The African continent is reputed for some of the finest fashion designers. The coming of digitization has eased the connections between these designer with clients across the globe.
With many popular names in this industry from Africa, one name has been echoing endlessly in the past few years following the creativity and touch of professionalism that the name has brought to the industry; Sama Miguel.
Ayatou Tita Sama, popularly known as Sama Miguel, is a Cameroonian-based fashion designer who runs a growing startup brand, called SM CLASS. Born on March 20th, 1996, Sama originates from the North West Region of Cameroon, with a Muslim and Christian heritage.
Speaking with the young talented creative, he revealed to The HotJem, that fashion and designing, has always been his passion from when he was still a kid, and he always wanted to standout among other kids, especially during festive periods when most parents would prefer to buy imported clothes from china for their kids. He would always want his mom to get him unique African fabric from the local markets. This fueled his passion in this domain as he grew up.
He takes us down memory lane to his first fashion memory, which was a piece he created to honor his grandmother, because he spent half of his childhood with her.This piece was a hand painted lady carrying a basket, and hoe to the farm.
The story was painted on a kaftan outfit and at that time, it was his most sold out outfit because it was unique and reflected Africa. It was inspired by the fact that his granny was a farmer and this creation was primarily dedicated to her.
His creative inspiration, comes from his African environment. “My day-to-day life experiences, fabrics and Africa stories most especially the Africa man. Being unique from my inspirational outfits draws buyers who are interested in the Africa man’s story to place orders especially as it’s been interpreted on clothes”- Sama told The HotJem.
As a fashion designer, he also reveals, that his role in the society is to transform the Africa man’s look to be of Class and Elegance, while portraying Africa, to impact youths in his community by so doing, creating employment to those who have mastered the craft in order to earn from it while encouraging others to be believe in handwork. As well as to be able to preserve culture through maintenance on created outfits.
The Cameroonian’s achievements as a fashion designer so far are quite impressive. He has been able to dress a plethora of people, both nationally and internationally, ranging from business people, civil servants, and celebrities, both home and abroad.
Sama has been nominated multiple times, for “Best Designer of the year” in his category and has been able to win a record fourth times. He’s been able to cut across national borders for fashion, and talk-shows, which he was contacted for. For instance: Katiti Seychelles fashion week twice, Africa fashion week Nigeria, a fashion talk and seminar in Dubai.
He admits, that his experience at the Africa Fashion week in Nigeria was amazing, and completely shaped his vision and drive. “I had the opportunity to showcase and tell stories of my outfits to the audience who were richly inspired by the outfits having the storyline of “TOGHU”( toghu is a typical embroidered stories of the people of north west region of Cameroon on clothes)” – He added.
He has styled a cross-section of celebrities and influencers, both home and abroad, ranging from popular comedians from his country like Kwoh Elonge and Grand Lawrenzo, as well as popular Cameroonian actors like Epule Jeffrey and Ndamo Damarisse. He has also been seen styling Nollywood stars like Zark Orji, Ramsey Nouah, IK Ogbona, Triky T, just to name a few. So you see, his styling reach goes far beyond Cameroon.
Sama’s consistency is commendable, as he has been releasing weekly designs even without naming them as a collection, and he has some old collections, like the Luxury Revolution, Elegant Collection, and Danshiki revolution, with all of them aimed at redefining the Africa man in class and style. Worthy of mention, are the “Mai atafo, Deji and Kola”, “Seyivodi and Yomi casual”, which are all typical African designs that tell Africa stories on garments.
His aspirations as a fashion designer is to penetrate the global market, and put Cameroon on the fashion map to bring in foreign buyers and brands to believe in Cameroonian designers in particular and African designers in general.
He has also worked in great collaborations with some renown uprising fashion designers like style STYLE ME DIAMOND and DJEC FASHION. Sama does not only share the exciting part of being a fashion designer as he also shared with us Some of the challenges he faces, which include fabric sourcing, since all fabrics are not locally produced. This limits the number of pieces created, because same the fabric is not always available when the demand is high. Exposure is equally a huge setback, as there seems to be little or no support from government as the fashion sector seems to be neglected and as such, the government doesn’t seem to have interest in investing therein, causing cost of shipping to diaspora clients extremely expensive.
We did not fail to ask Sama’s motivation or advice to other inspired designers in the industry and he this is what he had to say:
“My advice for the budding fashion designers will be for them to create a unique style for your brand, be inspired for every style, have a brand identity and lastly, portray Africa.”
Stay connected with SM-Class via the following contact info:
Location: Carrifour Mosquée Bonamoussadi, Cameroon
Number: +237 6 77 52 45 14 (also available on WhatsApp)
Facebook/Instagram: @SMCLASS
