On Saturday 24 February, 2018, it was the turn of Dame Ojuolape Ojora, the Erelu Oodu’a and grand dame of the Nigerian society to join the octogenarian club.
Her family members, led by her husband, The Otunba Adekunle Ojora, OFR, CON, and the children – Solveigh Ojora, Dapo and Patricia Ojora, Bukola and Toyin Saraki and Yinka and Ngozi Ojora are planning to celebrate this great Amazon in a most stylish way.
The Erelu Oodu’a, Dame Ojuolape Ojora was born on 24 February, 1938 to High Chief Joseph Kupoluyi Akinyemi and Chief Sabina’s Olayinka Akinkugbe-Akande, the former Iyalode of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church, Ondo. She attended kindergarten in Ondo after which she left to school in Lagos – at the Girls Modern Academy, run by Mrs Manuwa. At an early age, Ojumi as she is fondly called left for school in England on board the MV Aureol and landed in Liverpool on Christmas Day after spending two weeks on the journey by sea with her mother’s bosom friend and her guardian, the late Mrs Ladunni Rotimi-Williams. She attended Eaton and Wallis School, Warwick Avenue, W2, London, where she sat for her GCE, O’ and A’ Levels.
After completing her secondary and professional education at the ripple gate College in Aldwych in the city of London and having been awarded a certificated Private Secretary Diploma equivalent to Politics, Economics and Law PEL), Erelu Ojora attended Aylesbury College (a finishing school) in England. She then gained employment with Shell in the UK. She moved back to Nigeria in December 1959, and married her closest ally, Prince Adekunle Ajayi Ojora On Christmas Eve of the same year; after a courtship of over five years. Dame Ojuolape moved from the position of Personal Assistant In Shell to become the first Nigerian Head of Personnel Services, dealing with housing facilities for management staff – a responsibility that involved constantly traveling to all the regions of Nigeria.
In order to spend more time for her growing family, the celebrant resigned from Shell to establish her private company named the Dolphin Fashion House At the Federal Palace Hope, Lagos. By the providence of the Almighty God, one shop grew to two, three and then eight at present with headquarters at Tinubu Square. There, Dolphin House stands as a monument of the quality of the products partly imported as a sole agent of some of the leading manufacturers in the world – Yves St Laurent, Conan’s, Christian Dior, Frank Usher, Jean Varon, Louis Ferraud among others – and locally produced designs.
Erelu Ojuolape also establishes her own boutique at Great Portland Street In the West of London where Nigerian designs and styles are displayed. Over time, the celebrant places her personal stamp on the Nigerian fashion scene with the creation of her “Erelu Agbada”, the two-piece buba and agbada that was received with critical acclaim.
