What Do You Do With the Guinness World Record-breaking Garment With the Longest Sleeves?

After earning a Guinness Book of World Record for creating the garment with the longest sleeves, Samuel Chinecherem Ezeh is eager to show off his creation to others.

The Nigerian fashion designer would like to take the robe on a multi-city tour with the help of a sponsor or funding. The 27-year-old’s finished product has sleeves that are each 51.2 meters long. Fully extended, the creation exceeds the height of the Statue of Liberty or the length of an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Ezeh, who is studying at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University in Nigeria, started his own fashion brand there five years ago. He broke the record on Feb. 28 by creating the garment in three hours and eight minutes. The design required more than 62 yards of jalabiya — two yards for the body and 60 yards for the sleeves. It also requires the assistance of several other individuals to stand several feet apart holding up the sleeves from the ground.

The designer’s task was so intensive that the needle on the first sewing machine that he was using broke so he had to use a backup sewing machine. After a period of time, the needle on the second sewing machine broke, but a pack of replacement needles were found to enable Ezeh to get back to work.

In order to take on the record-breaking challenge, he wound up having to cover 70 percent of the cost, due to a lack of sponsors. Now he is eager to travel around the world to show it off. “I cannot do that myself because I don’t have the funds now. If I can get support, I would love to,” he said.

While some might wonder why anyone would want to create the garment with the longest sleeves, Ezeh said, “As someone from Africa, so many people don’t know what Africans can do. I just wanted to do something that would make the world know me and that being a fashion designer is also what I do for a living. I also wanted to create an impact to make people, especially youngsters, understand that you can become somebody with fashion. From being an ordinary apprentice, you can go on so that the world will see you.”

Ezeh said that his lifelong support has come from Christopher Orji, who took care of him from the time he was 3 months old until he was 11 years old, due to his mother not initially having the means to care for him. Once she was on better ground, Ezeh started living with her again at the age of 11. During his upbringing, Ezeh learned and practiced tailoring for several years in Orji’s workshop “to be perfect to an extent,” he said.

The designer has a walk-in store in his production space in Nigeria. Shoppers also contact him via Instagram to buy his clothes, which are made under the brand name Eco Collection World of Beauty and include shirts, caftans, trousers and pants for women and men.

When researching his challenge, Ezeh said he discovered that no one has attempted to create a garment with sleeves that were more than 50 meters long. That piqued his interest. He said, “I am the first person to break this particular record, I brought it into existence.”

Other fashion-related Guinness World Records include the most models featured in a fashion show, which was the 430-person one produced by You Night Events, Positive Image Modeling, and Chic Nouvelle Worldwide Model Management in New Orleans in 2022. And at 30 hours, the longest fashion show was organized by The Blossom Charity in Ipswich, U.K., in 2017.