Hi BellaStylistas! It’s Isoken and every month, I’ll be sharing a short letter spotlighting our monthly theme from my personal perspective and giving you an idea of some of the amazing content we have planned. Welcome to our biggest #Fashion issue yet!
Editor-At-Large Isoken Ogiemwonyi introduces BellaNaija Style’s #BigFashion theme for October.
Welcome to the October issue of BellaNaija Style – our most fashion-focused one ever – where we explore the dizzying number of fashion weeks across the continent from Kampala Fashion Week in Uganda to Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria. We do a deep dive into designer inspiration, new collections and of course the stories behind the people driving innovation and excitement in our industry.
When I became Editor at Large, I knew I had a huge responsibility, not just as the custodian of BellaNaija Style at such a crucial time in its infancy, but also charged with steering it toward Uche Pedro’s (slightly terrifying) vision for a truly Pan-African cultural style behemoth- one that lives across digital platforms and is interactive, thought provoking and boundary pushing for our readers.
Growing a sustainable and exciting future for any publication in 2018 is no small feat, but for me it’s been a tale of possibilities; and we live in an age that presents endless opportunities to connect, educate and expose. Our vibrant and exciting digital and social platforms enable us to speak to a wider audience in a niche that is both glamorous and economically important.
We get to report on style stories that educate, enamour, and engage in a two-way conversation with our audience. Curating beautiful stories, publishing and conceptualising pieces by our wickedly brilliant core team, contributors and collaborators – BN Style is the gift that keeps on giving.
Fashion, of course does not exist in a vacuum, as Carmel Snow, once said ‘well-dressed women with well-dressed minds’. And with this in mind we tackle style related issues from the world stage to backstage, we interview rule breakers and innovators both within the industry and discover personal essays with contributors like Miss Hayati and style conundrums with Kanayo Ebi.
Every successful publication requires lively discourse – between its contributors, editorial team, advertisers and its audience. And at BellaNaija Style, that fashion conversation can vacillate between the business of fashion and art, intellect and personal style; or range from an exploration on what it means to be creative in a hyper digital world, to how to navigate your career – in style.
As always, we amplify the positive, rather than concentrating on the negative, after all anyone can be an armchair critic. We prefer to focus on people who are out there, doing things and doing those things in grand style.
Look forward to sumptuous and diverse runway shows that showcase designers’ talents, superb parties , wonderful behind the scenes moments and standout style diaries from accomplished and fashion forward BellaStylistas like Lucy Smize, Nisha Kanabar and many more.
