Fab Fabrics: Fabulous men’s fabrics at your finger tips
Fab Fabrics is truly a marvellous shop. We have never seen such a wide assortment of quality fabrics anywhere. It’s indeed a miracle of shop stocking: voile, Atiku, guinea and similar materials at various price points. Customers are spoilt for choice. Two things are really pleasing about Fab Fabrics. One, there’s a wide array of materials and prices in one spot. And two, it’s really easy to reach – right there on Sanusi Fafunwa Street, Victoria Island.
It saves shoppers the big inconvenience of travelling to Mandilas or Marina on Lagos Island, where you can spend 3-4 hours looking for what you want. You often feel like a rabbit looking for kernels in a massive warren. Other big draws are that everything at Fab Fabrics is quality – you don’t have to wade through piles of guff before you find the quality materials after your heart. Even the fabrics that cost N25,000 at Fab Fabrics ooze sheer quality. The other big advantage is you don’t get the feeling you are paying more for the convenience – the prices are very reasonable.
Location
Fab Fabrics is located at Number 14, Fourteen36 Mall, Sanusi Fafunwa Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Speciality
Fab Fabrics, run by Mrs Lola Idudu, is a men’s fabric store. So, the fabrics you see in the store are exclusively for men. Up for offer are various types of fabrics, matching accessories to go with the natives, studs (the detachable buttons worn with native attires) and cufflinks. Also available in the store are Kanuri caps, (the northern caps that people wear on caftans), aso-oke caps, pocket squares and socks that can be worn with native attires.
“We are about the man’s total look. We have what we call ‘fabric in a box’. It is our exclusive gift packaging. If you want to buy a gift for a client, you can just walk into our store, pick the fabric and accessory and we wrap them in a nice gift box, ready to be presented. We also offer gift vouchers.” — Mrs Lola Idudu
Fabrics and prices
| SN | Fabrics | Price range/ five yards |
| 1 | Cotton | N15,000- N75,000 |
| 2 | Wool (Switz, Italian, English, Turkish and Indian) | N20,000- N80,000 |
| 3 | Voile | Starts from N35,000 |
| 4 | Lace | Starts from N80,000 |
| 5 | Pique | N15,000 to N80,000 |
| 6 | Guinea brocade | Starts from N35,000 |
Unique Selling points
- Highly-competitive price and money-back guarantee (if you find a lower price elsewhere for exactly the same quality).
- Specialisation in solely men’s fabric
- The variety available all the time
- Gift-box packaging
- After-sales follow-up
“Our unique selling point is first of all pricing, second variety if I sell wool for men, for example, I will sell a hundred types of it. I cater to everybody’s needs. Do you have a very eccentric taste? Do you like bright colours? I have for you. Do you have a more conservative taste? I have for you. I try to cut across every point, so that makes me a store that whatever you do wherever you are whoever you are, you’ll find something. I have something for everyone. I make sure I am well stocked every time.
“Another Unique Selling Point is that we do gift boxes. So people know us as a men’s fabric store. I want to get something for a man, I need to get to Fab Fabrics. They will sort me out. They will put a nice fabric for me in a gift box. It’s a birthday, Christmas, Valentine…any time of the year we have gift boxes you know so we have a lot of corporate clientele as well. because of that. that keeps people coming back.”— Mrs Lola Idudu
How Fab Fabrics started
Fab Fabrics was birthed from the desire of an entrepreneurial woman who saw a gaping need for men’s fabric all around her.
Mrs Idudu narrates: “When I was a banker, I was always looking for something to sell. I have always been a seller, so I would try different things. Today I will sell children’s clothes, tomorrow female’s fabrics. And then I stumbled on men’s fabrics. There was a friend of mine who introduced me to buying from Switzerland. I tried it and that was the only business I succeeded in. I was able to keep my clientele. I found out that there is a huge demand. If you look around, what you would find generally in Nigeria are predominantly female store and then a person selling lace would have 20 percent men, 80 percent women, so there is always a skew in the market.
“So I left the bank with a lot of referrals, customers, friends, families and I started the business. I specifically source for unique fabrics. I am very big on quality and good pricing. So what we have at Fab Fabrics is a blend of different types of fabrics, different grades but all good quality and very good pricing. I always mention that if you come to my store and you find it cheaper somewhere else, the same fabric the same quality, I will give you your money back. I want to cater to men. And I have actually found that it works. I keep getting new clients because they are happy.”
Who are the customers?
For Fab Fabrics, every man is the customer
“Our customers are every man. Let me tell you why I say so: I have fabrics for high-end, I have fabrics for mid-range and I have fabrics for the low-end. Not the bottom end, because the bottom is of very cheap quality. So, when I say low-end, I mean if you want to spend N15,000 on a piece of fabric you can come to my store, and that amount is guaranteed to get you good quality. It starts from the base of good quality. I don’t do bad quality. I sell pieces as well for children. So you want to sew for your child I can sell you two yards or three yards, less than N10,000. Something good. We try to cater for pretty much everyone.” — Mrs Lola Idudu
Extra
Fab Fabrics has a new men’s accessories line called John William for the trendy man. They include cufflinks, studs and bracelets which are the same quality as the ones sold in the high street shops in the UK.
“John William is my brand, the name was formed from my family. My husband’s middle name and my son’s middle name. So I have my own brand, it is quality guaranteed and it is actually my pet project.” — Mrs Lola Idudu
