This Inside Fashion article covers designer Victor Onuchukwu, based in Abuja, Nigeria and his journey and experiences being a fashion designer. I discussed it with him and I decided to write an article about it. He is a creator with a contemporary style and he owns and designs pieces for his clothing line – Mova (Instagram @movaclothing_). This article delves into his new collection which titled Coming of Age. He explains that the title of this collection parallels the trendiness of the new age fashion and how clothes are getting more contemporary as the decades go by.

The name, Mova was coined from a play-along his initial O and V. The name Mova stands out, is trendy yet not boxed into a particular niche and the name allows for the exploration of different creative ideas as they may come. Mova started in 2018 although he had been sketching designs previously and expressing his style, the brand itself was birthed just as he was finishing university that year. He reminisces on his days in junior high school where he started tapping into his passion for fashion designing. He tells how he made his uniform pants shorter than the usual length to a three-quarter length all because he didn’t want to look like anyone else. For this young designer, putting him in a box concerning how he dresses is equivalent to killing him.

According to the designer, his first produced design was on a pant he wore and although it wasn’t the best, it was a visual representation of his work and it highlighted all the things he could be doing better. He has since then put in tremendous effort and his just concluded walk on the Abuja Men Runway where his pieces were showcased is a representation of how far he has come and the efforts he has put in to have grown to this level.

He describes his new collection as “new age” and during its showcase on the runway, the spectators could tell that his articles of clothing were more modern than what we are conversant with in Nigeria which is an African country where culture plays a large role in our dressing and sense of style. He believes that we are breaking cultural barriers and gradually coming of age and he transmits this idea via this collection.

The collection has 11 pieces although they were originally supposed to be 8 pieces, he has to include 3 more designs in the space of a week. It could have posed a little problem seeing the tight timeframe, but Victor spills that he always has designs curated and sketched up, so it wasn’t a hassle upping the pieces from 8 to 11 on such short notice.

He admits that there was no parallel idea line for his collection as they came from different interactions and experiences. He told me a story of him having a conversation with a friend about the waves of fashion design and trends, reminiscing on a time when he wore baggy jeans growing up and there was also a switch to skinny jeans. This conversation indefinitely inspired a piece of pants in his collection. These pants are a mix of skinny and baggy with each leg depicting it respectively. He hopes that as the the fashion industry changes with time, we get to see more creative border-breaking designs like that especially in Nigeria.

Victor is of a strong belief that fashion is a form of expression and he is choosing to express himself with his designs and to hopefully inspire young designers to make their designs more official. He sees Mova creating more looks that are relatable in the future. Whether dressing for a workplace or a hangout, Mova seeks to create fashion for all that makes you comfortable yet still keeps you distinguished and stylish.