I’m Jean Philippe KOUKO as know as PHIL ROYCE, I was born in DALOA a beautiful city in West Côte d’Ivoire 🇨🇮 in October 30th, 1990. I immigrated in Morocco when I was 23 In 2013 after I dropped the school at 12th grade to find a job and help my mother to pay my brothers cousins and sisters tuitions. Bless Jesus, i did my very best for them until this day, i never regret that choice because it leads me to the job im practicing now : Fashion.
1) Fun facts 😂, when I was in 10th grade, my mother wanted me to be a Judge, me I wanted to be a Lawyer and a businessman but guess what ? My school mates and all my other teachers were telling
« WE SEE YOU AS A MODEL, WE SEE YOU AS A FASHION DESIGNER »
I always refused it because I didn’t knew anything about Fashion, nothing at all but I do remember something my GrandFater who were a Dressmaker told my uncles and aunts « If none of you want to be Dressmaker or a Designer like me, one of your kid will inherit that fashion spirit and will take it far from where I left it ». And it’s what happened exactly. Fashion chosen me. My friends and teachers saw it before me and here I am.
2) In 2014 in Casablanca, Morocco; my love for fashion was born when I see all the big brands I always knew by name with my own eyes, when I discovered the world of Fabrics, leather and how accessories were made. That love grew when I started due to lake of real job opportunities in Morocco to make drop shopping for different clothing and shooes stores (Find the right item, take a picture, show it to my customers, come and buy it and resale it). As my clients list getting longer, I started to develop the eny to make own shoe line, what I started to do in February 2016. That the day PHIL ROYCE was born. The adventure began with my very first collection, it was exclusively Shoes (Slippers and loafer until 2019 when I started to learn about clothing.
3 ) Mmmmm 🙂, the most critical aspect in Fashion industry in my opinion is the absence of real opportunities on the continent, the absence of real plateforms for young fashion designers like me to expose their works, absence of investors and absence of serious buyers. African designers are very very talented but our own people don’t give us the hype we need to explode. We need investors, we need plateforms to show our talents and potentia, we need our people (Africans) to believe in us to make the African Fashion industry shine between the others.
4) Being a Designer … you know, many time in my earlier career, in the very beginning, i’ve been through a lot, so many struggles, so many pain, so many failures, so many frustrations that I was about to give up but that little voice came in my mind and said :
YOU ONLY HAVE THIS JOB, YOU ONLY KNOW MANY FASHION, WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO EXCEPT BEING A DESIGNER ?
Being a designer saved my life, being a designer means the world to me.
5) I’m passionate about writing Music, singing, passionate about coocking and modeling . If I wasn’t a designer, I would like to be a singer or a Model.
6) Continues what my grand-father (May in rest in peace) did back then firstly. Secondly my love for nice clothes, nice shoes and nice craftsmanship inspired me to start a career in fashion industry but most of all SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE (African) can do it do and better than all the others.
7) Being black in fashion business industry can be a obstacle to a fast expansion and growth of your career, being in Africa worser but what you need to know is to believe in the potential of our continent, have faith in all you want, patience, hardworking, the strength, the intelligence, the resilience and most of all BELIEVE IN YOUR OWN TALENT, BE YOUR NUMBER FAN AND PUT GOD FIRST.