ABSTRACT:

Whereas the need for Nigeria to harness and develop the potentials inherent in the country and become a leading nation in a field of endeavour in the near future, which is in line with the vision of the present administration to project the country by 2020 tagged “Vision 20:2020”. This consists in the development of the productive sectors of the economy.

Fashion design has been identified as a veritable means of achieving that, given the diverse ethnic nature of Nigeria .

This essay therefore, exposes the opportunities in Fashion Design and outline ways of developing it. The issues and points raised herein can (if properly utilized) totally transform the economy of Nigeria while creating jobs for its teeming unemployed youths as well as reposition the country as the giant of Africa.

INTRODUCTION: THE ART OF FASHION AND DESIGNING
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia defines Fashion Design as “the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyleaccessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time.” It is the fabrication of cloths by persons known as fashion designers to suit different people, different occasions, different seasons, etc.
Fashion designing is an art of creating apparels and related accessories to set a lifestyle statement
Fashion designers are people who specialize in the making of different cloths and dresses with different form of textiles eg silk, cotton, rayon, lace, our local Ankara, etc. it could also be a company that specializes in fashion design and employs designers.

Modern fashion design comprises of 2 basic categories viz. Haute-Couture, and Pret-a-porter or Ready-to-Wear. The former is a custom-made form of fashion designing catering to exclusive customers and haute couture is showcased through fashion shows for all Creativity knows no bounds in fashion designing. If one has the correct knowledge of textile, patterns, color coding, texture etc. there is no limit to the permutations one can think of in terms of designs.
It is also important that one plans the entire attire, draws the blueprint and visualizes the final outcome of the design. The success of the design will of course depend on the finish, thus its crucial to have a superb and glamorous.
History had it that Fashion design generally started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created. Before the former draper set up his maison couture(fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses, and high fashion descended from that worn at royal courts. Worth’s success was such that he was able to dictate to his customers what they should wear, instead of following their lead as earlier dressmakers had done. The term couturier was in fact first created in order to describe him. While all articles of clothing from any time period are studied by academics as costume design, only clothing created after 1858 could be considered as fashion design.

WHAT INFORMED THE CHOICE OF TOPIC?
Clothing in Africa (and indeed Nigeria ) as elsewhere, has long served more than one purpose. In addition to satisfying human needs for covering and adornment, textiles and clothing provide media for artistic expression for weavers, dyers, tailors, and clothing designers.
For centuries, textiles and garments have been produced domestically — for household and village community members— and commercially, for bartering or sale. Although the earliest cloth was made primarily of local natural fibers, today’s textiles and clothing are made with a wide variety of materials and styles.
Nigeria, a country of over 140 million inhabitants has diverse ethnic and religious groups. In addition to this, they speak different languages and have diverse but unique cultures. This therefore, gives Nigeria an advantage over many other countries of the world in utilizing this diversity to create designs and modify them to suit contemporary tastes.
Nigeria concentrates mainly on Freelance designs (ie work for themselves, and sell their designs to fashion houses, directly to shops, or to clothing manufacturers). She ( Nigeria ) should rather mechanize the trade and expand the industry.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

This works is aimed at developing the fashion and design industry in Nigeria so that Nigerians can master the art, employ its teeming youths in the art and export the knowledge and the designs to the rest of t he world in the near future (probably year 2020). It is suggested that a select group of individuals or an arm of the ministry of Commerceand Industry as well as Culture and Tourism be created to understudy the Fashion and Design industry in Nigeria and work out modalities of developing the industry such as the solutions proffered in this essay. The development of this project is considered in phases. This is similar to the Committee set up by Acting President Good luck Jonathan to conduct a survey of all Federal Government Projects within the country and among other things, ascertaining their level of work and stages of completion.

