Kemi Telford was created by Yvonne Modupe Telford in 2017. Yvonne was born and raised in Kano, Nigeria and she arrived in England in 1996. Her journey into the fashion business started when she started blogging and people kept asking her, “Where did you get that outfit?” Like many Nigerians, her clothes were hand-tailored one-offs. Despite having no formal training in the fashion industry, Yvonne decided to create two skirts using bold wax prints that she grew up seeing women in Nigeria wear.