Florence Olugbemiro is the founder of Designedbyflorence. An 18 month old business that is inspired by the vivacious colours of Africa attracting lovers of creativity, colours and couture. We started with upcycling high-waisted skirts with pockets and ended with African Dolls and earrings.
In the last few months, we’ve been doing some amazing things with our collectives, despite battling challenging health issues.
Designedbyflorence was one of two local businesses that Liverpool City Council nominated to showcase in a promo video.
We were invited to hold a stall at the recently completed International Women’s Day celebration of ‘ Women of the West ‘ musical concert. It was a teary moment to see almost all the woman leaving the venue wearing a designedbyflorence earring.
To enhance our business, we changed our visual look on our Instagram page and successfully launched our website: Designed By Florence and linked this to both our Facebook and Instagram pages.
Recently we applied for an AMP grant to take our Ima Dolls to the next level. We passionately desire every child in Australia to own an African doll not just Barbies thereby connecting them to the diversity that exists in Australia and mirror the world we live in. We believe introducing this early will broaden their minds and help develop the salient leadership skills needed for our tomorrow leaders.
Recently, we were approached by a business in Washington DC to showcase designedbyflorence in their African YouTube channel. We are working on this at the moment as well as expanding our collectives by uploading our limited edition products to our newly developed website. We plan on creating a one-stop shop for exclusive African inspired gifts and accessories. We are open to customers in Australia and the world at large.
Our range spans from African Dolls, African inspired earrings and jewelry, handmade double-sided headwrap Bandannas, African souvenirs, bags and slippers.
As part of our social Enterprise strategies, our doll clothes are handmade by a single mother in Nigeria while 80% of our earrings are made by the disadvantaged Epiding Community of Kenya.
We are excited about what the future holds. In summary, we believe colours unite the world, why not join in our passion and support the team behind the scenes and add a designedbyflorence product to your wardrobe ?
