Milton Keynes fashion designer wins acclaimed award

Folaji Fasanya-Omoyeni also won a ‘star’ award at Europe’s biggest award ceremony celebrating black and ethnic personalities in entertainment, film, fashion, television and arts (BEFFTA).

She was given the award for her ‘remarkable achievements and outstanding contributions’ to the fashion industry.

The BEFFTA awards were founded by entrepreneur, TV presenter and philanthropist Pauline Long in 2009 to celebrate greatness within the African, Caribbean and Asian communities.

Folaji’s fashion brand ‘FFOLAJI LONDON’ showcased their IMAAN collection, which was inspired by supermodel, Iman.

The IMAAN collection consists of day time and evening wear created with custom made print, designed exclusively for FFOLAJI LONDON.

The pieces consisted of intricately embellished garments made out of delicate and flowy fabrics like chiffon and satin.

FFOLAJI LONDON started as a business in 2015.

The brand is high end, African inspired and caters for the woman of today with beauty, elegance and confidence at its forefront.

It is the brain child of Folaji, who is the creative director.

Her journey into the fashion world beganwhen she was around nine-years-old.

While out shopping with her family, Folaji entered a popular high street store and to her sheer amazement, dresses made out of African type prints were on full display.

She thought to herself there and then, ‘this is what I’ve always pictured and I’m going to do this.’

Hence the seed that was to become the FFOLAJI LONDON label was sown.

Today, as the creative director of her own fashion label, Folaji is hands on at her Milton Keynes studio where ideas are brought to life and where she would have worked on each design during different stages in their life cycle.

Folaji is now adding jewellery making to her skills and creates handmade statement pieces to complement her designs.

Folaji plans to include other fashion products and is in the early stages of introducing her own collection of leather bags and belts.

BEEFTA awards:

The BEFFTA awards were celebrated in a grand and prestigious style, bringing together international and UK stars. These awards celebrate and honour both unknown and known hard working and extremely talented personalities in entertainment, film, fashion, television, arts and sports.

After self-funding the prestigious award ceremony for seven years, BEFFTA awards has made history by being the only and first award ceremony to be fully funded by community leaders.