Nyla became a designer out of love and passion for fashion which she later discovered to be her talent. Even though she had passion for fashion, Nyla enrolled in the Helen Lefeaux’s, School of Fashion and after her graduation in 1999, she continued to deepen her skills in: couture beadwork, embroidery, draping, tailoring and couture pattern making.

Her designs are unique because she combines different fabrics and beads which are custom made to suite a customer. Take a look at this sleek  Charmeuse Silk dress.

She combines vintage broach, Swarovski beadwork and rhinestone chain. Handmade Cotton knitted lace with interwoven silk ribbon to deliver custom made dress in the fabric of your choice.

One thing every designer especially African designers can learn from Nyla is her ability to carve a business niche for herself. Instead of exhibiting her products through the traditional channel of fashion shows, Nyla chose to build her business using Secondlife (http://secondlife.com/?v=1.1). Through this virtual medium, she marketed her brand to millions of residents on secondlife through her avatar, Nyla Cheeky. A potential buyer can try the clothes within secondlife before actually going to buy. Just see this for yourself.

I need not talk much. In secondlife, I could actually try her clothes in her boutique to make sure it fits me before i buy. This is where I think Nyla thought out of the box to become a virtual world fashion business person.

African designers need to explore various marketing opportunities that will give them international exposure. When we exhibit at tradeshows, it has a limited target audience and also implies that, one has to attend as many shows as possible. Which are expensive anyway! If we can have an online destination where all African designers can post virtual tours of their boutiques.

Anyone interesting can link up with Nyla in the real world or in the secondlife through. I believe we can learn from others to make our own better. We can learn from Nyla to take African fashion to the next level. Nyla's uniqueness has earned media coverage both locally and internationally. In 2008, she was featured in Vancouver 24 Hours, ElleFashion and Metro.

doreen sinclair
Posts: 3

fashionable African
Reply #3 on : Sat May 22, 2010, 17:43:09

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the fashion today is so bad we need good fashion for today women so keep up the good work

Abena
Posts: 3

Re: How Nyla created a niche business in the virtual world
Reply #2 on : Sat May 22, 2010, 10:49:50

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This article is good. I believe the fashion market has a lot of opportunities for fashion designers to explore and offer their customers the best

Abena
Posts: 3

Re: How Nyla created a niche business in the virtual world
Reply #1 on : Sat May 22, 2010, 09:51:29

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This article is good. I believe the fashion market has a lot of opportunities for fashion designers to explore and offer their customers the best

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