Who Are You Wearing? – by Chiamaka Nnachi

Chiamaka Nnachi is the creative director of Ahmaka Afrik, and a fashion illustrator. She organized the first ever fashion show in Abakaliki, the Ai Fashion Show. In this piece, she opined on the agelong query every red carpet attendee is faced with at every event in Nigeria which is already becoming a cliche and too predictable of virtually every presenter.

Africa in its raw form is the thesaurus of art and culture, with east meeting west, traditional interestingly meeting modern cuts and patterns like never before on every red carpet event.  I attended a runway event barely prepared on a very short notice. As usual, a jean and polo perfectly suiting my tomboy attitude never gets me disappointed. I dashed out with a little make-up on, a pair of comfy sneakers and of course my wig. I felt a certain way as soon as I arrived at the venue. Lol, “clothes maketh a man”, fashion enthusiasts would always say and in Nigeria we never joke around with red carpet events as everybody automatically becomes a “SLAYER” by default on such occasions. Now “WHO ARE YOU WEARING” is the big and most asked question everyone now looks out for on the red carpet.

Everyone had something to say about A Couture, B Apparel, C Styling, shoes by D-footie’s, hair by E looks and so on with a lot of luxury expressions and then it hit me that I knew nothing about where my jean evolved from. Well, we never let our guard down in the fashion industry and so before the big question of “who are you wearing” was popped by the ravishing host who gazed at me with a certain thought of “are you part of this event” kinda look. I had to quickly cook up something and please don’t ask me what. Lol.

Truth is, the idea behind the question is a platform to create a certain showbiz kind of awareness and promote fashion brands who are doing amazingly well to the target audience but I think the paparazzi can pay more attention to how comfortable do you feel in your outfit, would you have preferred something different, does the colour perfectly suit your skin tone or why did you go for the brand you are wearing which will lead us to a more intriguing replies.

The big question has become more of a cliché that everyone now struggles to impress the camera with loud brand names which may not even exist forgetting to pay close attention to what actually suits them.

Ahmaka.Afrik