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Wow! "Good to be home," is what I said when I finally came back.
Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya for many years was quiet a story in its own. I was raised knowing that a fashion model was not even something to think about as a career, and the African society only made it worse as the modeling industry probably has the biggest stereotype within Africa even though things are now changing. Thank God; more people are slowly understanding, accepting and respecting it as a profession.
Born and raised in a Christian background, anything that focused too much on music and fashion was not regarded as good moral. As I grew up, I developed a love for music and fashion sub-consciously; I matched my red favorite socks with my red and blue checked dress, which happened to be my ‘Sunday best,' a word we used to refer to the best dress in the wardrobe; the one you would actually save for a church Sunday. I would literally get out of my way, to get this fashion thing well coordinated.
"Getting out of my way!" some may ask.
I mean, as a child, I got busted by daddy a couple of times for borrowing my mama's shoes and lip gloss, and even nail polish without her permission. As a result, I got my behind beaten way too many times for a cute, young girl. Thank God, that daddy eventually took a ‘chill pill' after many years. I was hoping he would actually take the ‘chill pill' when I was still younger so that I would get less spanking, but No! Only my two younger sisters got to enjoy the fruits of pap's chill pill.
So now that I am all-grown and I have finally discovered that fashion is my passion, I have had an opportunity to educate my dad on what this industry entails and why I intend to keep on pursuing it. He has been a good support system for my passion and I need no more to preach to the converted.
As I moved back to Kenya to incorporate Imani International Model Management (Africa), realization dawned on me that I was entering a market that generally did not quite understand and accept the modeling industry.
So much unnecessary stereotype! It's unbelievable! It's unfortunate that a lot of people within Africa still look down upon models and disrespect them and the profession.
It was just the other day that I (as a modeling agency) sent out my models for a ‘gig' through an advertising agency. The models were run up and down the city for ‘fittings' and ‘rehearsals' all day for a couple of days with no pay! Later on, I overheard the models complaining acrimoniously about the incidences that took place during their time with the ‘client.
I was rather concerned if not distressed to see the models go through this amount of twaddle. However, my big concern is the fact that that these firms and advertising agencies, call for models to work on certain projects, treat the models like trash, and expect the jobs to be well-done when they are not ready to respect the workers (models).
How then can you expect a good job, if you cannot even respect the model?
What is someone smoking really? Please hand it over so that we can toss it away in the trash! It's definitely not good for you!
Requesting an agency to provide you with models, then failing to treat them with respect and dignity is like driving a car on sharp rusty nails and broken bottles, and expect to keep going.
Where are you going?
Face of Africa:
As time went by, I finally got an opportunity to be in Africa during the "face of Africa"2006 contest which was taking place, in Nairobi Kenya, it just came to my realization how many girls are actually ready to do whatever it takes in order to model.
The kind of response from the potential models in Kenya surprised me. I mean the place was impossible!!! The casting was to begin at 9:00am, at the new Stanley hotel ,but of course it began at the perfect ‘African time,' which was a lot of time after 9:00am.There were requirements that had to be met as usual, and ‘age,' again happened to be one of those; "16-24," had been clearly stated on their website applications. Well apparently, I still seemed to be a perfect candidate for that contest despite my extreme age gap. Even with my 28-year old self, I was so certain that they would have loved to have just a piece of me. You see, so many years, I was not in Africa to be physically present in this big ordeal, and here I was finally.
So I brought some of the models from my agency to enter the contest, lucky for them that I had been training them for a while.
As beautiful African girls made their way into the venue, I stood by the door watching from outside in my big vintage pair of Cutler and Gross sunglasses, that literally covered half my face and left a lot of mystery for the idle pedestrians that had nothing better to do but to stare. As I finally made my way through to the other side where the casting was taking place, things became somewhat confusing. Every time I tried to explain that I was not a participant, they always smiled and asked me to stand on the side like all other participants. At some point, I decided to play along. Aggressively and confidently, I walked through the crowd with all eyes on me. You would think they got paid USD$ I, 600.00 for each minute they looked my way. I finally decided to play dumb and got on all the long lines and moving through very humbly till I got to the end of the lines, where I was accepted with smiles and open arms. Then I went through the second cut "four at a time please," yelled the guy who was standing by the next audition room. For a moment, I thought he was one of the scouts for the event ,but it did not take me two minutes to realize that he was just one of those noisy -‘I got the power now,' type of door men. Anyway, I finally walked in with two other models, just in time for the ‘model interrogation seesion.com.'
When I saw the judges, I almost flipped. How did they get to be the ones to look at us and decide who is in and who is not? It should've been a reverse of roles, I thought to myself
"Please walk down and back," one of the judges requested.
"Thank you ladies!" "Wow!" One of the ladies exclaimed.
They looked at the four of us and eliminated two of us, and left two behind (which included me and one of my models).
‘Too good to be true,' they must've thought to themselves.
