It is your typical photo shoot, a creative team of makeup artists, hairstylists, lighting and camera crew work meticulously, curling every lock and ironing every wrinkle, just to get the best shot.
The model waits patiently as the stylist deliberates with the make-up artist; the entire crew is working hard to create a flawless look for the model whose image is going to be plastered all over the glossy pages of fashion editorials and magazines. It's teamwork, it's tedious, it's laborious, it's fashion.
This time however, the roles have been reversed and the camera is trained on Omoyemi Akerele, the Fashion Editor at True Love Magazine. As a fashion professional, she is more accustomed to being behind the scenes.
Her job is to map the fashion vision and take it from concept to reality, synergistically working together with her team to bring fashion to life in front of the camera.
In every industry there are a school of pioneers that champion the cause, trudging through unchartered territory to push the collective agenda, often encountering obstacles, but ultimately surmounting them, to achieve recognition and success.
In the school of Nigeria fashion stylists and professionals, Omoyemi Akerele is undoubtedly a pioneer. She has legitimized the styling profession in Nigeria, changing the way we think about the varying careers within the fashion industry.
As the first on the scene, as close to a veteran as one can get in the profession, she has established herself and built up an impressive resume and body of work in the process.
On dreaming big"If you live it, breathe it, dream it, you can do it." This is the attitude Omoyemi had to foster at the start of her career while trying to gain headway in the new waters of the Nigerian fashion industry.She found her calling by chance; she was originally a lawyer.
After receiving a Bachelor's of Law at the University of Lagos and accepting a call to bar in 2001, she set herself on the path of legal briefings, litigation and deliberation as a lawyer at the firm of Olaniwun Ajayi & Co. in Lagos. While practicing she came to terms with the fact that she lacked a certain passion for law.
"I realized I was bored at work and wasn't giving it 100%, I was distracted, and decided to resign. I knew whatever I ended up doing had to give me satisfaction and joy. So I did some inner searching to find out what it was about clothes and the fashion industry that intrigued me."
And thus her journey commenced. She went to London and took training courses at renowned image consultancy center Aston Hayes, and under the tutelage of Jennifer Aston, studied the theories of female and male body style analyses, paradigms of color and texture, personal style consultation, wardrobe management and corporate shopping.
"Coming back from my designing courses I knew the first thing I needed was to get my voice out there but there weren't many fashion magazines and the magazines being produced didn't have fashion pages."
Believing in a vision of bringing Nigerian fashion publications to life by incorporating fashion pages similar to those in international magazines, she decided to shop her idea around.
Eventually, she began contributing for Genevieve and Every Woman magazines, all the while building up a network of friends and business associates within the fashion industry.
But her lucky break came in January 2005, when a chance meeting with Bola Atta, editor True Love Magazine editor catapulted her into a new chapter in her career. She joined the True Love team as a fashion stylist. Over the years, she rose to her current position as Fashion Editor of the magazine.
Since the career change, Omoyemi has worked tirelessly to build an ironclad resume, teaming with the greatest minds in the Nigerian fashion industry - heavy hitting fashion designers, makeup artists, photographers and hair-stylists.
Her resume reads like a who's who of the fashion industry; she is the kind of woman whose business rolodex includes the likes of magazine editors, advertising executive, and textile industry managers; her reach is far.
She has worked in various capacities at several notable fashion shows, including This Day Africa Rising (2008); United Nations Catwalk the World Fashion Show with Deola Sagoe (2007) and the British Airways 70th Anniversary Fashion Show with Tiffany Amber (2007).
She's versatile too, and has done major work in the advertising realm, supervising the artistic direction on various campaigns.
She has also worked behind the scenes on the Nigerian reality show circuit, dressing our favorite characters on programs like Temptation Nigeria, Big Brother Nigeria, Deal or No Deal Nigeria, Idols West Africa and the upcoming West Africa's Next Top Model.
The model waits patiently as the stylist deliberates with the make-up artist; the entire crew is working hard to create a flawless look for the model whose image is going to be plastered all over the glossy pages of fashion editorials and magazines. It's teamwork, it's tedious, it's laborious, it's fashion.
This time however, the roles have been reversed and the camera is trained on Omoyemi Akerele, the Fashion Editor at True Love Magazine. As a fashion professional, she is more accustomed to being behind the scenes.
Her job is to map the fashion vision and take it from concept to reality, synergistically working together with her team to bring fashion to life in front of the camera.
In every industry there are a school of pioneers that champion the cause, trudging through unchartered territory to push the collective agenda, often encountering obstacles, but ultimately surmounting them, to achieve recognition and success.
In the school of Nigeria fashion stylists and professionals, Omoyemi Akerele is undoubtedly a pioneer. She has legitimized the styling profession in Nigeria, changing the way we think about the varying careers within the fashion industry.
As the first on the scene, as close to a veteran as one can get in the profession, she has established herself and built up an impressive resume and body of work in the process.
On dreaming big"If you live it, breathe it, dream it, you can do it." This is the attitude Omoyemi had to foster at the start of her career while trying to gain headway in the new waters of the Nigerian fashion industry.She found her calling by chance; she was originally a lawyer.
After receiving a Bachelor's of Law at the University of Lagos and accepting a call to bar in 2001, she set herself on the path of legal briefings, litigation and deliberation as a lawyer at the firm of Olaniwun Ajayi & Co. in Lagos. While practicing she came to terms with the fact that she lacked a certain passion for law.
"I realized I was bored at work and wasn't giving it 100%, I was distracted, and decided to resign. I knew whatever I ended up doing had to give me satisfaction and joy. So I did some inner searching to find out what it was about clothes and the fashion industry that intrigued me."
And thus her journey commenced. She went to London and took training courses at renowned image consultancy center Aston Hayes, and under the tutelage of Jennifer Aston, studied the theories of female and male body style analyses, paradigms of color and texture, personal style consultation, wardrobe management and corporate shopping.
"Coming back from my designing courses I knew the first thing I needed was to get my voice out there but there weren't many fashion magazines and the magazines being produced didn't have fashion pages."
Believing in a vision of bringing Nigerian fashion publications to life by incorporating fashion pages similar to those in international magazines, she decided to shop her idea around.
Eventually, she began contributing for Genevieve and Every Woman magazines, all the while building up a network of friends and business associates within the fashion industry.
But her lucky break came in January 2005, when a chance meeting with Bola Atta, editor True Love Magazine editor catapulted her into a new chapter in her career. She joined the True Love team as a fashion stylist. Over the years, she rose to her current position as Fashion Editor of the magazine.
Since the career change, Omoyemi has worked tirelessly to build an ironclad resume, teaming with the greatest minds in the Nigerian fashion industry - heavy hitting fashion designers, makeup artists, photographers and hair-stylists.
Her resume reads like a who's who of the fashion industry; she is the kind of woman whose business rolodex includes the likes of magazine editors, advertising executive, and textile industry managers; her reach is far.
She has worked in various capacities at several notable fashion shows, including This Day Africa Rising (2008); United Nations Catwalk the World Fashion Show with Deola Sagoe (2007) and the British Airways 70th Anniversary Fashion Show with Tiffany Amber (2007).
She's versatile too, and has done major work in the advertising realm, supervising the artistic direction on various campaigns.
She has also worked behind the scenes on the Nigerian reality show circuit, dressing our favorite characters on programs like Temptation Nigeria, Big Brother Nigeria, Deal or No Deal Nigeria, Idols West Africa and the upcoming West Africa's Next Top Model.
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