Hope your weekend went well. I need to blog more. I have so much to talk about and share. Instagram is to blame seriously it's so easy. Snap, upload, caption. Shikena. Makes for a lazy blogger.
Some time early October I think, I got a call from the Eve and Tribe team to style and direct a campaign they had in mind. As a stylist I'm always on the move, mostly driving myself from one designer showroom to another, client fitting to impromptu meetings. I was in the middle of my day driving as usual when I got a call from the head designer, she spoke briefly about what it was they wanted, when they wanted to shoot, and here's the thing when I get a call like this, I never respond immediately cos of the singular fact that I never know which day of the week it is at any point in time hence I cannot state my availability at that moment. Honest truth.
So I say I'll ring you back. They needed an urgent response so I park, check my Calender, my schedule in the coming week is pretty tight and I don't know want to do. The Eve and tribe team, I really like, so I rearrange my schedule, make a few calls, apologies here and there and i call back to arrange a briefing.
This just simply means a brainstorming session where you present your ideas in theory with pictorial references, the client does same and at the end of the day everyone agrees on a theme in terms of styling, co-ordination, models, props, everything. Depending on what the task at hand is, this is the point where the client leaves you bored to death or full of excitement for the job. Thankfully the latter was the case.
Moving on to a not so cool story.
Prior to shoot day, we didn't get to meet one of the models. We had to rely on pictures from her portfolio, well on the day of the shoot, I see the model and she looks nothing like her photos. The makeup artist says oh let's be done with the makeup, you'll see her face... Etc and I just wasn't comfortable. It wasn't even about the model being pretty or not cos she was alright. Problem was she didn't fit the type of girl we wanted. We needed the girls to have a certain freshness. You know that sweet faced, girl next door type face. She didn't even have to be modelsque. She just had to have a face that was relateable and I just knew there was no way that particular model would work.
Then began the frantic search to book a model an hour to shoot time while at the same time trying not to go into panic mode. Called up all the model managers I knew and in mins my phone started beeping 30beeps per sec. Photos of girls flashing on the screen. Loads of photos and we still couldn't find a girl. Then as luck would have it we found a girl but she was unreachable. She had 3 lines and they all were off, then we stared calling anyone that may know her, no luck. Another girl gave the typical lagos line 'I'm on my way' "I'm 5mins away" lol. She was probably stuck in traffic. Someone suggested we manage the model we had. Dear up and coming creative, every little detail can make or break a shoot. If no one is going to die pls DO NOT MANAGE!
We had to postpone the shoot for a few days and luckily on the new date there were no surprises. It was a whole day shoot as we also had to shoot the images for the catalogue as well. I was tired as hell at the end but happy that I didn't have to 'manage'. The models were cool to work with and professional as well.
We wanted to show how versatile the collection was, going from fun cool pieces to party wear, and lastly work wear.
Hope you enjoy the photos. They have been released on almost all the social media platforms as well as websites and blogs.
Photography: Toyosi Faridah Kekere-Ekun
Makeup: Kosiso Eze
Models: uju Obijiekwu
Nikki sanyasi
Phil Ozongwu
Styling and Direction: Yours Truly
All the pieces shown here can be purchased online at eveandtribe.com, jumia.com.ng, L'espace, and at the Eve and tribe store, 46 Raymond Njoku Street, Off Awolowo road Ikoyi.
