parents by choice’ Jean-Guy and Colette Mercan and Alain and Bernadeatte
Jougla. Thanks also to Alexandre Fabre and Jean-Laurent Louis of Adexen
Paris for lending me your office so many times; to Neil for the illustration
ideas and advice. And to talented fashion photographer, Sara White Wilson
for making me presentable in the back-cover photo. Kisses to Jean-Pierre and
Ambroise Evano, thank you for your enthusiasm and support. It made a big
difference!
To Alexandra Dawe and the inspiring team at Palgrave Macmillan, this is
saying ‘Cheers’ to all the hard work. Thanks for believing in this project and
for taking a chance with me! I look forward to the future.
A big THANK YOU to my darling mother, to whom this book is dedicated
and from whom I learnt all the fundamentals about fashion and business. And
to my father and brothers and sisters for the incessant love and support espe-
cially my lovely sister Uju, my proof-reader (although she dozed off behind
the scripts sometimes!) and ideas girl (if this book is boring, it’s her fault!).
Finally but most importantly, I thank God, for giving me the foresight to
begin writing this book and the energy to actually complete it.UCHEOKONKWOxx
acknowledgements