{"id":96,"date":"2025-04-09T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/46.137.26.149\/?p=96"},"modified":"2025-04-11T09:35:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T09:35:38","slug":"this-nigerian-designer-is-making-waves-with-her-four-dimensional-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/46.137.26.149\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"This Nigerian designer is making waves with her \u2018four-dimensional\u2019 fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


She\u2019s the sister of Nigerian soccer legend Sunday Oliseh, but now Tessy Oliseh-Amaize is becoming something of a celebrity in her own right, making a name for herself in the US fashion scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As founder of the Tesslo fashion brand and a former science student, she produces a distinctively modern take on traditional <\/em>wax print Ankara designs, with her vision inspired as much by mathematics as classic aesthetics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The style is showcased in her \u201cAfrica to the World\u201d collection, featuring designs that infuse elements of African culture in colorful ankara fabrics<\/a>. Each design takes four to eight weeks to create, using carefully conceived geometric shapes to create an optical illusion of depth, and patterns she describes as \u201cmoving in a four-dimensional way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized that in designing, the Pythagoras theorem comes to play,\u201d said Oliseh-Amaize, referencing the formula for calculating the relationship between the sides of a triangle. \u201cMy designs are all mathematics. You need to think of shapes and even calculate shapes that do not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPyramids\u201d is a knee-length dress made from one of the most common ankara fabrics and inspired by the pyramids of Giza, with prism-like shapes arranged in alternating directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMpi\u201d is Oliseh-Amaize\u2019s take on a varsity jacket, embellished with rows of protruding cones, a nod to the animal horns used in Nigeria\u2019s traditional Igbo culture for weddings, chieftaincy titles and as a musical instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Pyramids, I used geometric calculations, which is a very complex technique in fashion design,\u201d Oliseh-Amaize said, while for Mpi, \u201cI manipulated the fabric in geometrical dimensions to create each one of those horns. I thought that the real beauty of executing this inspiration would be more impactful if I have them all together in a cluster around the outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaking it to the next level\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Oliseh-Amaize\u2019s design journey started out in the UK, at Middlesex University London, where she studied Fashion Product Management at the start of the millennium. A major break came after she returned to Nigeria and was crowned the country\u2019s best designer at the 2006 Nigerian Fashion Show competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She began designing for TV shows, and eventually relocated to the US, which she said \u201cwas like starting afresh.\u201d Unlike Nigeria, where there\u2019s a ready demand for ankara clothing, she had to prove her creativity to an American clientele, which meant \u201ctaking it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now based in Washington, DC, her eye-catching designs are increasingly in the spotlight. Last September she was invited to close the Ankara Festival Los Angeles, which celebrates African fashion, and her works were also shown at the Congressional Black Caucus and Philly Fashion Week that month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Ankara Festival, she said in a statemen<\/a>t, \u201cOutside Africa, when people hear \u201cAfrican prints,\u201d it is as if the expectation is that it\u2019s not truly African unless it looks primitive or poorly made. I\u2019m rebelling against that. African fashion is rich, diverse, and deserves to be seen as sophisticated and high-quality.\u201d It\u2019s a stance that\u2019s earning her celebrity supporters. Folake Olowofoyeku, star of US sitcom \u201cBob Hearts Abishola,\u201d wore Tesslo\u2019s \u201cHollywood\u201d dress at the Ankara Festival, a design inspired by old-school Hollywood glamour, with sleeve cuffs shaped like mid-century lamps. Oliseh-Amaize has also received a commission by celebrity stylist J. Bolin for one of his high-profile clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Oliseh-Amaize establishes her own identity, she is stepping out of the shadow of her famous brother, who played for European soccer teams including Ajax and Juventus in 1990s and 2000s, as well as playing for and managing Nigeria\u2019s national team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, \u201cEveryone calling me Sunday Oliseh\u2019s sister didn\u2019t mean I had it easy,\u201d she told CNN, saying that she would be overcharged when buying equipment because people assumed she had money. \u201cI had to work extra hard to get things,\u201d she added. \u201cFashion Professor\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Oliseh-Amaize is helping younger designers through her \u201cFashion Professor\u201d project. She has conducted 35 mentoring sessions on Instagram, covering a range of topics, from understanding different fabrics to learning how to bill clients and teaching young designers how to navigate the industry and inspire beyond Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked at how I could inspire the next generation of fashion designers within and beyond Nigeria and decided to mentor them and help them avoid my own mistakes while charting their own unique paths,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her innovations in Ankara designs come at a time when more Western designers are exploring the fabric. Oliseh-Amaize says they have the opportunity to do so because they can more easily access funding, which is not always the case for Nigerian designers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She\u2019s the sister of Nigerian soccer legend Sunday Oliseh, but now Tessy Oliseh-Amaize is becoming something of a celebrity in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[65,64,67,66,68,63,62],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-african-fashion","tag-ankara-designs","tag-fashion-professor","tag-four-dimensional-fashion","tag-nigerian-designers","tag-nigerian-fashion","tag-tessy-oliseh-amaize"],"yoast_head":"\nThis Nigerian designer is making waves with her \u2018four-dimensional\u2019 fashion -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tessy Oliseh-Amaize, sister of Nigerian soccer legend Sunday Oliseh, is making her mark in the US with her innovative \u201cfour-dimensional\u201d Ankara fashion designs. 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