Suddenly the tape measure was pulled out and thrown around my ‘African heritage,' a word I use to refer to my hip section. Then suddenly, there was a look of disappointment. Yes my hips were not 36 inches. They were 2 inches bigger out of the tasty, irresistible ‘kenchic' I had been indulging into everyday.
"Thank you, I exclaimed!" as I left the room heading straight for my 4" inch stilettos which they had requested me to take off for the sake of ‘true height' measurements. As I sat on the floor to put on my heels, the cameraman and the 2 judges were right in my face and space once again trying to re-negotiate something.
"You have an amazing look!" exclaimed one of the judges.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Liz! I responded very confidently.
"We really think you have ‘that look,' but unfortunately we have to go by the measurements we have on paper.
"Are you represented by any agency?" "And how long have you been modeling?" she asked curiously.
"3 years of modeling, and yes, I have a mother agency!" I responded.
Then I started feeling uncomfortable. ,with the cameraman not getting enough of me, and these judges asking too many questions, almost making me feel like I was filling in one of those 20-page job applications. I had no business there in the 1st place and I was beginning to lie a bit too much. I could see that one lie lead to another and the other led to the next lie. It was time for me to stop talking and assure them that it was okay and leave immediately. As I walked away, convincing the scouts that it was okay anyway, I also had to convince two of the officials that I was not there to model, and they just laughed back; more like to say, ‘good sense of humor!'
They finally left after trying to acquire more information about who I am. I did not intend for the whole ordeal to end up in that manner, but I still must admit that I had a blast reaffirming my ‘still' outstanding potential.
I left the event in a rush, getting back to reality, rushing to my Italian embassy appointment, which I had rescheduled for the second time. And this time I did not know what to use for a 3rd time excuse as it was crucial for me to get this visa to make it to Milan for ‘Moda Milano.' Luckily, the guy at the embassy let me slide, even though I was extremely late.
Later in the afternoon, after a long day of no "Imani work," I suddenly got a phone call on my cell phone from one of my models, Doris, who I had also sent out for the audition. She was one of my favorites; a fast learner and had the perfect attitude to match her tall and slender frame, elegantly composed. I had recruited her from the United States International University in Nairobi and had been training her, not too long before the ‘Face of Africa' took place.
"They need you here now!" she alleged.
"They need you to come and release me or else they will disqualify me!"
"Well, I responded, "Congratulations, you made it!"
I smelt drama from a distance but I went ahead and provided the model with my fax number, to enable them to fax me their terms and conditions, as her mother agency, which I was ready to respond to immediately but that still did not seem to work. I continued with my daily routine as usual, and when the opportunity came for me to meet with the model who could not stop blowing up my phone every 2 minutes, I sat her down and let her have it!
Kenyan models; you need to stop playing and start to take responsibility for you to be able to succeed in your modeling career. With no discipline along with other basic fundamentals in life, you are in for nothing! For you to succeed, you MUST adhere to terms, conditions and regulations on the contract that you sign with the agency. This is not ‘playing house,' since models get sued every other day for breaching contracts. It's real!
Not too long after that, there went the critics (don't I just love them).
"Who did they pick?"
"Her?"
"Why did they pick her?"
"What are they thinking?"
"Do they just want to get a reason to kick Kenya off this competition faster by picking that one?"
"Why didn't they pick the other one? The black-skinned one? The African-looking one?
"Do they just hate?"
"What is wrong with them for real?"
"Do they see black models on the runway looking like this?"
"Alek-Wek needs to tell them?"
"I guess it was not meant for Kenya this year too!"
"Can someone tell them that whatever it is they are looking for, does not exist?"
"Can they get judges who are not biased?"
.......And on and on and on..............
Well, all I can say is that there is always the ones that will nitpick during competitions and auditions at any given time. So Models, Kindly adapt to accepting that there is always going to be a loser and a winner, However, losing does not mean that you don't ‘have it going on for you,' It only means that the recruiter was not too excited by your ‘look' or personality and therefore had no choice but to pick someone else. You also have to be very strong-charactered in this industry since rejection is the order of the day!' Know yourself, believe in yourself, support yourself, love yourself, accept and appreciate who you are, then get back on your knees to give thanks to the creator that moulded you into who you are today; the one that knows your end from your beginning, and your beginning from your end.
For if it was not for his loving kindness and his grace, you may not be even a half of what you are today.
They may not acknowledge or accept it, but if you always remember that your opposition has a proposition, then you will believe that you are the ideal model in whatever you are specializing in, be it modeling, design, computers, architecture, medicine, engineering, entertainment, business and marketing, etc, Take a deep breath, open your mind and heart and follow your inner spirit. I know that in all things, our creator works for the good of those who love him, and therefore you can never be in the wrong place doing the wrong thing if indeed God has already pre-destined you towards that direction, as his will cannot take you where his grace will not protect you.
You better be willing and ready to always fight for what you believe in, it's yours!
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