What a groom wears matters a lot

A suit made by Mtani Bespoke

What you need to know:

  • He has decided to become a tailor, who makes suits and apparel to the client's needs. Tailor made suits are far from a novelty in Tanzania.
  • Numerous tailor services exist, particularly in Dar es Salaam, notable ones include Khimji, but Mtani's brand goes an extra mile and, in his words, his suits “can be sold anywhere in the world."

Just as important as finding the right wedding gown is finding the right suit. This is a struggle which every groom, has to wrestle with. Mtani Nyamakababi, 25, a self-made businessman, has identified that struggle and decided to seize the opportunity by becoming a solution provider to it.

He has decided to become a tailor, who makes suits and apparel to the client's needs. Tailor made suits are far from a novelty in Tanzania.

Numerous tailor services exist, particularly in Dar es Salaam, notable ones include Khimji, but Mtani's brand goes an extra mile and, in his words, his suits “can be sold anywhere in the world."

Quality of what he makes is hard to dispute when you consider the clout that Mtani's brand has in Dar es Salaam. He dresses many well-known figures; Ben Pol, Juma Jux, Joh Makini, Bdozen, amongst others.

Then we had an opportunity of interviewing Speshoz “the mass caterer”

 

“Speshoz is a mass market business, we want to cater for everyone. We are actually following Bakhresa’s business model having everyone from a different class of life consume our products,” Jeffrey Jessey says.

 

Jessey is a 29 year old proud owner of the biggest fashion Tailoring house in Tanzania.

He thinks the Tanzanian wedding business is booming.

“I think (wedding) it’s a booming business, there is plenty of things that you can get yourself into. If you look at how people have invested, there has been a lot of change especially if you compare how weddings were done then and now. There has been a rapid growth, nowadays everybody wants to have an epic and unique wedding, and this trend is catching up.

The industry is growing in terms of players, we now have makeup artists, designers and photographers to list but a few. Everybody is trying to channel their ideas in different perspectives. That is what makes this industry interesting and most of all grow fast.”

Speshoz never planned to get into the wedding business, rather the business got into him.

Jeffrey's first job was with the World Bank country office in Tanzania where he did quite a number of things to a point that he was appointed as a zonal coordinator for Water and Sanitation programmes.

"I loved my job only that a few things were missing. What made me switch to fashion is that I wanted to control both the output and input. At the World Bank I could only control the input but not very much the output," says Jeffrey

His interest in fashion developed from watching his mother who was a tailor, he goes on and explains "...but also my father used to tell me about the beauty and confidence gained from knowing that you are properly dressed or fully fashionable."

According to him, this grew an in-depth interest and at some point when he was doing his masters in International Business, he learnt that in life one can actually commercialise their interests and passion. That’s when he started living this passion a few years back.

Models pose as a groom and his men in suits designed and tailored by Speshoz. Speshoz himself is standing at the far left.

He believes that in order to succeed in business you have to make sure that you are relevant in the market.

Speshoz believes the wedding industry could improve by having more players in the market like influx of more designers. He says this will help as the industry lacks diversity which subject consumers to lack of options but also there is a need of stabilising the prices as most service providers in the wedding business vary largely.

The busiest months in his business are April, May and June then September, October to December.

“The wedding industry does contribute to the country's economy as employment and purchase power are created. More jobs are getting created and more services are being provided. In all that taxes are being paid, so the government earns its share,” he says.

The Business of weddings is proudly brought to you by Raha Broadband visit. www.raha.co.tz

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