They said no one would buy from me because I’m black — UK-Based Nigerian fashion designer Eluwande

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UK-based Nigerian fashion designer, Matthew Eluwande, has shared his inspiring journey from personal loss and discouragement to international recognition in the fashion industry.

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“Matthew Eluwande, born in Briston, UK. My parents moved back to Nigeria when I was 4 months old. I didn’t have any memory of this country,” he recounted.

His return to the UK came after a major family tragedy. “While in Nigeria, I lost my dad when I was seven years old, and things changed very quickly. Immediately, my dad died, my mum lost everything.”

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Back in the UK, Eluwande faced harsh realities as he tried to find his footing. “I had gotten all the experience of running my own business, designing hats and all that. I remember my friend told me that there are jobs that people like us do when we get here. It’s either you train yourself to be a nurse or a care assistant, or you do a cleaning job.”

The discouragement didn’t end there. “I have to be honest, they meant well when they said to me, ‘Mathew, don’t go into fashion, nobody is going to employ you.’ I said, look, I could start my own business. They said, don’t start it here, nobody is going to buy from you. And I said why, and the lady was pointing to my skin. She said because you’re a Black man.”

Yet, Eluwande refused to be defined by others’ limitations. “But I don’t just feel that because I have arrived in the UK, I have to kill my dreams, my aspiration, I have to bury my talent, bury everything, no! It’s really beautiful to know that if you don’t give up on yourself, God will not give up on you. And that’s been the oil that is greasing my engine and I just keep moving on, not giving up. Sometimes, I work 24-hour shift, making orders.”

His perseverance paid off in grand style when he participated in a prestigious hat festival in Caussade, in the south of France.

“In the second year, I went to France for a Hat Festival in the south of France in Caussade, entries came from all over the world. But I developed the design anyway, and I took it to France,” Eluwande explained. 

“So the night of the competition came, models, it was a big fashion show. All of a sudden, one of the models walked back to the stage with my design on her head, I said what is going on here: they said Mathew got the overall score, and I ran up to the stage and picked up the award.”

He didn’t stop at one win that night. “And I saw the second hat come up to the stage, and they called me again, and they said I got the Hat Magazine prize. Oh my God! It was one of the most beautiful nights of my life.”

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