Delhi buys, this time for Africa

Hillary John, 32, came to India from Nigeria four years ago as a tourist. He was so charmed by the country — its ethnic dresses — that he gave up a career in geology in his country and returned in 2010 to study fashion design at a private institute in Delhi. Manoj Sharma reports.

Hillary John, 32, came to India from Nigeria four years ago as a tourist.

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He was so charmed by the country — its ethnic dresses — that he gave up a career in geology in his country and returned in 2010 to study fashion design at a private institute in Delhi.

In September last year, he launched his own fashion label, Diamond Ark, which has a showroom in Arjun Nagar near Safdarjang Enclave in south Delhi.

The shirts, suits, gowns, cocktail gowns, sherwanis and lehganas showcase fusion — Indian ethnic, Afro-Indo, Indo-western. “The city’s fashion fraternity has been quite supportive,” says the shy, soft-spoken John.

The difficult bit, he says, has been to prove that Nigerians can run a legitimate business in India, thanks to misconceptions about his community related to drug sale, online fraud and suchlike.

When he sought to rent a place for his showroom, many discouraged the landlady. “Thankfully, she trusted me. Now everyone in the neighbourhood is quite comfortable with me,” he says.

John is not the only one. A new breed of African expatriates is trying to shake off stereotypes, venture into diverse businesses in the city: fashion brands, modelling, restaurants, beauty salons, African stores and clothes manufacturing.