Protege's EUPHORIA Fashion Show Review

Waamnee Couture

Shamil Designs

Alas! Twas a bright and sunny morning with the previous night's dew still settled on trees, making the morning all glistening and all... It was calm in Zaria, when suddenly....


Let me interrupt the story to bring you the EUPHORIA fashion show review...*drum roll*...

The show took place at the Mac-Mole Hall in Zango, Zaria, and it brought a majority of the A-List crowd like Fati Yaro, Amira mohammed, Umar Bawa, our Rofasy peepz & Zeenat Ladies *eye roll*, and few of the rest (probably because of the gate fee *cough* cheapskates) of Ahmadu Bello University...

It was organised by the most entrepreneurial female personality in Zaria, Miss. Aisha Yahya, my wife-to-be (in my dreams), CEO of Protege Media Group. Kudos to her for bringing a bit of world class fashion to dreary ol Zaria... Abusites, hope y'all learnt a thing or two... Before I bore you all to sleep, let's get down to a detailed review...

Where to begin? Hmmm...*smh*...

Let me begin with the hall... As I said in my review of the Adrenaline fashion show, I tend not to critique the hall because its Zaria... Thank God they put in the effort to erect a runway as an extension of the stage and above the ground... The decoration was a little minimal for my taste, but heck, that's just me...although the lighting should have been better especially towards the end of the runway...

Next on my checklist is the Models... I remove my hat to their professionalism... They walked with confidence and class... With the exception of one or two near misses, they walked without any hitches...

The whole essence of a fashion show is in the designs exhibited on the runway...
The opening designer, DEE'S CLOTHING, a sixteen years old Demonstration Secondary School student, like the age is supposed to mean something... The designs were interesting and actually creative... The use of our local print, ankara, was simply on point, if I do say so myself...

WAAMNEE COUTURE was refreshing... Very unique, even if I didn't care for one particular fabric, which looked like the fabrics our mothers' church associations aso-ebi look like... Loved the ankara prints, especially the bags... The creative mixture of ankara, foreign materials and leather (yes, don't looked so shocked) was unique and worthy of a standing ovation.

The third designer, KAHYI APPLIQUE was ok...(In my opinion, but was largely praised by many other people)...especially after the designs we had just seen from the 2nd designer... Save for the male ankara jackets and the gowns with the unique addition of local print in strategic and minimal parts of the gown, the rest of the clothes looked store (boutique) bought, even if the fabric and colours were actually worth sitting up for...

FAY'S STITCHES (nice name) was next on the list and had somewhat interesting designs... The colour combination would make you want to go 'awwwww'...even with the near see-through design that was modeled, it was still a good collection.

The last, SHAMIL DESIGNS, felt more like a line for our Moslem sisters... Loved the design... Notice I said design and not designs... This is because I felt they all looked the same, just that the fabrics were different (would you blame me for wanting a lot more?)...There was one particular pink gown that was so form fitting that it brought a roar from the crowd....

That's all for the designs... With just a few that looked generic, the design were actually unique, creative and worth sitting up to take notice... WAAMNEE & SHAMIL were picked as the winning designers to attend the fashion show which will hold at the Transcorp Hilton in April. WAAMNEE (to me) actually deserved it for being the most creative. But SHAMIL, I feel except he plans to design a whole other line for fashion shows outside the north, his designs would face a stern test in larger cities like Lagos and Abuja...

Also, House of Tara Nigeria was in attendance and did a fabulous job (if I do say so myself) on the models, had them looking all smokey eyed with flushed cheeks and the whole nine yards.

For the show as a whole, the MC began with a one minute silence for our dearly departed friends, Effizy, Moh & Uche. The MC was so dull and lacked charisma, I had to pinch myself at times to remain awake. I recommend pairing a male and female next time. The show continued with various performances from the likes of Ceefour, Gwyne, Kheengz, etc. In all, only one performance held me spellbound, a live (yes, live, not the lip-syncing stuff you people are probably used to) rendition of Rihanna's Diamond by JEZREEL.

I know your probably wondering what were our students wearing. You'll be pleased to know (I'm actually disappointed, because it made my job a whole lot less fun) that apart from a few dudes who wore round neck tees, there were no fashion blunders I noticed. The girls were all tastefully dressed and mostly had on 6 inches heels. So maybe my criticisms are finally paying off *crying*.

So with the exception of the fact that the show started extremely late (slated for 7pm, didn't start till 9pm), and some of the performances were flat (probably caused by the DJ), it was of a very high standard...and actually 'worth' the 2k people paid to enter, especially as there was an after party, even though I didn't stay for it. Kudos to Protege and the EUPHORIA organizers, they've partially restored my faith in Zaria and set a new standard, especially after the last event we had.

Please watch this space for the official pictures.