Diary Extract: AMFW report BY D.O.A

The annual fashion extravaganza which is the Arise magazine fashion week, once again held this year but this time it was bigger and in some sort better.. It consisted of 77designers from 6 continents and took place from the 6th-11th March,2012. I was lucky enough to work backstage this year with other fellow fashion enthusiasts like me. A week i thought would be a walk in the park turned out to be one of the most stressful yet fulfilling week of my life,right from day 1 to day 7 brought a new challenge.. Getting the job wasn't so easy, i had to go through one of the toughest interviews ever by uber stylist Bolaji Animashaun. Before that day i used to think i knew everything i needed to know in or about fashion from names of luxury brands to names of famous faces from fashion campaigns, but when she started asking me questions i totally went blank, the famous fashion encyclopedia went blank, it was as if my whole brain froze, i was stammering through almost all the questions but i gradually found my feet and did surprisingly well..

The show was delayed for 2days due to some technical issues. Rumour has it that some models complained about being underpaid compared to their international counterparts..
Speaking of the models, up until the fashion show i had always under-estimated the average Nigerian model and thought us being who we are there wouldn't be a lot of people interested in the field, i was greatly mistaken. During the casting, girls of various shapes and sizes trooped to the venue with the hope of being casted, even the obvious plus-sized models wore mean facial expressions and strutted like they were size 2 models.

I applied to be an assistant stylist but my duty evolved from that to dresser,runner,steamer (look them up if you have no clue what they mean..lol) and all sorts.. I worked with about 10 other young individuals who had the same passion and drive as I did. We did all the running around backstage, from stitching ripped designer dresses, to running errands for the production manager, making sure each designer had enough models to showcase their collection, steaming every single piece of clothing in the designer's collection, dressing all the models before they hit the runway which is usually a mental phase and chaotic especially if the shoes for the models are not sorted then and there before they get to the line up section to get on the runway . I always had to keep a straight face when dressing models, you can't be caught drooling on the job (lol.)
While working,we had to make sure we didn't miss dinner because there were days we'd work all day without having breakfast or lunch, dinner was what we looked forward to having as our reward for the day's job.

We were given tags during the fashion week to enable us move from tent to tent without being questioned by the security men. However, some individuals mis used theirs and we were punished for it. Our tags were taken from us,we then had to work extra hard to get them back so we could access the different tents we were to shuttle between. Our tags also served as a permit to get lunch & dinner.
There was a new rule with regards to our tags everyday we got to the production tent to work, we had to keep up with their demands.

In between the job some of us would sneak into the main show to see the result of all our labour backstage. With the madness, the whole experience is something i would do again in a heartbeat. My eyes have been opened to what i really want to become in life. I got talking with some of the designers i learnt about their own stories and how they broke into the business and became big brands in their countries. Their stories have served as useful tips for me.

In all of these, I enjoyed the experience a great deal and Yes, i got paid. :)

by
ADEYEMI ADEDAMOLA.