Meet Bukola Shoaga | Fashion Business Owner & Physician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bukola Shoaga and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bukola, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My business idea stemmed from my own personal struggles with finding stylish, modest clothing. During college, I started making a transition to wear more modest clothing due to my religious beliefs. I found that back then and even still today, the fashion business was lacking stylish, modest clothing options. Sidenote, I learned how to sew in college which would prove to be a useful skill. Towards the end of medical school when I finally had some down time, I started honing in on my sewing skills and I started making beautiful, modest garments for me to wear. I even had a brief stint of me sewing clothes for other people. Whenever I did wear a garment that I had designed and sewn myself, I would receive many compliments and request from people for me to sew them custom garments. Once I realized that this was in demand, I knew I would eventually want to start a modest fashion line. Sewing custom garments can be cumbersome and as I’ve gone further in my professional career and growing a family, I knew I would not be able to sew custom garments for people. I decided that I would find a manufacturer and start a fashion business. I decided to take the plunge in 2020. I figured, why not? I wanted to give women who may be struggling like myself the opportunity to look polished and fabulous without having to compromise their modesty and belief for the sake of fashion. Please note we support what any woman chooses to wear.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What may set me apart from others is that 1 . I have sewn for a number of years and know how to develop patterns. I am self-taught. Also, I believe that a lot of modest fashion brands look the same. They use similar style cuts, fabrics and designs. RI MI (my brand) brings a different element to modest design with unique fashion cuts and exclusive patterns.

Of note, I also happen to have a professional career that I enjoy for the most part. I am a physician as well. Combining my professional career, as well as my fashion business has not been the easiest, but I am thankful that my schedule allows me to be able to work on my fashion business without feeling too overwhelmed. I think that in the fashion business, it is quite difficult, You need clothes, but nobody NEEDS fashionable clothing, it is a desire. In the beginning before launch, you are super excited and you hope that people will love your brand and will purchase from you immediately. A hard lesson that I had to learn is that, even if you have a great product and people say they love the brand, it will take a long time for people to trust your brand and to buy into the brand. This is the case for any business. I would advise keep going. You literally have to keep going. That’s why businesses fail, you didn’t keep going for whatever reason that may be. The more people that know about your brand, you increase the likelihood of it becoming more successful .You are literally in this for the long run. Not many people have an overnight success story. You often hear the quote that it took “10 years to become overnight success” and this is true. There’s so much work that goes into all of this for many years.

My brand is called RI MI. This means see me in my native language of Yoruba. We are encouraging women to see themselves for who they are without compromising themselves for the sake of society.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Good question!

I love to eat. I mean, it’s Houston, cmon! There are many restaurants popping up ALL THE TIME. For something casual and chill, I would take them to POST so that we can pick whatever we want to eat and have a good convo. For a Nigerian meal, I would take them to Aria Suya Kitchen. For a guaranteed casual and yummy breakfast, I would take them to Penas Donut Heaven and Grill in Pearland. For dinner, we would probably head to Miyako. These are my tried and true. Other than that, we would check out whatever restaurant is new lol.

For exercise in a beautiful environment, I would take them to Tom Bass Park and Memorial Hermann Park.

As far as hang out, I’m Nigerian and I am invited to an event nearly every other weekend lol. If something was going on, I would take my friend there! A wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, you get the picture!

I also really love a good concert. I would check to see which artist is in town and if its someone I like I’m definitely in there!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
One thing I have learned on this entrepreneurship journey is that it truly takes a village. In the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey, there are a lot of things that you do by yourself and even well into your entrepreneurial journey. I literally tried to do everything by myself, but I quickly learned that you can’t do everything yourself. It’s important to delegate tasks that you may not be good off. It’s also important to delegate task so that the final product looks professional. There are so many people I would like to Shoutout, I would like to begin by shouting out my Husband for his continued support. I would like to thank my cousin Zainah for being literally my right hand woman when it comes to photo shoots. I would like to thank my photography team, Erin and Darshon of House Of Boone Visuals, Ahmad Sweeney of Swreenshots and Francis. I would like to think any models that I have worked with and in no order in particular Iman, Fatimah, Keleke, Hala, Jala, Zaynab, Ausha, Klarke and Tasharra. I would like to thank for my cousin Seun for listening to my business woes and bouncing ideas off of her. I would like to thank the manufacturers that I’ve worked with, Anifa, Yesmin, Yanice, LiYan and Rity.

Last but not least, shout out to ME.

Website: ri-mi.com

Instagram: @rimiverse

Facebook: @rimiverse

Image Credits
Sweenshots House of Boone Visuals