Building Your Skirt Wardrobe

Hello. I hope you enjoyed my last couple of posts. They were Ankara focused and hopefully gave you an idea or two. Today, I want to talk about skirts and how to utilize them in your wardrobe. Especially since most of us live in jeans and only wear skirts to work.

Usually, most of us start off our wardrobes with the basic and timeless A line or pencil skirt, depending on our figure. The versatility of this basic fashion skirt, in a neutral color makes a very easy to mix and match wardrobe especially when one is on a budget. It is important when one is starting out, to avoid skirts with any fancy details on them, so that it is easier to to wear it time and again. This way, the skirt can be the canvass while embellishments can be added with the top or the accessories or even with color.

Another essential skirt to own is an neutral day to night skirt. By that, I mean a skirt that can be dressed up or down, that is formal enough for the office but casual enough to wear on a night out. This kind of skirt helps to open up your wardrobe to accommodate both your work and social life.

After you have these essentials, you can begin to look at growing your skirt collection. You can do this with more sophisticated styles of skirts like body con skirts, or draped skirts.

Another kind of skirt is the feminine skirt, like a lace or swing skirt. These kind of skirts soften your look and make you look very much feminine and stylish.

Then, there are the trendy skirts. These are whatever skirts that are on trend at the moment and they keep your wardrobe current.

I hope that I have been able to inspire you as you expand your wardrobe. I hope to talk more about skirts in my next post. Till then, stay fabulous.

Lanre Da Silva Ajayi Now At Spiga2 Concept Store.

Lanre Da Siva Ajayi has done it again!!!!

Hello everybody. I'm so excited to give you this news. As proof that hard work and creativity pay, LDA after mentoring with the duo Domenico Dolce and Steffano Gabbana, now has her line stocked at their concept store, Spiga2. She is the first African designer to be selected to retail there. This is by no means her first of this kind of achievement. Her work is available at Selfridges in London (thanks to Ndani) and she has taken part at the Patti Immagine Trade Show in Florence, Italy among others (thanks to Style House Files) amongst others.

As a designer, I must say that she makes me very proud and also hopeful for what the future holds for more of us African designers. Kudos to Mrs Ajayi and more grease to her elbows.

Remain fabulous, darling.

Ankara Dress Outfit Of The Day.

Hello everybody!!! I was on my way to church, this morning, and decided to take a quick outfit of the day photograph. It's a simple dress that is ideal for most churches in Nigeria. It can be dressed up or down, depending on how you accesorise it. I accessorised it with wooden bangles that I got from a mall in Abuja some years ago. The fact that they are made of wood makes the outfit a little less 'serious'. The dressiness comes from the black and gold shoes with the gold bag. The shoe was a gift and the bag was from Debbenhams about 2 years ago. The dress is from my clothing line

I hope that this gives you ideas on how to wear your Ankara dresses to church or semi formal events. Enjoy a great week ahead and remain fabulous.

Classic Ankara Dress

Hello!!! It’s been a while. I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to put up any posts in a while. Work has been hectic. I came across this picture of Yemi Akerele in this fabulous Jewel By Lisa dress and was reminded of how well Ankara has blended into the modern and sophisticated woman’s everyday wardrobe.

This dress is a neutral classic. The colors on the dress are all neutral, so it can be worn with almost any color of accessories. The fact that it is a classic means that it can be dressed up and dressed down to suit the occasion and also, it will still look on trend in the next ten (10) years. I love the bead work because it takes it out of the ordinary and makes it a head turner. It also has the added bonus of not requiring a necklace and maybe even (depending on the hairstyle), earings. These are all key elements you should consider when investing in that extra special Ankara dress that you can turn to over and over again.

I hope I helped in some little way. Please, please, please, stay fabulous.

Discover......... Seku. Look Book.

Hello everyone!!! It's been too long since I put up a post. Been sooooo busy with work. I hope to do better. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue soon. I just want to share a new discovery with you. Seku is a young designer whose style I am really loving. Clothes for the young and young at heart.

Hear her: sEKu is a fashion brand that exudes fun, ease and affordability. It provides unique and quirky fashion for individuals who enjoy being different and do not live by fashion rules. sEKu encourages individuality by making available one-off pieces at affordable prices. you can shop sEKu at www.jumia.com.ng. you get free delivery to your doorstep anywhere you are in Nigeria!

So check out her work for yourself. I hope you like it. Take care of yourself and I hope to be back soon. Stay fabulous.

What Makes A Style Icon?

Hello. This post was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend a few days ago. We were discussing some of my blog posts and she mentioned the fact that she doesn't think Nike Oshinowo is a style icon, ANYMORE. I was a little surprised by that. So it got me thinking about what I think qualifies someone as a style icon.