Factors militating against the development of the Fashion and Design industry in Nigeria

1. Importation of Foreign Cloths – massive importation of foreign ready-made cloths discourages locally made cloths as the foreign ones comes in cheap and handy.
2. Lack of Raw material and infrastructure – Lack of raw materials like cotton and basic infrastructure like power militates against the full development of the industry as this frustrates manufactures who most time relocates to neighboring countries where there are availability of these infrastructures
3. Concentration of Oil – the concentration on oil as a major source of income for Nigeria has been the bane of the development of non oil exports like fashion and design in Nigeria .

Others include lack of skilled workers, corruption (especially among political office holders), etc

Stages of the project

- Phase One (Preliminary Stage): The Textile Industry must be revamped as it is the primary source of materials for fashion design in Nigeria . The injection of N70 billion intervention fund into the textile industry has not produced the desired result as many of the textile industries are still in coma. More so, it is not only desirable but necessary that the production of cotton be encouraged as it supplies the basic raw material for cloth production

Further more, the basic infrastructures such as stable power supply and functional equipments must be provided as these are primary to the development of the Fashion Design industry.

- Phase Two (Implementation Stage): The government and other stake holders should create avenues for the learning and promotion of fashion design skills like creating fashion design schools/institutes where fashion design skills will be acquired. They (government) can grant scholarships for students of these institutions as well as grant subsidies to students of these institutes. The national assembly and the ministry of education or its agencies could be lobbied to include Fashion and Design Education as one of the optional/selective courses in our schools and universities. These Fashion and Design Institutes would have arms or departments specializing in researches and development of the product to suit contemporary tastes.

Private agencies may be persuaded to sponsor Fashion and Design programmes aimed at creating the awareness of the opportunities in the Fashion and Design industry and empowering people to go into the industry. Similar programmes as Cowbell Mathematics Competition, Maltina Street Dance, etc have been seen to promote the cause for which the programme was designed for.

- Phase Three (Advanced Stage): At this stage of the project, Nigeria would have started counting their gains of investment in the Fashion and Design Industry. It is now time for creating the market for the sale of the products, knowledge and skills in the industry as a result of long term research and development of the product.
Nigeria can penetrate the market of neighboring African countries and with time, to the whole of Africa and this will make it easy for them to project it to the whole of the world. She would use its good trade and bilateral relationship with other ECOWAS, United Nations countries to promote the trade. as well as establish similar institutes in these countries

- Phase Four (Immediate Future Prospects): This project has the capacity to attract international recognition and put Nigeria on the world map, as Nigeria through its agencies especially the Media and the Culture and Tourism ministry could organize Fashion Shows and exhibitions (in the magnitude of the Argungu Fishing Festival) and invite international agencies and sponsors. Seeing how this festival has developed over the years, one can rightly conclude that the future is bright for the Fashion and Design industry in Nigeria if properly harnessed.
A good Fashion and Design Industry in Nigeria has the capacity of projecting Nigeria ’s culture and tradition as it (culture and tradition) is also showcased in fashion and design

Finally, this project (Development of the Fashion and Design Industry) may be made part of the Amnesty programme of the Federal Government ie in the rehabilitation of the repentant militants, fashion and designing could be made one of the trades they will be taught.

Also, the “Re-branding Nigeria” campaign of the Information and Communications Ministry could project the industry as they encourage the citizens to believe in Nigeria and use made-in-Nigeria products (their fashion inclusive).

Benefits

This project will be beneficial to the following:

- The Country as a nation will be known for a particular trade or skill which they can export to other countries. It would also be a major source of income earner for the country while creating good trade relationships with other countries.
- The Youths and students who would acquire the skills that could find them jobs or set them up in their businesses as well as help them in their homes and chosen careers. This would to a large extent reduce unemployment among youths in Nigeria
- It would also help develop others sectors of the economy especially agriculture

CONCLUSION

Indeed, the sky will be the beginning of the limit for Nigeria if they tap into the opportunities in the Fashion and Design industry in Nigeria , if properly developed and harnessed, it could be another major source of export like Crude Oil.