We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ijeoma Bennett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ijeoma, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My story starts one Christmas many years ago. It had been a rough year for our parents, so me and my siblings had resigned to our fates, that we would get no gifts, or clothes that year…it was fine (we hoped), there was always next year.

On Christmas morning, we woke up to new clothes; our mom had stayed up all night to make clothes for us, my siblings and I. We were over the moon with joy and I was the happiest girl that day as I walked up and down the hallway in those new well-fitted clothes, feeling beautiful, confident and knowing I was seen. That beauty, confidence and visibility stayed with me and for me have become part of the tools that have helped me overcome my own self-esteem issues. That Christmas Day sparked in me a creative streak that I wanted to reproduce in my own work.

Growing up, I went to law school, still driven by that desire to help people feel confident and seen. I graduated and practiced law for a short while and even though I excelled at it, my love for the world of fashion beat loudly in my heart and I eventually heeded the call and jumped into the vast seas of owning a fashion business. I have now been an entrepreneur and couturier since 2015 and it has been a most rewarding experience.

There is an endless list of fashion business owners who make really good clothes, but what I do goes beyond fabrics and clothes. I don’t merely make a dress, I provide for all my clients a tool with which to enhance their uniqueness. I provide a beautifully tailored canvas for the stories of their successes and inadequacies, their battles and victories, their ups and down…for life. Like my Christmas morning dress did for me, what I do for my clients is empowering and therapeutic. That is my unique approach and the thing that gets me excited about my business.

Every business is froth with risk even more so in the saturated fashion business, but the knowing that what I do is my humble contribution to help people overcome any insecurities and self-esteem issues that they might deal with it. This knowledge is what makes what I do worth it, especially on the days when it seems like I’m walking through a mine field. Everyone wants to be seen, heard, and feel good in their skin, so I know there’ll always be a market for what I do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m the Chief Executive of JaiMadu- A fashion brand based in Baltimore City Maryland. We provide both a couture service for walk-in clients who desire a unique, one-of-a-kind clothing experience and also an online retail arm that caters to ready to wear clients who maybe for reasons of location or time constraints cannot come into our studios.

Whether you walk into our design studio or decide to order from our online store, the one thing you can count on is excellence and integrity. We take great pride in our attention to detail in everything we do and stand firmly behind our deals with our clients. We don’t do shortcuts, we don’t compromise.

On that foundation of business integrity and craft excellence, we have made a corporate decision to use only ethically and sustainable sourced materials. This is our way to make sure that we only get materials from vendors who are committed to paying a fair and livable wage to all the workers whose products we use in our craft and also to ensure that we have a healthy environment which we can pass on to the next generation.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The Covid-19 crisis taught me agility and business adaptability. As most small businesses shuttered to a halt in the pandemic, I knew I had to do something with that downtime and so I decided to use that season for some professional development.

I seized the opportunity to invest in myself and grow my skills. I took training courses on business management, and as the restrictions on gatherings eased and small groups began to meet, I found a mentor and fellow business owner who taught advanced classes in fashion designing and pattern making. With those classes, I was able to improve my skills and expand my professional network, from which I have hired staff to grow my business.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My reputation stands squarely on the quality of the work I do.

Most of my couture clients have come to me on the strength of word of mouth referrals from satisfied clients and even from fabric stores who have seen the excellence and finish in what we do at JaiMadu. The online business which is younger than the couture arm, has enjoyed similar reviews by well satisfied customers.

As I already mentioned, during the Covid-19 shutdown, I enrolled in an advanced program. I’m so proud to say that, so good was the quality of what I made in the program, that the instructor has me come in when I can to work on her commercial fashion lines.