Duke’s African show was this past Tuesday and it was a blast, whirlwind and tornado of fun, excitement and high tension but my Jabulani Bellas and Beaus came out on top! Woop woop! Honestly, this was my first time feeling the heat of life or shall I say, the beautiful chaos life behind the scenes of a fashion show especially being a stylist and model. I tied the models’ geles (mine included) and funny enough I didn’t get the pictures of all them. I think I tied for over 20 Bellas (that’s what I’m calling us). Gosh,I thought I was dreaming but my hands reminded me that this was in fact a reality, haha. I’ve never tied for that many people under such short notice. I think I grew muscles and a six pack, haha. I had to be quick, effective and make sure they all looked stunning. Diariz God o, because they all did. My biggest fear which eventually came to pass was the geles falling apart before their due time. You see, I had to tie most of them before the fashion show which explains why most of the Bellas aren’t all dressed up in these photos. They were needed for very specific scenes and since I was the only one tieing, I didn’t want to leave it till the day of the show. Even with that, I can tell you I tied gele during and up until the end of the show. I had to learn how to use pins to hold them together to prevent my work from falling apart so that was a new and quite darn nerve wrecking experience. Even with the high tension and pressure, I actually really, really enjoyed it. Like really, really enjoyed it. Woop woop! I also got to select outfits Jabulani Beaus and some of the Bellas which was a lot of fun but one thing I realized about fashion shows is that it’s really not about you. I almost forgot that I was a model cause I was asking people “Do you have an outfit for this?”, “What are you wearing on your feet?”, “Have you tied your gele?” I had planned to get a billion pictures but since I was both styling and modelling, I had very little time to take proper pictures of my outfits for the fashion show because I was running everywhere (literally). #StylistLife. For some strange reason, my photos were not coming out right. It was rather frustrating. I definitely respect people that make up the glam squad or work BTS on any project (fashion stylists, hair stylists, makeup artists and many more), it not easy. The final presentation is a far cry from what happens underneath. I’ve come to the conclusion that BTS chaos for anything fashion is my type of chaos. It was a lovely experience and though my fingers died from numbness and pin pricks and my cuticles look eww, I will do it again and again and again. Till next year! Always, Miss LAJA