About us

About collection

Lola Faturoti Loves started with an idea I had long ago to create a line of printed denim.
My idea was to make denim more interesting by adorning it with the bright colors and designs I remember seeing in the outdoor markets in Africa. My previous line, Lola Loves Cargo, was built on celebrating traditional designs, but my denim does this in a more indirect way. It is bright and bold and capable of delivering an expression of purpose and self-actualization.
Lola Faturoti Loves is for everyone, which is how I always want to be. The collection is made to make people feel joy and help them share their inner joy with everyone they encounter.
I've incorporated an important innovation onto my denim line: printed bicycle chains. To me, these signify timeless mobility. Whether in Africa decades ago, or in the most modern metropolitan city, humans have used bicycles to expand the range of what is possible in their lives. To me, this expression is particularly strong for women, who have long fought for more freedom in their lives. I hope my denim will inspire those same feelings in my customers.

Who is Lola Faturoti

In Ondo, Nigeria, life is traditional but simple. My father was an architect and a tribal chief and my grandmother was a traditional tailor. I wanted to be out playing with other kids, but I had to sit next to my grandmother and watch her sew beautiful attire for the women in our town. This is when I started to discover the power fashion could have. A brand new outfit allowed a woman to reinvent herself, to metamorphosize into a version of herself she could have only dreamed about. This sparked my life-long love of fashion.

 

After fashion school in London I arrived in New York in early 90s and started my career as an extrovert sales associate at Charivari. The clothes I wore back then were quite unique and many customers would comment on my style. The President of the company, Barbara Weiser also noticed, and she allowed me to sell my designs in then store. Eventually, Barbara guided me as I arranged my very first fashion line. I was off.

 

Fashion was good to me. I traveled the world, met the most interesting people and saw my name and face on the industry’s biggest magazines. I was one of the few black women doing this work in the early 1990’s. I was honored to have one of my designs appear in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Institute

 

After moving to Milan for three years, I returned and experienced my highest level of commercial success. My designs were sold in some highly reputable department stores and boutiques worldwide. It was after five years of this high tempo of work that I began to feel I wanted something more, something different, something that would allow me to be completely authentic.  

 

I took a hiatus during which I learned hard lessons about myself and about the human condition. I learned what was important to me and what damage the fashion industry has done to the environment and to traditional societies. That is what inspired me to create Lola Loves Cargo, a sustainable brand that celebrates tradition, joy, and responsible manufacturing.
 
This project with Resonance finally gives me the opportunity to realize the vision I’ve had to launch a truly unique and truly sustainable denim line. The Resonance platform - create.ONE - allows me to avoid creating unneeded inventory (and filling up landfills with unsold clothes) by printing items (digitally on organic and biodegradable materials using 40% less ink and 50% less water) only after a customer completes an order. This commitment to the environment is not only important to me personally, but it is a critical part of the idea behind Lola Faturoti Loves. It is an inventive, responsible new line of clothing where bold patterns and colors combine with the most advanced manufacturing technology in ways that evoke a celebration of traditional designs in a modern world. This is how I reflect my joy. That is the vision of Lola Faturoti Loves.

Celebration of traditonal designs in a modern world