Kai Collective is a London-based fashion brand founded by Nigerian-born designer Fisayo Longe in 2016. The brand is known for its bold prints, vibrant colors, and innovative designs that celebrates femininity and empowers women of all shapes and sizes.
The success of the brand can be traced to its founder and like most success stories there were various winding paths before the attainment of success. Before the birth of Kai Collective, Longe had her primary education in Nigeria before moving to the UK to finish her secondary school and recently completing her university education.
Prior to completing her first degree she locked a place at the university to study law but missed her grades and was fortunate to get a gap year scheme at KPMG. She spent six months working at KPMG and traveled around Asia where she got inspired to start a fashion and travel blog. Longe accepted a full-time role as an apprentice accountant at KPMG on her return where she spent two years while attending university in the summer.
She fell more in love with fashion as she grew her blog- Mirror Me and took a short-term contract at Liberty, a London-based fashion brand. In fashion, she found out she loved fabrics and was collecting them on her various travels. Longe noticed during a short course at the London College of Fashion that many clothes under review were manufactured in Turkey. She decided to explore Turkey where she found beautiful fabrics and she also sourced a manufacturer, this brought about the birth of Kai Collective.
At that time Longe was a fashion influencer with over fifty thousand followers and thought sales were going to be easy but, it was not. It took some years of persistence, consistency, introducing new products, sharing her journey, and marketing before Kai collective had its first major break in 2019.
Surprisingly in that year, Kai collective didn’t spend any money on publicity or marketing but, they received a huge amount of press coverage and acceptance in the fashion world with a lot of influencers wearing their collection.
The next year 2020, proved to be better than the preceding year for Kai Collective with the creation of the ‘’Gaia Dress’’ in alluring prints. The Gaia dress was launched in January but production was paused due to the pandemic because most of her manufacturing was done in Asia. In April 2020, with the world opening up from the pandemic as in most of Asia, the first batch was manufactured and everything was sold out instantly.
Fisayo Longe is an Honoree of The Forbes “30 Under 30” Europe Class of 2021 and she graduated with a B.SC in Anthropology from UCL in 2022.
Kai Collective offers a range of ready-to-wear clothing, including dresses, skirts, tops, and accessories. The brand is committed to sustainability and ethical production, using eco-friendly materials and working with small factories and artisans to create its collections. Kai Collective has gained a loyal following among fashion lovers and celebrities alike and has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. Kai Collective has gained a global following, with fans including celebrities such as Beyonce, Naomi Campbell, and Rihanna, Saweetie, Jacki Aina, Temi Otedola and Tiwa Savage.
Here’s an interview of Fisayo Longe with Grace Beverly on Forging your path to success. i definitely learnt a lot and i hope you do.
