…And Her Jewellery, Aso Oke & Fabrics Business
Some call her Lady Bisbam. Others call her Alaga Iyawo. But her real name is Bisola Bamidele. She is a successful businesswoman who has done well for herself. She is one of the leading Alaga Iyawo professionals in the business today.
Over the years, she has grown to become a really big brand. And she plays big in that traditional wedding sector. She has also handled many traditional marriages both in Nigeria and abroad. So good is she that many celebrities infact fly her abroad to handle traditional weddings. This is because she is good at what she does. She is a naturally beautiful woman, blessed with a warmth and likeable personality that is infectious. And she speaks fluent English and Yoruba. She has been a Teacher for years, before she went into the business of anchoring traditional weddings. She has a beautiful voice that is just right for that role. Whenever she advertises on Facebook and Instagram many stay glued to her. But she is not just a traditional wedding anchor. She does other related things.
She is a big time Aso-Oke & Fabric Merchant. She is into Jewelry also. She is very active on social media. On Facebook, you can check out Bisbam Designs. She also has @arewajewelryshop on Instagram. You can also check out @asookeandfabricplace.
She is the MD/CEO of Bisbam Aso-Oke & Fabrics. And she has just moved into a brand new imposing complex called BISBAM House, Omega Court, Plot 1, Victoria Odediran Close, beside former Niteshift Coliseum, Off Salvation Road, Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos. In that complex are 3 floors full to the brim with fabrics, Jewellery and wedding stuff. And it houses her Arewa Jewelry Store, BISBAM. Alaga Iyawo and BISBAM Aso-Oke.
It is a one stop centre for all your Owambe needs.
The way she is set up, you can hand over your traditional wedding to her, and go to sleep because of her ability and capacity to source for every thing that has to do with traditional weddings for the Bride & Groom.
We got her to tell us all about herself. “My name is Deaconess Abisola Omolola Bamidele. Well, people call me BISBAM, or Lady Bisbam precisely. On Instagram, I am Alaga Iyawo. That is one job that I do. I am an Alaga Iyawo. I am from Epe in Lagos State. I was once a Teacher. I resigned some years back. Right now, I am into business”. What does she do at Bisbam House? What does she have in stock? “We call this place, made up of 3 floors, a one-stop centre for everything Owambe. If you need Corals, we have it. If you need Brazilian Gold, Italian Gold, Covid Zakoni, name it. We have it. We have wristwatches. We sell Proposal and Acceptance letters. We do Aso Ebi. We do Aso Oke. We are into wrapping of gifts. Just name it. We do everything that has to do with traditional wedding, count on us. We are for you.”
For how long has she been doing Alaga Iyawo job? “That is about 28 years ago now. I started even before my marriage. This job has helped us, a lot. We have trained a lot of people. We have gone far to several countries because of Alaga Iyawo business? Does she only handle Alaga job for the Iyawo alone? “No. I do for both. They call me Alaga Iyawo because when you are going for a wedding, they will ask you in Yoruba, nibo len lo? A nlo si ibi Iyawo. So, it could be for a man or a woman. But for the fact that the ceremony is called Ode Iyawo, it is called Iyawo things. When we prepare the package for the traditional wedding, we would say Igba Iyawo. So, Iyawo means Wedding. I do for both Bride and Groom. My stage name is Alaga Iyawo meaning MC for traditional weddings.”
We got her to tell us what she stocks on each of the 3 floors. The 1st Floor is for Aso Oke and Aso Ebi. We do Lace. If you want a Lace material that you don’t want out there, we can source for you. And we do Aso Oke. The ground floor is for Aso Oke and Aso Ebi. We do different designs. If you want an Aso Ebi that will not be common out there, count on us. The 1st Floor is for Wrist watches, Jewellery, Coral Beads, different things that you will need for your event. The 3rd floor is for our Training, our Eru Iyawo training, Alaga Iyawo training, and our office.” How has she tried to change the Alaga Iyawo business from the old ways to the new. “In this our industry we are not waiting. We have tried to put a lot of innovations and ideas into what we do, that will not make the youths of nowadays to say we are outdated. We put a lot of things into our weddings to make it different. We put in some fun, some additional things. We don’t want anyone to say my sisters wedding 10 years ago is exactly like mine today. We put in some fun that can make people enjoy your event. For instance, the way we do Eru Iyawo now is different.
In those days we did Eru Iyawo differently. But now, Eru Iyawo stuff is done in a nice way. The way Alaga sits now is not like before. A typical traditional wedding used to be very drab, very boring, but now we have put a lot of life into it”.
For those who want to know m ore about her and what she does, you can go online. She is very active online. “Yes. I am very active on social media. It is the Grace of God. Before now, I don’t used to like social media, but my children kept pushing me, mommy you have to post and before I knew it the traffic was getting higher. Wow! 75k followers. They keep following day by day.”
“Even my arewajewelleryshop that I opened on Instagram about 2 years ago, I already have like 40,000 followers and I am like Wow! What is happening? The fact that my followers keep following me daily, motivates me to keep posting more. When I post, I don’t just post boring content. I make sure I entertain my followers and audience.”
Does she only cater to Women here in her shop? “No. We do for Men. We have long neck chains for men. We make Coral Beads for men. We make Coral beads for Kabiyeesis. We have many Kabiyeesi’s as my customers. We make long chains for them. We make Coral beads for them as well. Sometimes, they bring designs for us to customise and we do that. We also have wrist watches for men. Of course, we make agbada, we do men’s clothes, HOH. We sell bags for men. (Baba Olowo Stuff) We have eye glasses for men. We do for both men & women.”
So, if you want to patronise her, go Online to @alagaiyawo, or go to her store @bisbamasooke. The other store that we have on Instagram is @arewa_jewelryshop. “Many of my customers know the page already. But for the sake of those who don’t know the page, they can go Online and check us out.”
“We also have arewa_italiangold. All those pages are doing well. We also have asooke@fabric place, also on Instagram. We run 4 Instagram pages. We also have these pages on Facebook and Youtube as well.”
How did she coin her brand names like Bisbam and Arewa? “Bisbam is a combination of my name and my husband’s name. I am Bisola Bamidele. My surname is Bamidele. And I am Bisola. So, I combine the 2. That is why I put the 2 together as BISBAM”.
“And as for Arewa. I believe all women are pretty. We are all Arewa. When I wanted to start the business, I looked at it, I said if you are beautiful inside then you should be beautiful outside. So, I see all my women from outside as very beautiful. I call all my customers Arewa. Sometimes when they call me Arewa, I will say No. I am not the Arewa, you are the Arewa.”
-Seye Kehinde
