Lagos stylist Rachel Ojuromi walks for Chanel in Paris
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on The Guardian
Nigerian designer Rachel Ojuromi, known on Instagram as Give Rachel a Shot, walks through Lagos in second-hand clothes and has attracted attention all the way to Chanel’s runways in Paris. Her style, filmed in Yaba and Gbagada, has spread across social media, according to the Guardian.
Nigerian stylist Rachel Ojuromi, 22, known on Instagram as “Give Rachel a Shot”, walked for Chanel in Paris after six months of turning the streets of Lagos into a runway on social media, The Guardian reports. Her videos show her walking through the Yaba markets, in Gbagada and other parts of Lagos, wearing second-hand pieces and fabric scraps sourced from open-air markets.
Her looks are put together by Debby Fasingha, her childhood friend, neighbour and stylist. Filmed without disrupting traffic, she attracts amused looks, smiles and encouragement from passers-by, traders and drivers. In one of her videos, she crosses a congested road with a tray of bananas balanced on her head; in another, she has tea at a street table with a teenager, in a scene inspired by a Japanese advertising campaign and filmed with the help of a passer-by who offered her own son as an extra.
“There is something powerful about knowing that an image or video exists because of a moment that happened in a specific place and at a specific time,” Rachel Ojuromi told The Guardian. “Even if someone tries to recreate it, it will never be the same.” She also incorporates tuk-tuks, locally called keke, and other elements of Lagos street life into her videos.
Her mother sold clothes in markets, but she initially intended to study medicine, inspired by “Gifted Hands”, the autobiography of neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
