Korto Momolu: Bags for Dillards

A finalist on project runway season 5, Korto, an amazing Liberian designer is a testament of success to struggling African immigrants everywhere. Her line of accessories for Dillard’s is being launched in february, while in march she opens at the New York fashion week. Finally, fashion has come to the mall. Read the original post!

Love,

The princess.

Cheap shots

After hours and hours of editing, here are the final results of tamika’s shoot!

This set is some of my finest work yet. This was my chance to go above and beyond, showing what I was made of technically, in terms of color and light. I think I succeeded. I could not have done the shoot without Madai, amazing makeup artist, or robin and Mel my trusty grips. GIRL TEAM GO!!!!!

Later that night we rewarded ourselves with a shoot of the crew (me not included until i can afford a good tripod)!The pictures were dark and blurry but I did get one cool shot of each one of them and messed around with them. Here are the results with a brief explanation included!!!!!! As usual let me know what you think!! It’s been a nine months since I first owned an SLR with manual settings. What a way to celebrate a great gift. Thanks to Ben and Nick of course!

love,

the princess, far away from home.

Pics just in: Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Edgar Wright is back!! and with a bang, only this time his (what the e-zines are calling) slacker-hero is Micheal Cera. Here are some pics from edgar wright’s flickr, and with Empire Magazine’s version of this story. In related news, Brandon Routh, last seen in epic fail (imo) Superman is back as part of the cast. I haven’t read this comic book but Edgar W is the answer. Seriously. He’s great. Enough.

Before we get Michael Cera’d out, go see Youth in Revolt. It’s pretty darn good and a hella funny. Seriously. Especially if you’ve been stuck in a middle of nowhere town before or have ever been a teenager.

Love,

The Princess.

Photoshop diary

I often wondered how they did the springy look for the dolce and gabbana campaigns. Somehow I figured it out. Channel mixers! My new best friend. I’m on my way to owning a magazine! or at least, editting one. I hope, in the not too far future.

Stay warm,

the kenyan princess.

Silhouettes: Part 1 of my online exhibit

Check out one of the sets on my Flickr page. This album/sets that I named Silhouettes is a collection of pictures some taking in high contrast days and some in natural low light to produce two-dimensional figures depicting different ideas from amazing models- AKA- friends of mine.

This is part of a collection of pictures I chose to express the growth I have experienced this year as a self-taught photographer. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Happy holidays from the Kenyan princess.

The shemagh/keffiyeh: another example of what may or has come to historically significant heritage

If you’re expecting objectivity I cannot promise to comply. Look to my links to provide different views. I present my own. I have seen this happen too often.

This scarf, I noticed for the first time I arrived in new york. It shocked me that so many teenage glam heads had heard of Palestine. Considering the US’ position on its conflict with Israel, I wondered how so many that were ’spotting the trend’, were actually, as it is sometimes claimed, rebelling against the war in Iraq (what?). But that’s exactly it. It’s not the scarf-hat, it’s the print. I only recently realised my error, that the scarves I had seen were parodies. This spring, you will see them in technicolor! As this scarf has gone global in such a manner I would like to point out what different views it has given rise to.  I would like to direct you all to blogs that have done better research than I have, like this one, which covers pretty much all the different arguments why hipsters all over the world are wearing it. It also has information about the different colours and what region they represent. I don’t claim to know whether this is accurate or not. I will rely on feedback. I had no idea Urban outfitters had it and then pulled it because their skinny, white model wearing it and the tag ‘the antiwar scarf’ were offensive (no doubt to parties with opposing views).

Sound familiar? Think of a time, walking into nakumatt junction in nairobi, when you see the sign ‘kikoy’…

Think of a time when you had discovered che guevara, loved him and hated him, unsure of his motive and yet curious; then seeing his face plastered on peoples chests who didnt even know his name.  I just think that it is time we all knew what we were representing and donned representative artefacts with knowledge and respect, or not at all depending on what we feel about what they represent, as well as what they actually do! On a lighter note, if I knew that slipknot was a band and not just a cool looking sign, I wouldnt have worn that hoodie everyday for two weeks to Daystar!

This blog, has teenagers from england speaking out against wearing the scarf without a clue, with some additional interesting comments (kids are growing up too fast).

This is an image from digg, of mccain’s daughter wearing one.

This is an article about how factories in palestine that produced this important part of their history and heritage have shut down and are in danger of completely going out of business.

May symbols of the history of a nation, those which were the foundations on which they were built and that remind them of home, be not forgot by at least one, that he or she may come back and tell the story that it may live on.

Framed! An essay on my new affair.

If you sit in the same spot long enough, you will get some surprising shots. That’s what I love about photography, especially without retouching or staging. So this is what these are, in order of preference starting with the fifth in placement.

