Twenty-three-year-old Maxwell Munene earned money through the tailoring and dressmaking skills that he learnt from his father but surprised many when he joined the University of Nairobi to advance his career in the same field.
Mr Munene says their family business in Meru pays fees for his arts and design degree course and he has never regretted spending long hours in lecture halls and sitting for theoretical and practical examinations only to retire to his one-roomed cubicle where he has a manual tailoring machine.
“I spend many hours sitting on a manual tailoring machine during the day and night. It does not matter whether it is on weekend or during a holiday but I am guided by the urge to keep my brand going,” he says.
Mr Munene, aka’ ‘Tailor Vibes,’ is slowly cutting a niche for himself as a designer of original designs of men and women clothes as well as unisex tops where most jobs he gets come via oral referrals and from notable traffic now being witnessed on his Facebook site.
Mr Munene, who graduates this month, majored in textiles and has in the past four years built a new clientele among fashion-savvy university students.
“So why go to university and keep strumming pieces of clothes, cutting them into various sizes...this is meant to take what my father has done all the years to a new level. I have a brand I am promoting and look forward to selling my products using the ‘Tailor Vibes’ brand design name,” he said.
Mr Munene started off with their family tailoring machine that he moved with to Nairobi as his father left the business to him.
He started off by mending shirts, pair of trousers, skirts and dresses as he raised money to buy various materials donning artistic paintings as well as colours with a Kenyan influence.
An African shirt with Kenyan influence (flag) patch sells for between Sh1,000 to Sh2,500 while a pair of trousers that is unique costs between Sh1,500 to Sh2,500. A suit is worth Sh6,000 to Sh9,000 while dresses with Kenyan inspirations go for between Sh2,000 to Sh8,000,” he said. For those planning a wedding, special occasions like dowry and family gathering events as well as funerals, Mr Munene has come up with various designs that suit group occasions where customers enjoy special discounts.
He says unlike most students who always carry a laptop and notebooks, he keeps a tape measure in his back pocket, some material samples as well as a bag full of clothes set for delivery on the material day.
“Education helps us professionalise what we are good in. I follow trends and help my customers to look trendy in creative outfits,” he says.
This has also seen him win corporate contracts to make staff uniforms that reflect what a company does among them TRM’s Urban Kitchen in Nairobi and Tamus Restaurant in Meru County.
Church groups also award him contracts for group uniforms that he creates giving the group members their own identity-wear.
He says there is need to learn entrepreneurial skills as well as understand the need to formulate brands that one can scale into major fashion lines.
“I intend to create jobs and not to go round offices looking for jobs. Youths must shun notion of existing jobs but look within on wat they can offer society at a fee,” he says as he fits a customer a locally made jumper donning a multi-coloured Kenyan map on the front and the African map at the back.
He has also learnt new skills in dying materials to achieve colours that blend well with a customer’s skin.
“No one should hate a tailoring or his job since the population is growing and is therefore presenting us with many opportunity. This is where self-employment is the way to go,” he reiterates adding that Kenyans love wearing locally made clothes and cherish locally inspired designs that are in high demand.
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