Meet AYATOU TITA SAMA a Cameroonian based fashion designer with the brand name SMCLASS who hails from the north west region coming from a Muslim and Christian home.Fashion and designing has always been his passion right when he was still a kid and will always want to stand out from other kids especially during Christmas as most parents will want to buy imported clothes from china for their kids he always want his mom to get him a unique Africa fabric from the market for his Christmas dress to be produced locally and he grew up loving fashion..
His first fashion memory was a piece he created to honor his grandmother because he spent half of his childhood with her as she is a farmer and they always go farming together.This piece was a hand painted lady carrying a basket and hoe to the farm and the story was painted on a kaftan outfit and at that time it was his most sold out outfit because it was unique and reflects Africa.
Most of his creative inspiration comes from his environment(Africa) his day to day life experiences, fabrics and Africa stories most especially the Africa man.Being unique from his inspirational outfits draws buyers who are interested in the Africa man’s story to place orders especially as it’s been interpreted on clothes..
As a fashion designer his role in the society is to transform the Africa man’s look to be of Class and Elegance while portraying Africa, to impact youths in my community by creating employment to those who have mastered the craft in order to earn from it while encouraging others to be believe in handwork and lastly to preserve culture by maintaining it on created outfits.
His achievements so far as a fashion designer is been able to dress a whole lot of people both nationally and internationally ranging from business people, civil servants and celebrities both home and abroad, a 5 time nominee for best designer of the year in his category and a 4 time award winner, Hehas been able to cut across national borders for fashion shows and talks which he was contacted for eg(Katiti Seychelles fashion week twice, Africa fashion week Nigeria, a fashion talk and seminar in Dubai).
His experience at the Africa Fashion week Nigeria was amazing as I had the opportunity to showcase and tell stories of his outfits to the audience who were richly inspired by the outfits having the storyline of “TOGHU”( toghu is a typical embroidered stories of the people of north west region of Cameroon on clothes).
He has styled a cross section of celebrities both home and abroad ranging from KWOH ELONGE, GRAND LAWRENZO which happens to be comedians in Cameroon, actors like Epule Jephrey, Ndamo Damarice, international celebrities from Nollywood Zark Orji, Ramsey Nouah, IK OGBONA, Triky T…
And he has been on constant release weekly without naming them as a collection but have got some old collections like the luxury Revolution, Elegant Collection, Danshiki revolution.All aimed at redefining the Africa man in Class and style.Mai atafo, deji&kola, seyivodi and yomi casual which are all typical African designers who tells Africa stories on garments.
His aspirations as a fashion designer is to penetrate the global market and put Cameroon on the fashion map to bring in foreign buyers and brands to believe in us as Cameroonian designers and Africa at large.
He has also collaborated with STYLE ME DIAMONDS and Djec fashion in which he faces Some of the challenges in fabric sourcing since all fabrics are not locally produced it limits the number of pieces created because same fabric is not always available when demand is high, challenges in exposure with zero support from government because the fashion sector is neglected thus the government do not invest in it causing cost of shipping to diaspora clients extremely expensive.
About his last year traditional outfit for camiff what inspired that toghu blazer was his culture especially as culture has over the year been a particular pattern, he had to incorporate that in blazer so stories could be told in all forms of outfits not necessarily a particular garment and the additional cowries on the blazer was to remind us in our riches in culture.
His advice for the budding fashion designers will be to create a unique style for your brand, be inspired for every style, have a brand identity and lastly portray Africa.
