Designing dreams since 1992.
Bold. Bespoke. Handcrafted. Proudly Nigerian.
Welcome to our world of adventure �
THE FOUNDER
FEMI OLAYEBI is a self-taught, award-winning handbag designer, trainer, mentor, and the creative brain behind the eponymous FemiHandbags brand. A translator by profession, she became an entrepreneur by accident when in 1992, she tried her hands at making a baby bag for her first baby. In 2008, she became a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women scholar.
In 2010, she participated in her first international handbag show, Pure London and in 2012, her business became a case study for MBA students at the then Lagos Business School. In 2017, she championed the Lagos Leather Fair, which provides a platform for leather designers and other stakeholders along the leather value chain. In 2019, she participated at multiple trade shows in New York at the invitation of SheTrades, a business women empowerment initiative under the International Trade Centre based in Switzerland.
At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, she signed a partnership agreement with the Mastercard Foundation to produce millions of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to help alleviate the effects of the pandemic across five focus Nigerian states. She has also, recently launched Kafawa, a training programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation on their Young Africa Works Nigeria initiative. She was recently awarded the Legatum Foundry Fellowship by the Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
As the creative driving force behind the FemiHandbags brand, Olayebi oversees the entire manufacturing process, right from conceptualisation to production of each and every bag. Inside her factory, a team of skilled artisans and leather workers dedicatedly work to bring her beautiful designs to life, paying close attention to the tiniest details.
ẹ́mi: Love me. Desire me. Adore me!
Our Story
DESIGNING DREAMS SINCE 1992
It all began with a diaper bag, when back in 1992, an expectant mum, with no prior knowledge of bag making, decided to make a diaper bag for her baby girl when she could not find one she liked.
Orders began to roll in, and before she knew it, Femi Olayebi had created a company, running it the best way she knew how. She hired tailors, transformed them into bag makers, and taught them all she had taught herself. Little did she know that an amazing journey of life on the other side of her (translator) dreams was just about to begin.
Today, FemiHandbags is one of Africa's best-known handbag brands - a testament to the tenacity of its founder, Femi Olayebi. "FemiHandbags is more than just a handbag brand. It embodies the values of excellence and integrity that I cherish; it is a symbol of positivity and possibilities; more than anything, it seeks to shatter stereotypes around Made-in-Africa and tell a powerful story".
FH Founder
BOLD. ELEGANT. BESPOKE.
PASSION MEETS ARTISTRY AND LEGACY.
OUR COMMITMENT TO OUR CRAFT
Our legacy of passion, craftsmanship, and style is reflected in every piece created in our atelier, where our master craftsmen and women - the lifeblood of our company - combine traditional techniques with a unique savoir-faire to create truly exceptional works of art.
Our commitment to our craft is non-pareil, and an obsessive focus on the quality of our craftsmanship has remained at the core of everything we do.
From the ideation stage, where we dream up new silhouettes and match idea to material, to the roll-up-your-sleeves stage where the cutting, skiving, filing, splitting, and all the other 'need-to-dos' happen, to the final finishing stage, the utmost attention is paid to the minutest details.
