sponsor-share food program and support Flynn and Connett's efforts to help the Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity at Dell Children's Medical Center and the University of Texas Elementary School's pilot program to teach obese children about healthy eating habits.
"This is the first time we could do a large-scale program with these established initiatives," Flynn said. "She showed up at our farm one day and said she wanted to feed people. That was sight unseen. She didn't know us. I wish there were 100 more Neres. She helped fulfill the intention of our farm. It helped us know we were heading in the right direction. It funded our dreams."
Because of Emiko's donation, Flynn said she and Connett will start a nonprofit group called New Farm Institute, which will teach a new generation about sustainable farming. Starting at 3 p.m. Saturday , Green Gate will have a community party with hayrides, yodeling and food and other activities to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The event is open to the public.
"There's this Old World elegance about her," Flynn said. "She's so wise. I find it hard to believe she's in her 20s. She's done things that I hope inspire others to act. That generosity really changed the lives of so many people. She helped the farm and made people healthy. Not that many people get to do that with their work."
mharper@statesman.com; 445-3974
Gilda Grace Collections
1818 W. 35th St.
407-8433
www.gildagracecollections.com
mharper@statesman.com; 445-3974
Gilda Grace Collections
1818 W. 35th St.
407-8433
www.gildagracecollections.com
Bridal event
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 12, Gilda Grace will have an event for Beth Elis and bridal line Katerina Bocci. (For every wedding dress purchase, there will be an opportunity to use retailer's outdoor space for a bridal shower.)
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Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Stumbled on this site, really interesting I have already looked her up, maybe time to reinvent myself.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I am interested: http://www.robertlondon.com/