LFDW – Bonita Valli

MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week IV

Saturday Night sealed the deal. It was the cherry on top. The icing on the cake. Call it what you will, it was fabulous! Lanre Da Silva Ajayi (LDA) was the final Nigerian female designer on the runway and her show was spectacular. In her true fashion, her collection was wonderfully detailed and very well constructed. Her combination of local and foreign fabrics is always a winner in my humble opinion, and to top it all off, her Nigerian playlist enhanced the ambiance, with the entire audience either on their feet or bopping heads to the beat. Below are a few pictures from her collection as well as that of Emmy Collins, I hope you like….

LDA and IMai Atafo and I

Taiwo Kamson (aka Tkamz) and I.

xXx

Ps: I’m super excited because I might be seeing a really good friend of mine next week!!! Just thought I’d get it out there!!! 😀

MTN Lagos Fashion Design Week III

Last year, Bridget Awosika’s pristine collection was my favourite of the night and this year was no different. It’s official, she and Jewel By Lisa are my favourite Nigerian high end designers and for this reason, I have combined both their collections in this blog post.

Bridget Awosika’s collection enveloped the stereotypical woman: Graceful with a hint of drama; Angelic with a slight complication; Beautiful nevertheless feisty! Her colour palette remained basic, allowing you to focus entirely on the architectural extravagance of each piece, it was breathtaking.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of JBL on the runway, nevertheless, we got a few shots of the stunning pieces backstage. Feast your eyes the below pieces……

xXx

Ps: Jewel By Lisa’s collection ended with Rihanna’s diamonds.. ‘appropriate’ I hear you say considering the highly blinged collection.

Pps: Did I just use the word ‘blinged’? I cringe!!! Lol.

MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week II

I love Grey. All three designers stole my heart last year at this very event. The perfection of their woven pieces was a clear winner encompassing clean structures and femininity. This year however, I must say I was a little let down. Individually, each piece was spectacular as usual, but as a collection I found it less cohesive. I’m no designer and neither am I a stylist so perhaps I’m way out of my bounds, but I felt that although the mens collection was stronger, the ladies collection just needed a bit more of a link, be it with the sheer fabrics, with the meticulous cuts or even with the colour scheme. Below are pictures from their S/S 2013 collection followed by more pictures backstage.

Temi Doll Face closing for Grey

Omer Asim

Bridget Awosika. Flawless pieces as usual.

M.I.

xXx

Ps: Still got even more pictures. Not sure if I can be bothered to upload them now though.

MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week 2012

MTN Lagos Fashion and Design week revisited Eko Hotel this year and I was pleasantly surprised to be invited back. I assumed the same responsibility I held last year (read here) which as you know gives me a chance to get all the backstage action notwithstanding, I have the opportunity to watch the final pieces on the runway.

This year, I was blessed to have a guy called Brian offer to assist me in taking pictures and upon receiving my camera back at the end of the night I was astonished by the impressive job he’d done. Below are pictures from Mi-Le one of my favourite young designers. Her collection comprised of pastel colours and flirty flows, very much to my delight. Below are also some pictures from backstage. Hope you like….

xXx

PS: More pictures to come in the following posts.

Day 4: LFDW

Day 4 was by far the most tasking. I experienced simultaneous feelings of pressure, excitement and rage!!!! I was thrown orders from a hundred different angles and was even sworn at because of a slight hiccup in the flow of the show. Behind the scenes was nothing short of mental and consequently, the entire show ended on a bitter sweet note.

Bridget Awosika was showing on the Saturday and her immaculate collection was was a breath of fresh air! Each piece was a pristine white with delicate criss cross stitches running through the fabrics. Like Jewel By Lisa, she was perfectly happy with me snapping away backstage and so I did. Her collection was an exquisite modern day tale of a dainty goddess and I was captivated by her choice of fabrics and particularly the nature of her two piece ensembles. Without a doubt, this was my favourite of the night.

