All you need to know about Jocelyn Omotoniwassi ... from an African immigrant to the owner of a fashion company earning thousands of dollars
In 2010, Jocelyn Omotuniwasi made a bold decision. After working as a film editor for five years, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a fashion designer.
Jocelyn created her first fashion collection, and when she traveled from Rwanda to Germany to receive a grant in filmmaking, she took two bags stuffed with dresses, headwear and skirts.
"Young Germans were fascinated by the costume and the colorful African wax prints," says Joslin. And Jocelyn was able to sell the entire collection in just three months.
"I didn't know I could make good money selling my own fashion collection," says Jocelyn, a spokeswoman from her company in Kigali. This experience in Germany gave her great confidence and financially helped her in changing her career.
Jocelyn stopped working in the movie business, bought three sewing machines, contracted two tailors and founded her own fashion label, Rwanda Closing.
Now, eight years later, Jocelyn runs a workshop with 37 full-time tailors and sells the finished pieces for between $ 50 and $ 120.
Jocelyn's interest was caught by clothes as she grew up in a middle-class family in the Rwandan capital.
Jocelyn was buying cheap and used clothes that no one wanted to wear, and she says: "I was separating all the parts from each other to know how they were made."
But with so much clothes flowing into Rwanda from China and India, Jocelyn saw her work in the profession as becoming pointless. Therefore, she studied filmmaking and also studied information technology in order to please her parents.
Her father and uncle owns a number of companies. This inspired her to open a small hair-braiding store when she was in high school. But her father and uncle's experiences also made her realize that things may not work out as they wish.
"I was very frustrated in my childhood when my father had to close his butcher company, because his partner took all the money and ran away," says Jocelyn.
Another challenge it faced was to collect the necessary funds to establish the project, as the banks did not want to grant them a loan to finance the company. "Fashion was an industry that nobody took seriously in those days," she says. "Banks were not convinced of my ability to start a company when I was a 24-year-old woman."
But she met lawyer and investor, Roman Schulz, during her visit to Germany in 2010. He was enthusiastic about her work and talent as a fashion designer, so he believed in her and later became her business partner and husband.
Together, they pooled $ 10,000 in savings to set up the company, and Jocelyn hired the company's first employee. Jocelyn admits to making some mistakes, like what happened at the first two fashion shows she organized.
"It was good and important, but I didn't need 25 models, a stage, free drinks and inviting VIPs. I could organize those shows in a smarter and cheaper way," says Jocelyn.
"Jocelyn has always had the potential for entrepreneurship and the ambition to reach the highest marks," says Alice Nkulikinka, Director of the Rwanda Business and Professional Network. "Her company has grown tremendously, providing safe employment opportunities for more than 40 people. Jocelyn has created a well-known fashion brand. the world".
And in 2018 one of Jocelyn's biggest dreams came true when she received an invitation to attend Milan Fashion Week. "It was a huge victory for me to be there," she says. "It looked like putting my fashion collection on the runway was a recognition of my work."
Jocelyn points out that she would like to sell her fashion globally through an online store, but the logistics make that difficult. "I can't bear for customers to return their purchases to me," which is difficult to avoid in the fashion world.
Jocelyn now plans to launch an online store in Europe for household items and fashion accessories such as napkins, pillows and bags. But, mindful not to forget her first customers, she says: "When you grow and expand too quickly and disappoint your current customers, you are ruining your business."
But her plans were stopped due to the Coronavirus crisis, and she says: "We were forced to close for the duration of the isolation period, which lasted 45 days. And despite the government easing isolation restrictions recently, customers' requests are still very few."
Jocelyn notes that the tailors work different shifts to maintain the spacing. "We are used to difficulties in Rwanda. They force us to be more creative, learn to find other solutions and come up with new ideas," she says.
Jocelyn had had to flee with her family on foot during the 1994 genocide and lost her grandmother, and several of her uncles, aunts, aunts and cousins.
Jocelyn says: "I only have some blurred memories, as I was only six years old at the time, and maybe I got rid of some experiences that I had and forgot because they were painful events. And in the years that followed I remember being very interested in what happened and wondering how it happened." So for my country. "
Jocelyn wanted to leave all of Rwanda early. "It was very painful to know it happened in my country. I was afraid it would happen again. You don't feel safe for a second and you don't trust anyone. But at a certain moment," she says. You decide to live with it.You cannot change this no matter what you do.You have also seen new roads being paved and new homes being built.
I saw the country being repaired and rebuilt. The positive thing is that people after that tragedy really want to live in peace. "
BBC
