About LolaLovesCargo

Born in London, i was sent to my Grandmother in my home town of Ondo, Nigeria at a very early age. My grandmother was an artisan/seamstress of our traditional clothing. I grew up watching her sew while she sit and talk to her friends. The memory is still strongly embedded in me and it inflamed my love for traditional clothing. As a designer in the western world I have always borrowed from tradition knowing how important and crucial it is to preserve them.

A year ago after years of watching the expansion of the fast fashion reaching even indigenous local communities, I decided to do something about it by combining authentic tribal craft with modern functional clothing. I created a line of embellished cargo pants merging decorative appliques from traditional clothes with cargo pants and named this venture LOLALOVESCARGO.

“Traditional clothing is the life, you can feel the spirit and passion of the artisans that created them, the creativity and the skills involved in the creation is their life and soul.”

Bio

Lola’s background, history, and spirituality are at the heart of her connection to this project and form a core that is critical to its success. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she was raised in Ondo, Nigeria by her grandmother, an esteemed designer specializing in Nigerian traditional garments. Her influence played and continues to be a big part in her designs, particularly in regard to mixing art and culture, sensuality and spirituality, innovative prints, and vibrant colors and patterns.

History & Highlights:

1994 - awarded the Vidal Sassoon Best Young Innovative Designer award for her first collection.
1996 - 1st fashion designer chosen to represent the United States at the Osaka Fashion Committee show in Japan.
1999 - featured as one of top 18 most influential designers by Amy Spindler of the New York Times in the company of fashion icons such as Alexander McQueen, Ralph Lauren and Helmut Lang. The Spindler-chosen design is on permanent display today at the prestigious Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
2000 - Faturoti's designs stole headlines from Ralph Lauren by staging her show on the street for the crowd leaving his presentation, bringing her into the international spotlight.

Her designs have been marketed and sold worldwide in department stores and specialty boutiques and featured on the pages of the New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Allure, Women’s Wear Daily, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, The Daily Telegraph, and Essence, amongst others. Now an accomplished designer and world traveler, Lola has redirected her efforts and is taking this global passage to rediscover primitive dexterity and learn firsthand from fashion’s untouched, untainted, and unpolluted origins and translate it to a modern fashion sensibility. During her voyage, she will live in villages, interacting with the villagers and observing tailors, embroiderers, weavers and other preservers of ancient craftsmanship. Thus, she will be able to blend ancient, traditional crafts with updated fashion concepts. The result will be a distinctive multi-cultural expression of world civilizations.