His real name is Kehinde Olayiwola but everyone calls him Kenny Jones. He is a twin, who is blessed with a lot of gifts. He is a Lagos Tailor who goes around with his tape rule all the time. He is a fashion designer too, He creates great designs for his customers.
He sings also. He drums and he is also a Minister of God. He is the guy behind the popular Kenny Jones Designs, on Obafemi Awolowo Way Ikeja, Lagos. He also has a showroom in Abuja. And he has been churning out great designs for the past 27 years. So good is Kenny Jones that he has won the heart and confidence of many great men of God, who wear his designs all the time.Though
he will not tell you when you ask him, City People can reveal to you that Kenny
Jones has an impressive clientele list. He sews for Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo. He sews for big men of God like Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Mathew
Ashimolowo, Pastor J.K Kalejaiye, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Pastor Femi Paul,
Pastor Tonny Akinyemi, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey, to mention a few of his long
list of clients. Kenny Jones, who made his debut in the fashion world in 1992
has grown his fashion business phenomenally. He started off sewing suits and
formal wears but he has now grown so big to sew natives like Kaftans, Buba and
Sokoto and well embroidered Agbada.
Let’s
quickly inform you that he is also a gospel musician, his twin brother, Taiwo
also sings and handles the talking drum with dexterity. He is into furniture
making too. He runs Taiwo Jones Furniture Company at Shasha Road, Lagos. This
creative designer springs up each day with unique styles of clothing. He is a
believer of an age-old colourful tradition, which he translates into many
layers and complexities of his remarkable designs. Kenny Jones’ celebration of
the African glamour and earned have gained him international fans to the extent
that gospel singer, Chief Ebenezer Obey, who is one of his clients refers to
him as “Kenny Jones of the Universe.”
He
never stops telling anyone who cares to listen that he is from a humble
background. “My brother and I, Taiwo come from a very humble background. We
didn’t come from a privileged background. We don’t have wealthy parents who
could easily finance our education but we developed ourselves through the
teaching we received from Evang. Ebenezer Obey and Bishop David Oyedepo. And
these helped us to re-shape our lives,” he said. Our works speak for
themselves. We are also giving back to Nigerians through our programme, “Praise
God with the Twins’ which has been on for a couple of years now… he revealed.
Last
week, City People’s Brands Editor, DAMILARE SALAMI 08155134152 met him at a
very classy wedding where he proudly represented his brand with his outfits and
at the event, he opened up on his Kenny Jones brand at 30 and the journey
beyond the 30th-anniversary celebration. Below are excerpts from the interview,
enjoy it.
We
know you are a veteran designer but let’s walk down memory lane together.
How did fashion designing start for you?
When
we started, we didn’t know that we will grow to the level that we are today.
The only thing I can say is that as a starter, you shouldn’t let money be your
drive. You should let your passion for the job drive you. You must love what
you do because if you don’t. it cannot generate funds for you. Whether you are
paid or not, you must love what you do. My first 10 years of starting the Kenny
Jones brand was not half-shaped because, in those days, we didn’t have social
media to publicize what we do as we have it today. We started in 1992 and to
the glory of God, we will be 30 years in the industry this year and we are
going to be having a loud celebration. When we started 30 years ago, we allowed
our passion to drive us and not what we are going to get from the business and
that has paid off. I remember that when City People started in those days, we
don’t usually pay before we run adverts, we were allowed to pay later but today
that the brand has grown, that cannot happen again. You have to pay before your
adverts can fly. That is the power of passion and consistency that I was
talking about. Some time ago in London, I observed that the way City People is
being sold in Nigeria is the same way it’s being sold over there too. And this
is because your boss is passionate about his brand even though he started very
small. I just want to encourage our youths, you cannot start a business and
expect to start making money from it immediately; it may not be sustainable
that way. Go and ask City People when they started or come and ask Kenny Jones
when we started, it wasn’t like that.
30
years down the line, what has the experience been like?
Well, the experience has been interesting and palatable. A lot of things have
changed, the way they learn the trade now wasn’t the way we learnt. You know
that fashion is dynamic and time-bound, it changes with time and as a designer,
if you want to stay relevant, you have to keep up with the trends. That is one
of the secrets of the Kenny Jones brand. Take a look at the designs on my
clothes, this one is computerized while this is a monogram design. When we
started, there was nothing of such. Take a look at this part of my shirt, it is
designed with stones. In our days of learning, there was nothing like the
application of stones to fabrics for men, it was strictly for ladies and not
even this kind of fabric. If you expect me to still be sewing and designing with
the patterns I learnt when I started in 1988, it will definitely not fly, I
will become obsolete and irrelevant. So today, there are new challenges and we
are keeping up to the challenge to stay relevant. It’s a whole lot of new
experience for us and we are enjoying every bit of it because of the passion we
have for the job. When I started, I started with making suits for top ministers
of God, the likes of Pastor E.A. Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, Baba Kalejaye,
Baba Ebenezer Obey and many more. Later on, we added ladies wears and today,
the trend has moved to kaftans and this kind of wear.
The
Kenny Jones brand is going to be 30, I’m sure it’s going to be a big
celebration. What should your customers and fans be expecting?
Well,
we have a lot in the store; I have realized over time that we hardly celebrate
the people that deserve celebration in this part of the world. We are looking
at celebrating people that have achieved a landmark in their businesses. 30
years is not a joke, we are looking at celebrating those who have spent 30
years in their various businesses and have been successful at it. We want to
encourage them and even give them awards. When society is celebrating touts
and giving them awards, our young ones would like to become touts too. Whoever
we celebrate will receive the focus of the people and will become a reference
point. Before anyone can spend 30 years on a particular business for 30 years,
it means that such a person is passionate about the business. So our focus is
to celebrate those that have demonstrated passion in their line of business
for the past 30 years.
Looking
forward into the post-30-years era for the Kenny Jones brand, what more should
we anticipate?
There’s
a Yoruba adage that says if there’s an idol that is hidden from children, such
an idol will soon become history. In other words, there is continuity when you
involve the younger generation in whatever you do. We want our youths to be
involved in this successful journey that started 30 years ago and we want it to
be a lifelong transaction. We have a plan to bring some of our youths into this
line of business. We are building a big factory and an institution where we can
train professionals. Right now, a lot of our youths are stranded; some of them
don’t even know what is next for them so we want to use this platform to cause
a change for the next generation. If you look at many of our youths today, they
are busy doing nothing and an idle hand is the devil’s workshop; so we want to
get them positively busy so that they can make something meaningful out of life
for themselves. Many of our youths are empty, they are not loaded and anybody
that is not loaded is not needed. That is what is driving us to create the
Kenny Jones School of Fashion for our people and it will become a reality in
the near future.
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