So what makes someone a style icon? I think the main ingredients are an eye for color, understanding proportion and then the ability to use fashion to tell a story, ie the ability to pull a look together in a way that looks fresh. A look has got to say something. For example, my ultimate fashion icon is Jackie Onassis (not Jackie Kennedy). Even though her style was simple and looked effortless, she just had this way of working with clothing and accessories to tell you a story that said 'I'm rich but not flashy'. The sunglasses, the handbags, the simple but statement jewelry. Her look said ''luxury' and 'leisure'.

I classify someone as a style icon who loves fashion and invests the time and effort it takes to build up a cohesive wardrobe that he/ she can use to create looks that are interesting and pleasing to the eye. And then they take it even further. To them fashion is fun, an idea to play and experiment with. But then it's also serious business, so they make sure that their look is on point 99.9% of the time. A style icon never has an off day. That I think is what separates them from ordinary 'fashionable' people. They are always on. They make the effort even when they are just running errands. Every item in the ensemble is well thought out, even when it looks like they just threw it on.

One thing I must touch on is the idea that real fashionistas shouldn't wear an item more than once or at best, a couple of times. I remember the first time I heard that idea. I was compiling a list of 'most stylish women' with the fashion editor of a magazine and when I mentioned someone to her (I can't remember who), she said that the person didn't qualify because she had worn a particular skirt several times. I was shocked by that way of thinking, to say the least. As far as I am concerned, a real fashionista knows how to work an item into several, sometimes unrelated, looks. If you can take one skirt and work it into ten different looks, then you are a fashionista. If you need to always be wearing something new, it doesn't say you have style, it just says you can afford ( or rather, MAY afford) a large wardrobe.

So, back to my conversation with my friend. Her reason for saying that Nike is no longer a fashion icon is because she doesn't feel Nike dresses 'age appropriately'. I don't agree. I feel that even when she is wearing something short, she does it tastefully. Besides, she has the body to pull it off. What do you think? I must also say that I see a lot of up and coming style icons that INCLUDE Funke Fowler, Ifeoma Williams, Lisa Folawiyo, Dolapo Oni among others. Up and coming because they are on their way, but haven't quite gotten there yet. (In my opinion.) Please note that there are a lot of other people I feel are note worthy and may have to do a post to cover the list.

I hope this post helps you in your quest to put your best foot forward. Take care of yourself and remain fabulous.

How To Dress To A Wedding

Hello. How are you doing? So, I got my inspiration for this post from my last (OOTD) post. That post had me thinking and I have tried to come up with a guide on what to consider when getting ready for a wedding.

Now we all love to look good, but the pressure goes up a bit when it comes to a wedding. Why? Because it's a festive occasion and with so many people coming, some of whom we haven't seen in a long time, we tend to want to go that extra mile. Also, is the fact that weddings are a very good place to mingle. They also present an opportunity to be approached by guys. And so we tend to want to look attractive. Besides all that, it's just polite and shows consideration to the bride and groom to bother to dress nicely. I mean they did go through the trouble and expense of putting on a show, right?

Anyway, that not withstanding, there are things to consider when choosing what to wear for a wedding. The first one is to not outshine the bride. It is her day so please let her be the star. That includes not wearing any white dress in a style that looks even remotely like a wedding gown. You know, long and flowy or princessy, etc. It's rude to do that. I find that a white short dress or suit or (of course) 'native' are fine. Also, while you want to look as fabulous as possible, do not over do it. It's not your wedding.

Do not wear jeans or denim to a wedding, please. It's just plain rude to the couple to not bother to dress up. I have been guilty of this before. I was once out of town and had to show up some long lost, distant cousin's wedding when I was totally unprepared for it. Believe me, I did everything to make sure that I made the jeans look as dressy as possible and it still felt rude. The way I see it is that the couple has planned and payed for a nice event, show them the courtesy of dressing up. Another thing is that showing up in jeans makes it look like you don't know the couple. Like you heard through the grapevine about the wedding and just showed up, uninvited.

Another thing is to dress modestly. Please, do not over do the sexy. It's a wedding not a date and definitely not a club. So not too much cleavage, or legs and nothing overly clingy. If you must wear a sleeveless or strapless dress, wear a bolero, shrug, jacket or wrap to the church. You can always take it off at the reception.

So, hopefully, I've got you thinking about what is appropriate and what isn't for your next wedding. If you are guilty of any of these offences, you are going to need to repent. Anyway, this was written in the spirit of 'nothing but love'> Please remain fabulous.