Story By: Topi Lyambila  

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.