Uchechukwu Godswill Nnaji is the Visionary and Creative Director of Nigeria’s foremost Fashion and Lifestyle brand, OUCH. Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, he had his primary and secondary education in Lagos before attending the University of Lagos for a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Uche Nnaji began his journey into the world of fashion, knotting ties and making shirts for fellow students with an unusual touch of style and excellence.
The young UCHE Nnaji after being denied a student visa to the United Kingdom for a Post Graduate Degree, invested his refunded tuition fees which he had saved up from profits of making clothes for fellow student into his passion, by paying for a 12 sq meter store on the back-side of Onigbongbo-Maryland a suburb of Lagos where he had an existing tailoring store. From its first OUCHlet in 2007, the OUCH brand has expanded to include three other Ouchlets in Surulere and Lekki, and today delivers world-class fashion and lifestyle services to a growing clientele comprising of a vast majority of Nigeria’s fashion elites.
The exceptionally talented lifestyle designer has participated in one of fashion’s most prestigious and popular platforms. In February 2010, OUCH alongside other international designers and global fashion labels, took part in the New York Fashion Week at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. At the NYFW, Uche introduced an excited audience to the Platinum Collection range, which is an exclusive OUCH range. The OUCH designs have been on other international fashion shows like the African Fashion Week London in August 2011;where again he introduced the "234 Urban Street-Wear" range to the Nigerian Community in London,from the OUCH Label.
Named as one of the MARA foundation mentors for young africans,The young style entrepreneur who is fondly called the "Style Doctor" by his healthy clientele base and social media followers has also received numerous awards and laurels, which includes The Mode Men 2011 Designer brand of the Year, 2012 Young Entrepreneur of the year and Style Entrepreneur of the Year at The Future Awards in 2009. In 2011, he was named Ambassador for the Center for Values and Leadership (CVL) in acknowledgement of his exemplary leadership. On the 1st of Jan 2012, ThisDay Style; the style section of ThisDay newspaper Nigeria, named this sartorial connoisseur as one of Nigeria's Best-dressed Men in 2011,likewise been named as one of the 25 most stylish men in Nigeria in Mode Men magazine of September 2012. The label has also been on popular Television shows in Africa including West African Idol and Mnet Africa’s Studio 53.
On the global scene, The Style Doctor has been invited as speaker on an entrepreneur panel in Oct 2012 at prestigious Columbia State University in New York. In Sept 2012,he was also invited by the Africa Union to come share his inspiring story and experience at the African Union youth conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he went and represented over 80million Nigerian youths. He enjoys inspiring excellence in youths and is passionate about influencing young people positively and the need to project the right image as he believes 'Working your perception into reality is everything’.
The Style Doctor sees himself as part of the change agents for his generation in moving Nigeria forward, which resulted in an invitation to Abuja in April 2012 by the then Nigerian Minister of Youths and Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, to speak with and inspire Youth corps members.
He was also a speaker at the Youth Economic Empowerment Summit in Asaba Delta State where he spoke to thousands of Nigerian youth. In December of 2013, he was invited by Mr President to the State House where Uche along with 99 other influential Nigerian youth were conferred with the title of "Guardians Of The Future"
As a forefront believer in the Nigerian Fashion and Style industry, The Style Doctor organizes free sessions and mentoring for his peers in fashion business and the creative industries as a whole .
The Style Doctor considers music as his first love, which he proved in 2012 with the launch of his debut music single titled "Call Me", followed by another titles Nwanyi-Oma in which he feat miss Kedike.
The style Doctor enjoys strumming on his bass guitar during spare time, playing billiards, tennis and swimming. He continues to blaze a trail in Nigeria’s emerging and competitive fashion sphere; creating retail Fashion Lifestyle services to an upwardly mobile discerning client base.
The Style Doctor is happily married to beautiful Onyinye and they both live in Lagos.
He is the Stylist for the lead actors in the movie, ENTREAT