Grey Projects. The end

If you read the first journal entry, you’ll know brands like Grey Projects were catalytic in creating the concept of Mais Af; motivated by their zeal and resilience in spite of societal and structural barriers while also creating unforgettable pieces of African fashion. But alas, here we are.

Over the last few years, we have watched (via social media) African brands like Grey Projects and the faces behind these brands themselves evolve so we thought we would share our own love story with Grey Projects.

Grey Projects - In the Beginning 

A very quick back story if you haven't seen or heard of Grey Projects.
Grey Projects was the brainchild of Obida Obioha, Rukky Ladoja and Tola Ayanwale. Over the last 10 years, Grey developed and established their brand by creating quality, dynamic and affordable pieces for women (and later men).

With several collaborations under their belt, working with creatives in capsule collections such as Marte Egele and Ozzy Etomi, Grey remained consistent to the Grey Projects vision, 'Where design meets functionality'. Grey Project's thoughtful design journey, successfully experimenting with layered satins, silk textures and taffeta dyes. and their signature laser-cut sets has been one area Grey fans like us have enjoyed being part of. 

Nobody likes a begfriend, but...

We met one of the founders of Grey, Rukky, a few years ago. Back then, she was Ajoke. In our past life as committed part-time party girls, we would frequent various universities with our then-friends for a knees-up. We visited many cities - more than we’d like to admit and WAY more than our parents were aware of-  on one occasion, we ended in Manchester and met a lovely bunch of Nigerian girls. One of these ladies went by the name Joke, who although studying at the university was also a budding fashion designer.

At the time (2005), there were hardly any Nigerian designers around my age on the scene . We remember going for a Nottingham University ACS event back in 2006 which had incorporated a fashion show followed by an After party (who doesn't love a good Nottingham ACS afterparty?!).

Grey Projects was a brand with a solid reputation built through playful approach to design. They’d featured on several international magazines, participated in the biggest trade shows in the world and every Lagos Fashion Week, fans would eagerly await their new collection. 

MayDay GREYDAY

We look forward to Lagos Fashion week (via Instagram) every year but, The Grey Sale was definitely another favourite weekend of mine. Not being in Lagos has very few setbacks but missing The Grey Sale was one of them. The Grey Sale was a weekend long event where items from Grey’s various collections would be significantly marked down. Now, we love a good sale more than the next person so we had to do what was necessary to ensure we got a slice of the action.

The online store for the sale wasn’t as robust as the physical sale store, so I did what we had to do. we'd call for backup in the form of our friends Nusi and Madiya (her daughter). Shout out to Nusi for the countless visits to the Grey store over the last few years. We have risked Lagos traffic and dodged some sizing disasters but we couldn’t have done it without her.

But it is now July 2019, Grey Projects closed its doors for the last time 2 weekends ago and the fashion world has lost a truly remarkable brand. We had once hoped to stock Grey but that was not meant to be. Who knows? Maybe ‘Rukky Frocks’ will be making a comeback...

We don't know details around Grey Projects'decision to close its doors but we wish both Obida and Rukky the best in their future endeavours. Going by the success and solid fan base of die-hard Grey devotees they have built over the last 10 years, there is no doubt whatever is brewing for Mr. and Mrs. Midas in the future, it will be beautiful.