ARISE FASHION WEEK 2018: SPONSORS’ INTERVIEW CONTD
Amidst all the fashion frenzy backstage, we caught up with one of Nigeria’s leading model scout to get an insight into the model selection process for the Arise Fashion Week. What was it like casting models (both local and international) for the Arise Fashion Week 2018?
Arise fashion week 2018 has been a whole new experience for me, although I have worked with the team in it’s past editions, 2018 brought on new challenges and responsibilities. Casting models locally is my specialty, sometimes I see more than 1500 models on our regular castings at the agency so i am quite familiar with that aspect, however casting for international models was more tasking, as I had to be sure I was bringing in the right girls for the show, stunning, striking girls who fit the purpose of the show.
All in all, we pulled off a great show, so we obviously did a good job at the casting as we had the perfect set of models for the show. Take me through the selection process; did you meet the designers before the casting process to get a better idea of what they’re looking for?
No we didn’t, we already had a picture of the kind of girls we wanted for the show, Tall, edgy and stunning girls and these kinds of girls can sell any designers outfit. The perfect human mannequins, the designers were impressed with our selections.
At The first stage of the casting, models were screened out at the casting entrance based on their height, the next stage they were screened based on their looks and charisma, we wanted fresh vibrant young girls and the final selection stage was based on their walk and carriage. Afterwards models were categorized into sub groups to fit the various designers. What were some of the challenges you experienced and how did you overcome them?
The number of models we had to manage, that was a major challenge but we overcame. Managing 30 people and getting them to be at a particular place is hectic, talk more of over 150 people from different backgrounds, with different attitudes and see things differently but all in all it was great cause it all came together in the end.. What was your highlight of the show? Laughs – There’s no shame in this, my major high- light was seeing Naomi Campbell walk the runway effortlessly and also getting to take a picture with her even though I looked really exhausted, I am a fan girl for Naomi.
The arise fashion week runway was beautiful, I loved Ozwald’s collection he’s such an amazing talented man.
Also, some models got really lucky, getting scouted right at their job, we had a lot of international press, media, scouts and agency representatives, it’s amazing the number of undiscovered talent’s we have here, hence i am actually putting together a model convention later this year, everyone should watch out, it just might be you! From your observation, what do you think is unique about the Nigerian modeling industry?
The modeling industry in Nigeria is growing; we are not where we used to be 5 years ago or even last year. At the moment we are actually in the spotlight, the likes of Mayowa Nicholas, Victor Ndigwe , Davidson Obbenebo and other Nigerian talents have put us in the forefront and now a lot of international agencies have realized that there’s a lot of talent to be discovered over here.