The birth of Tiqqette Collection

As this is my first article on this blog, I thought it will be fitting to use the opportunity to share the story of how the now popular fashion label ‘Tiqqette’ actually began. However, before I begin, may I also plead that you forgive me this time. I know this blog isn’t going to be about start up stories. This is a one off. Promise!

So, it was a chance meeting between me and the flat mate (I will just call him Mr A) of my good friend, companion and brother from another mother, Dr Martin Aniekan Ekanem, that gave birth to this loving label. Those days in Causewayside, Edinburgh, I visited Dr Martin and somewhere along the line, I started chatting with Mr A, and before long, we discovered we had a common passion – to be our own bosses. So we fixed a meeting and within the first 5 minutes of our first meeting, we had decided to venture into fashion with particular interest in bespoke suits.

As a young banker back home in Nigeria, I was a sort of fashionista and many of my colleagues used to come to me to get tips and recommendations on what to wear and where to get ‘very nice’ suits like the ones I used to wear. Sometimes, as a hustler (in a good way), I will be awarded ‘mini’ contracts to procure suits, shirts and even ties by my colleagues. I wasn’t really doing it for the money but just a way of helping my ‘guys’ look good without going out of pocket as suits were sold at very exorbitant prices especially to bankers.

So, Mr A bought into the idea once I was able to answer his barrage of questions and proved why it would be a viable venture. Next was the name of the label. We had decided the main focus was to provide better fashionable suits than what was generally available on the UK high street and at a price that virtually anyone wanting a suit can afford. Two words immediately came into our discussion – elegance and affordable.

Elegance meaning  – “the quality of being graceful and stylish in appearance or manner” i.e. “the quality of being pleasingly ingenious and simple; neatness”. We all know what it means for something to be affordable. Anyway, so I think, at least. But then we thought elegance wouldn’t quite convey the entire essence of what we were up to and we couldn’t disguise the word enough to get something catchy and easy to remember as a brand name. So we dug deeper.

Then came ‘etiquette from Mr A. Yes, etiquette – “the customary code of polite behaviour in society or among members of a particular profession or group”. Yes, we had it. A word not so common; meant a lot in what we wanted to achieve and yet we could easily disguise it to get something catchy and easy to remember as a brand name. Tiqqette was born.

That was November 30th, 2011. And on the first day of December, 2011 (coincidentally my birthday), our first domain www.tiqqette.co.uk was set up. Sad to say all didn’t go according to plan and the partnership was inevitably dissolved with assets shared gentlemanly.

However, on my part (as I inherited the brand), I was determined and committed to ensuring that one day, Tiqqette will be a known name, providing her customers with top quality fashionable items at very affordable prices.

Please, allow me to personally and specially welcome you to www.tiqqette.com – the new home of Tiqqette Collection UK. The aims and objectives are still the same and we have grown into several other areas. I am happy that the dream didn’t die and with all your support, we’ve gone on a journey. I can not say that we have arrived, but we are on a mission. Please join us as we continue to save you money on all your fashionable items. This is just the beginning!

As a thank you for reading my long episode, use the code TIQQETTE10 to save 10% on your next order.