Retail Congress Africa Innovation Award

17 Sep 2014

Retail Congress Africa is proud to present the prestigious Award for Innovation to the Okunoren Twins. This award is intended to celebrate retailers who are driving change and growth with inspirational vision and foresight.

Quite simply - with sleek designs and fine tailoring, the Nigerian clothing icons have introduced their bespoke tailoring to the African market and inspired a new spring of menswear designers across the country.

Building on their beginnings of selling designer shirts to fellow students at University, the Okunoren Twins have since gone on to launch their distinguished label Okunoren Twins Bespoke and establish Industrial Tailoring & Co. to manufacture garments for the mass market. The company opened its first bricks and mortar store in 2013 to cater to the growing middle class in the country through a ready-to-wear line, producing three ready-to-wear collections a year. The ambitious brand is also set to open 10 stores across Africa over the next 18 months.

The Okunoren Twins label carries the 'CONCEIVED IN AFRICA' trademark to highlight its position as a global African brand. The brand was recently awarded the first-ever Royal Warrant in Africa by His Imperial Majesty, Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade who is the custodian of the Yoruba culture and tradition.

Taiwo Okunoren, Creative Director and Co-Founder and Kehinde Okunoren, Managing Director and Co-Founder, will be at Retail Congress Africa, 18-19 November, Johannesburg to collect their award and share insights into their successes. With a passion for fashion, entrepreneurial spirit and acute understanding of the trends of the new African consumer there seems no limit to the Okunoren Twins' successes.

More information can be found at www.retailcongressafrica.com

About Retail Congress Africa

Retail Congress Africa originates from the Global leading World Retail Congress. The World Retail Congress, part of i2i Events Group portfolio, was launched in 2007, to be a platform for senior retail executives to meet and discuss the most important topics affecting retailers across the world. It has been held in Barcelona (2007-9), Berlin (2010-11), London (2012) and Paris (2013-14) and is attended by up to 1,000 industry leaders from more than 60 countries. The programme is developed in conjunction with the Congress Advisory Board which represents retailers such as Gap, Kingfisher, Macys, Reliance Lifestyle, Myer, Alshaya, Netto, Inditex and Tesco. 2013 was the launch of World Retail Congress Africa which focused solely on doing business across Africa.

About i2i Events Group

i2i Events Group delivers world-class exhibitions and large scale events in key sectors including home and gift, fashion, retail, healthcare, energy, environment, education, technology and media. Its portfolio of world-wide events includes World Retail Congress, Bett, Spring Fair, RWM, CWIEME, BVE and Pure London. It prides itself on opening up possibilities for its customers and each year brings more than 250,000 decision makers together to network, source, test, buy and sell brilliant products, services, ideas and solutions. The company is headed up by Mark Shashoua who joined EMAP as Group MD of EMAP Connect in November 2011 and became CEO of i2i Events Group in March 2012. i2i Events Group is powered by Top Right Group, formerly known as Emap International Ltd.