What got me into it was the love of those moments in which you catch people half-unaware, in surreal or, should I say, superreal moments. It’s beautiful. And so, I want to share some of those pictures with you. But first, how is it related to fashion in nairobi? I dont know. It’s related to me. Nairobi Street Glamour is part of my definition. It’s a part of where I’m from and what I represent.
The first is a picture I took of a latin/reggae band that had a song in Swahili! during a concert that was raising awareness about Palestine. I love the movement in this picture.

Another picture from the 5k. It speaks for itself, once again. The artist awakens from the dream that life is and once again sees people in three dimensions, as walking living beings with stories of their own, just like yours. This is instead of the normal 2-d images that a first impression can be. Which is why there are pretty faces and models. Models are supposed to create these kinds of moments. They are actors and their medium is the snapshot. They have to create a moment that will never end. A paradox yes, but which is why I am able to respect the profession enough to be even more excited about my venture.

This is a picture I took during a 5k run in a
beautiful park, tucked away like a secret in the
suburbs. Everyone had a different emotion, most of the runners who were exhausted to the point of pain. For these young walkers, though cuteness was totally not what they were going for, it was captured nonetheless because it was so, like, there. Who could set up this kind of openness?

This one is of friends of mine at a wedding we attended. They were messing around comletely oblivious of me, but thankful after they saw the pic. My favorite really.

Hopefully, having people as subjects more often will improve my skills as I believe I have the eye for it at least, and the unobtrusive aura. As for my winning shot, this is it.

Number one of five, although not of people, was taken in a moving car right as the sun was setting. Awsm right? That’s what I thought too. It feels superreal because the image shows itself and I get to keep it.

Disclaimer: The models in these pics have not signed released forms with me, so do not copy the pictures unless they are of you. I do not support or condone it and anyone distributing is doing them at their own risk. I claim the right of the picture taker.

Fashion is expressing yourself.

‘Kimathi found inspiration not only in the culture and visual imagery of Africa but from his adopted city as well.

“I saw the individual sense of style that everybody was not afraid to express,” he says. “That’s one thing I love about New York more than any other city in the world is that people just go with what they feel. And I believe that’s what fashion is: Fashion is expressing yourself.”‘

-nydailynews.com

Living and working in a “free state of expression” lead the creators to their latest line of custom-made ‘hoodies,’ allowing buyers to communicate their personal style and source of pride. As explained by the designer, Twerandu, they “allow customers to subtly and stylishly speak messages that showcase the vibrancy and diversity of the African continent”.

-jamati.com
Jeff Kimathi, Jamhuri Wear.

This is what this blog is about. All i can think of is who is the Kenyan now, or East African, or African? I think we can safely push back the whole post colonial label and move forward into the future. Shall we abandon the suit and don the boldly printed shift? Shall we wear the africanist teeshirts to work? As limiting as this third style option is, one cannot deny that it has filled the ravine of a cultural divide that is the four generations now living, of Africans all over the world and best of all, given the 3rd and 4th generation africans, so far away from their post colonial parents, an identity of their own. While gene kelly was tapping his twinkle toes, and maryline monroe was gracing magazines…we were fighting a war for our freedom, that came at a price so heavy that only lifted in this decade. Now that we have felt the winds of change I propose a toast, to innovation and to the future. May africa be the new avante garde.

Think of the mama from coast who, subject to the heavily patriarchal society, takes to the leso, choosing the one with the proverb that best suites her ethic or opinion. Think of how widespread the use of the leso is by the woman, beyond any sociopolitical or economic bounds other than those of eastern africa.
Think of the kenyan man above the age of forty that will wear nothing but a suit and tie, all week long, regardless of the weather.
Think of the high school girl, leaving home in large outerwear and getting to her destination and changing clothes. Two years later, getting into college, and thinking it is sexy, wearing an unintelligable rag to cover only the essentials to go out drinking with strangers.
Think of the woman or man who has dropped their ‘colonial’ name and wears nothing but kitenge shirts or dreadlocks and kaftans.

We could find fault with any of them, and yet, they are all of us. Each of them reacting in their own way, but each of them solving a problem unseen by the rest of us judging majority as it were.

The man in the suit, growing up feeling like they had to prove themselves all the time.
The kitenge couple feeling like they abandoned or involuntarily lost their ‘culture’.
The dreadlocked artists, many of them my friends, sick of having to bear insecurities caused by trying to be anything other than who we are, physically.
The college girl, always wondering if the boys she thinks are attractive, think that she is attractive,but overdoing it to hide her vulnerability.

These are not complete examples or complete assessments. Just an attempt to make a point.

Everyone of us has a story, some of us want to tell it, others do without realising it. Our eyes, windows to the soul for those on the outside looking in, while for us, just the tool with which we make the first of a series of decisions. We cannot deny the power of sight, perception, impressions…Clothes, have to wear them. Might as well have fun with them right?

This is a piece my brother did, following the post-election violence.

Textiles: Before the garment.

Warning: The material you are about to view, is of a medium texture and weight.