Anita Quansah’s presentation was fascinating. She had her models break dance as the lights flashed and even had a model come out in a white cloth before revealing her final piece. It told of a story of a bejewelled woman amidst a forest of expensive adornments each one of course to the desire of my jewellery box. Definitely the most innovative show of the 4 days.

Here are pictures of the final day at the MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week…

Chic minimalism from Bridget Awosika

Isn’t that just precious?

Makida during the fittings for Bridget Awosika

The Saturday show was packed!!!!! I take no credit for the above picture. Bridget and Chika.

Anita Quansah

The final model for Anita Quansah came out wrapped in a white cloth…

The model then dropped the white cloth revealing this daring piece. It drove the photographers crazy!!! It was fantastic! By the way, I take no credit for the above picture.Odio Mimonet

Chika (Elite model) and I

Darrell (wearing a hat), Michael, Jenny (on the phone), Michael (green shirt), Andie (black lace top) and me! In short, me and Andie with the Blow PR team!

xXx

Ps: I really ought to learn how to edit my photos. Lol

Day 2: LFDW

Day 2 was off to a good start. Once again I showed up on time and began assisting Ify from Kiki Kamanu as she was getting the fitting sorted for their show on the Saturday. Kiki herself showed up later in the day and seemed to have taken a liking for me. I even assisted her with styling one of her models and if you know what I’m like (but more importantly what Kiki’s like) you’ll appreciate that this was a big deal for me!

Typically Nigerian, designers showed up around 5:00pm- when the show was due to start- and once again the show was delayed for roughly two and a half hours but what did we all expect right?

Maki Oh and Sunny Rose were featuring on the runway for Day 2 and I have to admit they were my favourites of the night.

Model run through.

Adeola in Grey. Me in Gap.

Adeola in Grey

As the press arrived

Before the show started I bumped into an old friend from secondary school, Shamo! She was working with Sunny Rose.

Journalists

I do not take credit for the following pictures. Here are my favourites from Maki Oh!

There’s something about the minimalist shoes that I love! And they go so well with the minimalist outfit too!

Once again I take no credit for these pictures, but here are my favourites from Sunny Rose.

xXx

Ps: Can you believe that while the show was on, some random girl came over to the DJ’s plug (she had been charging her phone there) and pulled out her phone charger along with entire sound in the hall. I was in shock. My jaw was on the floor.

Day 1: MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week

Style House Files presented the first Lagos Fashion and Design Week sponsored by MTN. The show ran from Wednesday the 26th to Saturday the 29th and seeing as I was interning backstage as well as front house for the duration of the event, I experienced a lot of drama and was under immense pressure.

Leading up to the event, I had showed up late at a briefing with Blow London, the PR team in charge of the event. This is because until the very last minute, I was uninformed about the time and date of the briefing. You can only imagine my fury to find that not only was I the last person to get there, but I was also the only one that was informed at the very last minute. All eyes were on me as I walked in and all talk about punctuality appeared to be directed towards me solely. From then on, I made up my mind that I’d do everything in my power to alter this perception.

On Wednesday the 26th we were all to arrive at the venue, Eko Hotel, at 9:00am prompt, however I showed up at 8:30am and my plan was already in full swing. Michael B from Blow PR told me just how impressed he was with my punctuality and as a result, I was made the coordinator of all interns backstage. Equipped with a walkie talkie and clipboard I started assigning interns to the various design teams.

Right before the show started, I was told that I’d be working front house as well as backstage as I would be calling the show assisted by John backstage, Ola the sound technician, Dada the lighting technician and Jenny, Darrell and Micheal the front house team. As you can imagine it was manic, there was tons of pressure and communication was key.

Nevertheless, I pulled off the job and still managed to get a good view of the show. I must say, I was particularly impressed by Phunk Afrique’s Collection. The splash of colour, the feminine maxi’s and the chiffon were all objects of my wardrobe fantasy.

My backstage Pass