Ayo Van Elmar
Motunrayo Olaogun created Ayo Van Elmar (AVE) in 2011, soon after she was accepted into the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in the winter of 2010 to study Fashion design under Bernhard Wilhelm and Hussein Chalayan.
Whilst schooling, she embraced the idea and future of the newly created fashion company with family and friends, attended fashion exhibitions and parties, but was not commercially active, despite releasing capsule collections on a regular basis.
Ayo Van Elmar established its first showroom in the Lagos neighbourhood of Lekki in September 2015. However, commerce did not begin until AVE relocated its store to the enormous window front location at the prestigious 5 star Lagos Oriental Hotel and established the Ayo Van Elmar Fashion House.
Ayo Van Elmar has worked with a number of artists in the fields of music, cinema, fashion, and lifestyle. The brand's last collection was launched in 2019.
AVE has relaunched and rebranded itself as a sustainable, ethical, and conscientious made-in-Africa brand in 2022, after two years of restructuring, re-strategizing, and taking a step back to reaffirm its mission.
Ayo Van Elmar (AVE) aims to collaborate with local farmers growing cotton in Africa, local weavers who hand-spin these, and local artisans who design the fabrics with hand-cut stencils, positioning itself as an environmentally friendly label with a "slow with soul" approach and sustainability at its core.
AVE is promoting its supply chain as ethical and carefully sourced textiles. AVE has prioritised openness and traceability in its value and supply chains, while implementing a new business strategy of designing desired, avant-garde, and interesting products. In other words, AVE seeks to preserve the history of African handcrafted crafts, to protect the lives of artists in their local communities, and to elevate African arts to international prominence.
Ayo Van Elmar (AVE) aims to collaborate with local farmers growing cotton in Africa, local weavers who hand-spin these, and local artisans who design the fabrics with hand-cut stencils, positioning itself as an environmentally friendly label with a "slow with soul" approach and sustainability at its core. AVE is promoting its supply chain as ethical and carefully sourced textiles. AVE has prioritised openness and traceability in its value and supply chains, while implementing a new business strategy of designing desired, avant-garde, and interesting products. In other words, AVE seeks to preserve the history of African handcrafted crafts, to protect the lives of artists in their local communities, and to elevate African arts to international prominence.