By day, she’s a Chartered Accountant. But the rest of her time is devoted to her love of fashion and design.
Meet Elizabeth Olatoye, the powerhouse behind Eden Apparel, a Winnipeg-based business providing couture formal gowns and ready-to-wear dresses, alongside fabrics and sewing classes.
“Fashion design has been a childhood dream,” reveals Elizabeth. “In African homes, we have big wrappers. So, as a child as little as six or seven, I would take my mom's wrapper – the ones she's no longer using – cut it into something nice and put it on my doll and stitch it up with needle and thread.”
At age 10, her sewing and design knowledge accelerated when her Auntie came to stay with them.
“My Auntie had to go to sewing school. Whenever she left the house, I would follow her. So that is the first place I saw something can be done properly with fashion design.”
By sneaking out to sewing school as a 10-year-old, Elizabeth was exposed to the use of patterns, drafting, and measurement.
“It was really a fascinating experience for me.”
However, as her passion for fashion grew, so did her parents’ concern for her education.
“At this point, my parents thought, ‘Okay, your interest is drifting from school,’ so I was asked to stop going with my Auntie. It was difficult for me.”
At school, Elizabeth pursued home economics, took up knitting, and worked with fabric at every opportunity.
“Because I was not allowed to go for proper training, I started buying fashion books. So just reading fashion books, the passion kept on growing.”
By the time Elizabeth was in secondary school, her Auntie owned a large fashion design store. Elizabeth would often go there after school to help.
“She was quite impressed,” says Elizabeth. “She was asking, ‘Who taught you how to do this?’ I’d say, ‘At school.’ ‘Who taught you how to do blind hemming?’ ‘At school.’ And I kept on assisting her. Still, I wasn't allowed to really go into it because my parents thought I’d be distracted, so I left.”
Elizabeth went to the UK where she soon was attending a sewing class alongside women from many different backgrounds. Soon she was giving her classmates helpful tips.
“They said ‘Come and teach us’ and I told them, ‘This is just from the books I've read.” They kept pushing – ‘come and teach, come and teach’ – and I said ‘no, I can't teach – I’m looking for a way to learn – that’s why I came here!’”
Around that time, YouTube emerged on the scene, and Elizabeth, ever the eager student, learned all she could from YouTube tutorials.
“But I wasn’t getting enough,” she explains. “At that time, I was making my own money; I could make my own decisions. So, when I returned to Nigeria after my studies, I decided to go to fashion school, and that was the best decision I've ever made in my life.”
After sewing school, she began taking on sewing projects for her family, friends, and anyone else who was interested. That was the beginning of Eden Apparel in 2012. Elizabeth arrived in Winnipeg in 2017, where she officially launched her business in 2018 – teaching sewing classes, selling many kinds of fabric, and creating custom wear for her growing clientele.
“I offer fashion design training – part-time classes for children up until adults. For adults, you could be somebody who has no knowledge at all in fashion designing, or you could be somebody who knows how to sew but needs help with maybe drafting certain patterns or interpreting certain designs. I offer all that.”
On her website, theedenapparel.com, images of her custom commissions take center stage, and it’s easy to book a one-hour sewing class or custom consultation.
“We sit down, we talk about the fabrics, we discuss everything you need to know and begin to put things into perspective to see where we're heading for the garment you would like,” says Elizabeth. “Wedding dresses, dinner dresses, ball gowns, graduation wear, whatever you want – either African or English – I can make that for you.”
Since starting Eden Apparel in 2018, she says she has enjoyed serving many different nationalities.
“I've had people from African descent, to Indian, to Jamaican, and Canadians. Last year, a bride came all the way from Grunthal Manitoba! It's a dream to have my designs in every household in Canada.”
Whether you want to take a sewing class, purchase fabric, or commission a one-of-a-kind gown, reach out to Elizabeth Olatoye at Eden Apparel in Winnipeg. Visit her website or find Eden Apparel on Instagram.