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Fashion & Design

As the old saying goes “Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder", whoever said that got it right. It really depends what ones culture considers Fashion, Design or Beauty.

African Beauty is natural. Africans have always looked beautiful and have had their own make up and herbal products for centuries. For instance, bathing soap existed in Egypt centuries before many others knew about it. The early Romans smeared themselves with olive oil, scrapped it off, and then dipped their bodies, en mass, in a bath the size of a pool and that was it.

Fashion & Design has been at the forefront in Kenya long before independence. The popular Beauty Pageant Miss Kenya had its inaugural contest during "Uhuru" Independence Day on December 12th 1963. Since then, Beauty Pageants and naturally talented Models, Male & Female have walked the "Cat Walk" with sheer elegance and class.

The Pioneers of Fashion in Kenya, Ms Evelyn Mungai and June Mbuthia did their best to groom many Kenyans in the world of Fashion & Beauty as did African Heritage in Nairobi and Toto Toto Industries of Bombululu, Mombasa.

Hair Design went hand in hand with Fashion & Beauty. Hair Stylists, Ms Salma Parmar, of the famous and probably the only Hair College at that time , ‘Kenya School of Hair Dressing’ on Kenyatta Avenue, groomed hundreds for occasions and Styled Hair of most if not all of our pioneer Models at that time. Today's celebrity Hair Stylist Farook Jannedy and Tariku have kept up with the Trend and contributed significantly to the ever creative images of the Kenya Hair Styles.

Kenya’s first generation Models, the likes of Bertha Chandrana, Laila Khan, and Mildred Owiti graced our Cat Walks with classic Kenyan Designs with the famous Kitenge & Khanga prints. Later Kenya saw the elegant Iman and Khadija Adam, a former Miss Kenya who became the first Kenyan to win the coveted ‘Miss Africa’ Title, stepping on to the Cat Walks of the world and gracing Fashion Magazine covers internationally, becoming celebrity Super Models.

Organisations such as International Distillers, makers of ‘Smirnoff’ initiated the National Annual ‘Smirnoff Fashion Awards’, thus creating the urge and need for young, gifted and talented Fashion and Hair Designers to work harder to come up with creative Designs to win the ‘Coveted’ Award.  

Statistics say that Kenyans, especially the ladies spend a fortune on Fashion, Hair Design and Beauty.

In this page our Fashion, Beauty and Hair Design ‘Guru’ will be looking at various aspects of this Elegant Field with regular updates and analysis to keep you in touch with the Fashions of Kenya and across the Continents.

Anyone in this trade is welcome to make any contributions to our site. Just send your articles and photographs, including events to the Fashion, Beauty and Hair Design ‘Guru’ at bigq.unlimited@yahoo.co.uk ©

  

 



Road to Stardom
Friday, 06 February 2009

Kenyan model Doris Kwaka realizing her dream at the home of Fashion, Italy.

22-year old Kenyan model Doris Kwaka, a familiar face with Italian wine lovers has achieved just that. As the face behind a popular brand of red wine, Barolo, Doris steps onto the international scene that had likes of Khadija Adam & super model Iman as the pioneers of Kenyan models on international catwalks.

She appears with Lessos or shukas a kind of shawl popular at the coast donned with beaded Masai necklace with matching head gear as she sips her Barolo. Doris’s complexion and personality caught the eye of an agent and was soon recruited in 2007.during during a beauty pageant in Italy she was outstanding and judges dubbed her looks ‘exotic’.

Originally from the lakeside town of Kisumu, she did a diploma in tours & travel and studied Italian as foreign language before landing a job with an Italian tour company.“The company sponsored her to further her expertise of the Italian language in Italy and the rest is history.Doris is quick to emphasize that maintain such a face and physique one has to be disciplined and committed.

 Her diary is spilt between Italy and Africa and she loves it.She has something for the many aspiring African models, opportunities are plenty for black models its just the break through we have to get, but please do not make a blind rush as there are plenty of cowboys around. It is important to check credentials of agents.

CorrespondentFar) 
 
Miss East Africa UK, visits Buckingham Palace
Tuesday, 27 November 2007

 

 

Miss East Africa UK at Buckingham Palace, more soon
 
Miss Kenya UK 2006 to Grace Fashion Extravaganza
Wednesday, 04 April 2007

Story By: Topi Lyambila  

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An elegant fashion event is in the offing mid-April featuring Young and upcoming Fashion designers parading their stock for 2007.   Among the attendees and possible models will be the 2006 Miss Kenya UK Carolina Nyakila who has of late been the centre of attraction at several charitable events in and around London.

The Big Show this April and so far the talk of the Town in London is the, “Celebration of Young Fashion Designers” due to be held at the Cockpit Theatre on Gateforth Street, London. Event organizer Joanna Marcella said “This will be an occasion to celebrate multi-cultural design excellence, featuring among other stage acts, the ‘Radical Designer Award’ to celebrate Young Design Excellence.” The fashion event set for Saturday 14th April, has been dubbed as a show of inspiration, motivation and networking which aims to raise the profile of exceptionally gifted young fashion designers from multi-cultural backgrounds in the fashion industry, featuring 20 of the hottest new faces in the fashion world.

Elsewhere the African Diaspora Beauty Queens were making news of their own as they came together to introduce a new networking forum among themselves. The Beauty Queens and Professional Models Networking dinner was a pioneering idea for a joint African Beauty Group.

Talking to us, Miss Kenya UK 2006 Carolina Nyakila, said, “We want to learn from each other and support each other in our working lives. You realise that most Beauty Queens are young students or just employed and have to face a very critical period in their lives as they have to appear at public functions to promote their selected charities and still pursue their personal goals in life. This can be daunting and that is why it was thought that this meeting of like minds could initiate a support group not only for those who are already there, but for those aspiring to be either Beauty Queens or Models.”

The event was held on March 16th at a prestigious Africa Restaurant in Hendon North, West London. The dinner-cum-networking idea was the brain child of International PR Practitioner and Publisher, Abiodun Ade Bamidele in conjunction with Justina Mutale of Perryfield Promotions – the organisers of Miss Zambia UK Beauty Pageant, and was also attended by a horde of African Beauty Queens.

Among the glamorous attendees was Miss Kenya UK – Carolina Nyakila, the 1st Princess of Southern Africa –Eunice, Miss Zambia UK – Flavia, along with professional models Ndaya Mussimi - a trader/model, Sam - a singer/model, as well as Soni and Navinya.  Speaking at the event, Carolina said, “I think this is a positive way forward; I have met very good people from different backgrounds who I hope will attend my fundraising events in future.”

Organiser Justina reckoned this is a stepping stone towards uniting African Beauties to work together towards enhancing their profiles in the competitive world of glamour modelling. Also in attendance was Nigerian business tycoon Chief Stanley Ayanwu.

 
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