Fashion changed Mukooza’s fortunes

Mukooza, a fashion designer, in his workhop in Nsambya, Kampala. The 26-year-old plans to expand his business later this year. PHOTOS BY Gabriel Bbule

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From childhood, he has always seen his dream in fashion designing. Martin Larry Mukooza is glad he is living his dream, writes Lawrence Ogwal.

“I am not going back to formal employment,” Martin Larry Mukooza, who has been selling clothes since he was a university student, says.

Five years ago he quit his job as a chef to pursue his fashion business fulltime. He was 21 at the time.

At the time, Mukooza was juggling the business while also working his day job.

At a first glance, you can tell that Mukooza, 26, has an impeccable taste in fashion. And he should, because he is the hand behind a fashion line called Larry Casuals.
“Ever since I can remember, I have been particular about what I wear and how I look. Even as a young boy, I insisted on choosing my clothes whenever my parents took me shopping because I did not want to end up with outdated outfits. I feel that I am defined by what I wear, so I am quite selective,” he says.

How he started
Mukooza decided that he wanted to become a designer when he completed high school nine years ago, in 2010.
“There is a designer I looked up to – I had seen his work, and admired it, I thought he was very skilled and I desired to be like him. Keen to keep myself busy as I waited to join university, I told my mother what I had in mind. She had seen my creative side come alive in my sketches of everything around me, such as animals, flowers and people. She readily agreed to support me,” he explains.

With a starting capital of Shs5m, he registered Larry Casuals, a fashion line that targets both men and women.

He mostly designs kitengi, sweatshirts, hoodies and custom t-shirts, which his peers are especially partial to. He also makes bespoke clothing items, made-to-order one-off pieces influenced by the client’s taste and preference.

“I used part of my capital to buy a few materials to kick-start my business and pay for tailoring and printing services. I started with just one product in each category that I planned to focus on. I also used these products to do a market survey, with the aim of knowing what potential clients would be interested in,” says Mukooza.

It helped that Mukooza had friends in town. He aggressively marketed his clothes to his friends who bought in droves.

“We also do ready to wear outfit as long as it fits and all the outfits we tailor range from wedding gowns, suits, dinner outfits and weekend wears,” Mukooza says.
Mukooza grew up seeing his grandma sewing clothes for sale in Lugazi and admired her. He is glad he is living his dream.
“She also used to get orders from schools then to tailor uniforms,” says Mukooza.
He recalls his mother being a fashion forward woman who traded material from Thailand, Dubai and China in the early 90s.

While in secondary school, his grandmother’s business had grown and he was still helping her like he did back then as a child and after Senior Six, he got into the business.

Nurtures dream
While in Senior Six vacation, Mukooza says he called Brenda Nanyonjo, the organiser of Miss Uganda beauty pageant. The two had met back then during a music competition organised by songstress Mariam Ndagire and Nanyonjo was there as a make-up artiste.

“When I asked Nanyonjo for a job, she told me to first get done with school and I waited but unfortunately, she was involved in the July 2010 bombing and she went abroad for treatment,” Mukooza reminisces.

In that process, he met Brian Ahumuza, the proprietor of Abryanz Fashion store where he started work doing different stuff. It was the same time he joined the university to do a bachelor’s degree in Tourism and Hotel Management.

While in his first year, when Abryanz Fashion and Style Awards (ASFAs) happened for the first time, he met designers such as Ras Kasozi and Jimanji who inspired him.
“In 2013, I joined a fashion house called MisFixIt. It was a partner with Miss Uganda where I was working on different assignments,” Mukooza said. While there, he learnt how to do make-up and hair dressing. After that he says he learnt fashion and design and he would help dress people on wedding sets, photo shoots, and video shoots.

Life changing deals
According to Mukooza, he had a client at Alexander Forbes, an audit firm in Uganda who had a workmate who was wedding and he told him he would dress the whole entourage.
“I had never made a suit but I wanted to give it a try so I lied to this client that I would make him suits and gowns for the whole entourage,” Mukooza recalls, saying the suit came out perfect and the groom liked it.

Mukooza feels he is doing relatively well for a 26-year-old. “I make between Shs6m to Shs10m every month in profit, an achievement I am proud of. This amount is still far off from the projected target, but I will still pat myself on the back,” he says.
Some of the personalities who have worn his designs include tycoon Godfrey Kirumira, musicians Mesach Ssemakula, Sheeba Karungi and Maureen Nantume.

Costs
Mukooza says men’s outfit for example the Kaftan suit goes for Shs250,000. “The women clothes are quite expensive because they entail a lot of hard work so they range from Shs200,000 to Shs1.2m.”.

Challenges
His business has not been without challenges. One of the biggest ones he faced while starting out was stiff competition from established designers who were offering the same products he had just launched.

“I knew that to get seen, I needed to aggressively market my company. Since I did not have money to spend on pushing my designs on social media platforms, I reached out to friends who have many followers on social media. I would gift them my products, and in turn, they would market them on their social media pages,” he explains.

He also hired three photographers; an indoor and outdoor photographer who would take photos of his friends modelling his creations, which he would then share online.
It is a strategy that worked, because he now has a loyal clientele base, as well as a big following on social media, especially Instagram and Facebook.