Cerinah Nalwoga Kasirye, a business developer and founder of trillion looks store, while appearing on the Groove Cafe today, said her desire for fashion designing was partly to foster a mindset change that stereotyped African fashion designing as a job for the uneducated.
Cerinah, who grew up watching her mum sew and make clothes, said her mother’s work was her inspiration, and she started using the sewing machine as early as nine years old.
“Not only did I grow to love fashion, but I always wanted to challenge the status quo because when I was growing up, I observed people's mindset towards my mother as a fashion designer. People often said that tailoring is a job for the uneducated. I wanted to change their mindset that it is not for the uneducated but also the reason people can not walk naked,” she said.
Cerinah testified to having achieved her goal and now as a business developer, she aims at having Ugandan designs exported all over the globe.
Through Trillion Looks Store, Cerinah hubs over 40 women and youth artisans, and she helps with ensuring mass production, marketing, and sales of their products across the globe.
Because she dreamt of heading big establishments, Cerinah got into copywriting which led her way to become a business developer.
“I was doing digital marketing for a guy selling men’s clothes, watches, and other men’s outfits. I would read about the trending fashion styles and then copyright. I did it for some time until I thought of creating an agency to do online marketing for other businesses,” she recalled.
In her first email campaign, Cerinah was awed when her campaign delivered an amount of 7 million shillings. Because she did not have an established agency with a team, digital marketing for every business was overwhelming. She decided to settle with the niche of promoting craft and fashion entrepreneurs' businesses online.
She settled as a business developer and founded Trillion Looks Store, a handicraft social enterprise, working with women and youth artisans to help in mass production, marketing, and selling their products across the globe.
She has trained over 400 artisans on the best digital marketing strategies, a task trusted to her by the ministry of tourism, wildlife, and antiquities under the souvenir development project funded by the Enhanced Integrated Framework. She has also worked on several projects as a digital marketing consultant and trainer for women in rural areas.
The Groove Cafe with Crystal Newman airs every Weekday from 4-5 pm on RX Radio.
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