Cotton lint goes through spinning to produce yarn. Considering the limelight is on American politics, reading this line made me smile. Anyway, if you have watched the videos posted by the opposing campaigns, and listened to the speeches, or have journalistic tendencies, then you will, maybe, find that line to be more than the, at first glance, mundane that it seems to be.

The purpose of this blog was led by the Cape Town Fashion Week showing of blah designers whose merchandise belonged in Nairobi Sports House, picking up dust in a corner, and one duo that called themselves Lalesso. These are some fabulous girls from south africa that met while in school in kenya, that just adored the leso and decided to make a label based on it and use nothing but lesos to make their first line of clothing and the basis of their company. A year ago, I was on myspace letting everyone know that the company, Kikoy, was patenting the name, which is kenyan history, and that the government put up a short lived and lacklustre fight and let them have it. This company’s signature ad campaign poster is a skinny white girl in kikoi pants. Years ago we were fighting japan after they patented the kiondo. It is now a popular accessory in america as a kind of ‘africa print’ revolution. Of course watered down to the basics, as is alot of cultural fadism here, but I dont blame anyone for that, but our lack of foresight and appreciation for what is ours and basic information acts protecting what is historically ours.

EPZ has information online about the history of the textile industry. Granted the information is latest, from 2004, but is still useful in guaging its position, and the potential of the apparel industry. According to their website, agriculture forms 24% of the Kenya’s gdp, over 50% of our export income and that 75% of kenyans rely on it for their subsistence. Information many of us have on our fingertips, nevertheless, a necessary preamble to my second blog.

EPZ is the lead exporter of textiles and apparel from Kenya. I have actually bought items from walmart (on sale!) that were labeled ‘made in kenya’. I worked at Kencall, which is housed in one of the EPZ warehouses in industrial area. Everyday at 1pm I would go for my lunch, same time as the factory workers, and leave at 6pm with them. Can you imagine what that means for a simple wannabe enterpreneur like myself? Hundreds of talented seamstresses walking by, not considering a fashion career…

I think of all the historically significant textiles that we have, the khanga, leso, kikoy; all originating from the coast, but that have slowly transformed into something of a very east african thing. This is not including the beautiful wax cloth (provide a name someone please!) from west africa, and the lately popularised burlap, that have been and will be featuring more and more in daily life. It excites me so much that for a moment, I feel like I am its inventor.

I look at all the new textile innovations inspired by a detail in the design process a great designer could not achieve without having to go back to their mills and mix silks and cottons, or different grades of the same thing. Innovation in the textile industry is not something I had heard of until I paid attention to New York Fashion Week, and those that followed. Many of the designers are photographers and artists. Interesting how fashion design is greatly a craft, but requires so much of the eye. In that regard, I took these pictures, that you see, which I fully intend to translate into some fluid or sheer material in the spirit of textile innovation, in the hope that it will generate greater potential of the industry. The pictures were taken at a nearby park, and are not the only ones of their kind that I have taken, on water. The second more suitable in terms of colour, for a ready to wear item.

Full information on the textile industry can be got from the website, http://www.epzakenya.com/UserFiles/File/ApparelTextile.pdf, where I got some of my facts from.
Check out the Cape Town Fashion Week featuring Lalesso at http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/show.aspx/full-length-photos/id,6985.

I just felt it would be important to get into textiles because it is a great part of our history, and only now is its presence being felt. Mostly in weddings…but translatable. Which is what we’ll get into next.

Welcome to NSG

It’s been a long year.

We’ll come to that yet. To start with I am so proud to finally start my blog page, which has purpose and a life yet lived. This will be the host site for my budding fashion company, and for my portfolio, which will mostly include my designs but not real models for I as yet know any. At least, am far away from those I know and would love to use.

I intend to eventually begin a website but not without content. This is my way of building that content. So, welcome to the nsg page and hope you will love what it is about.

Nairobi is where I grew up. I am infused with all of it’s culture and style. Nairobi is to Africa, what America is to Europe, culturally speaking. Our mannerisms reflect our culture, but to disseminate what is ours or not is where the debate is always found. Is it african or ”western”? Who knows. As far as I have experienced and from information gathered from observation, books, old videos, verses, songs, tell me that we still have pre-colonial africanness, and that though some of our manners call to england in the late 19th and early 20th century culture and society, that beyond that, and in the age of information and technology, something else has been born in the midst of the confusion. A new certainty, a new africa. We have arisen from the ashes of lost culture and language. We have looked back with regret and forward with fear or anticipation. The current generation looks at the present, living in every moment, sure of our africanness, aware of our westernness. Truly proud of who we are, we march forward to our success in our kenya flag teeshirts, learning sheng and finding solutions for our own, local challenges. We are found.

This is what Nairobi Street Glamour is about, well, in three yards of cloth and some accessories, as well as art, thought, speech, design. Nairobi Street Glamour is about the 3rd generation kenyan. We have found our voice. Im just one soprano in the mass choir. My melody is fashion. Tuonane CBD.

Asante.

Monica Buyaki.