How a young lawyer is adding passion to lawyers’ fashion in Nigeria

By Oladimeji G

As her 6-foot-plus slim frame perched on a bench at the High Court 2, Effurun, Delta, where, as a law student, she was having her chamber attachment in 2017, Konye Ishie’s heart was elsewhere. Someplace where lawyering bristles with life, and lawyers have a lot of sparks.

But, if anything, it was a dream she was reveling in. In the Nigeria of that era, lawyers were supposed to show up in court in get-ups as dense and sober as the wearers’ looks. The more ragged and threadbare their gowns and wigs appeared, the greater the respect the lawyers commanded.

Dull was hip. And young lawyer Ishie would argue this—with herself.

Worse, what was available on the market—the colours and the fabric—were even duller.

The tension it created in her—and many of her friends studying law—led her into a high-octane quest for the colour and fabric that match the calling and personality of anyone studying or practising law.

Bucking that sartorial trend, being a dream initially, later, quickly, morphed into obsession—through law school in Abuja in 2017, and her Masters in international law at the University of Hertfordshire, U.K.

And two years after, her dream became a reality. She started Lawyers Pack: a one-stop boutique for ‘tush’ lawyers, and power ensembles for all yuppies in other professions, male and female.

And it’s the first in Africa. The only one up till now.

As a subsidiary of her BLAQ DIAMOND BOUTIQUE, Lawyers Pack now boasts no fewer than 80 clients—lawyers, law students, others. It’s a fashion renaissance catching on, and gaining converts.  These, through Ishie’s dream, are already changing the boring shades of black-and-white attire of the law profession. They’re turning it into a matching, lively outfit that radiates brilliance and elegance—without breaking any code of dressing.

The collections are not the dime-a-dozen types you can pick off the rack in some rag shop. The maximum number of pieces at BLAQ DIAMOND BOUTIQUE is 10 per brand. No 11th anywhere else in Lagos. Nor Nigeria. Nor Africa. Nor on earth. And only 10 people, in the whole wide world, can have a particular design. Ishie will tell you that authoritatively.

Sure, Lawyers Pack has standards. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Platinum. Diamond. All of the same quality. The difference is in the quantity and prize. So, with Lawyers Pack, a law student, for instance, can afford dressing sharp and professional.

Ishie will soon take the campaign to law faculties and schools around the nation—for young lawyers on campus.

For the bigwigs already convinced that lawyers don’t have to look like something the cat brought in to win a case—Lawyers Pack is much closer. In Lagos and Warri.

BLAQ DIAMOND BOUTIQUE stocks all they need to tart up, and it ships anywhere across the nation. For free.