Next Level Last Saturday was my brother’s graduation, yay! He officially finished from Admiral Farragut in Florida *sobs*, so proud of his hairy, bone-head. It was a swell day, we took lots of pictures and had lunch in a lovely restaurant in Lowes Don CeSar. It was soo pretty and the food was yummaayyy! I kept things pretty simple and classy with my outfit in this cut-out, maxi, ankara dress. The lipcolor definitely stole my heart. I’ve been wearing this color non-stop! The next day, we went for a dinner-theatre performance called “If The Shoe Fits”. It’s basically dinner before the show which is pretty neat because food usually isn’t allowed in theaters so that was a first timer. I really liked it. We then headed to Boston to visit his university, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and as much as I’m happy for him, that place is too darn cold! It’s May for crying out loud, geezz. No, thank you. It was a quick trip and I’m currently writing from Oklahoma! Yup, I’ll be spending a good part of my summer here and won’t be going back to Nigeria. Wahh, first time I haven’t been back home during summer. Definitely a weird feeling but I’ll survive. I’m pretty excited actually. There’s been a lot of traveling this past week so things went by pretty quickly so I’m glad to be back in settled down in one place. Let’s gooo! I hope you enjoy your week and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Outfit Details Ankara maxi: Custom-made Sandals: Coach Purse: Segolene (borrowed from Mummy LAJA, hehe) Earrings: Fulfill Jewelry Cuff Bracelet: Thrifted Always, Miss LAJA
Secrets Secrets. Because we all have them. This is just a fun project where I tied a head wrap and decided to try a different type of photography. I won’t bore you with all the geeky details, but I basically did the opposite of what I normally do so yes, the pictures are purposely made to be quite darker than usual. I hope you like them. *Flashes smiles* I’m currently in Florida for my brother’s graduation! Woop woop! A big shout out to my bro on successfully completing high school! They grow up so fast *sobs* Keep up with the rest of the pictures on my Tumblr and/or LAJAgram (miss_laja) Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Always, Miss LAJA
Take Me Home All alone, There it sat, Far away from home, Till a lone ranger asked, “What is that?” As if she knew, She took the cue, And picked it up like it were new, Then began the search for some green hues. Don’t worry, my love we’re leaving this tiresome dome, Going to a place where you won’t be alone, There’ll be no more tears or long moans, Hold on, we’ll get there soon, were not far away from home. Contrary to the pictures, it was super windy and my hair literally fell apart… Yup, I need to use more pins next time. I was contemplating just leaving the poem and excluding my voice from this piece but I couldn’t bring myself to it because I really like blabbing to you guys about… Well, stuff. Never thought I was a poem person but I found myself writing and I thought, wow, this is really cool so I’ll go with it as opposed to outright explaining the story. Cheers to switching things up, baby! *Sigh* The things you learn about yourself everyday. I hope you enjoy this mini story and poetry of mine, I had a lot of fun doing it. Have a great week and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Outfit Details Ankara Blouse: Custom made Trousers: H&M Heels: BCBG Always, Miss LAJA
Evergreene Hello, stunner! After a break from Miss LAJA due to finals and my body quite frankly failing me, I’m happy to say I’m back! Yayy! After my last exam and packing up, I slept for 24 hours. Nope, I’m not even kidding. I was sleeping away semester stress and restoring my body cause before now, it wasn’t in the best of states. Anyhoo, I’m sooo happy it’s summer! Wahhh! I cannot get enough of this warmth consistently seeping under my skin and just seeing the sunrise and set. It fills me with soo much joy beyond words and motivates me to want to blog my life away. So ready for summer… Well almost ready, my goal is to consistently groom and keep my brows to maximum fleekness. I know, I know, I keep saying it but I really want to make a better effort this time. For real. On to my outfit, I am in love with this top. It’s quite a unique piece in my wardrobe and I love how there’s the little peek of skin on the torso as opposed to the typical parts. I had it sewn so I treasure it as much as my ankara pieces, hehe. Anyways, there’s a lot of color blocking going on here and I decided to pair it with these ankara shorts inspired by earthy, neutral colors. Of course, I added a pop of red. Yup, my love for that colour is far from over. Expect to see a lot more bright and colour blocking goodness on here! I’m super excited to brainstorm and bring to life new projects! With summer in full swing, I can’t say time will be an issue so ride along with me!! For those of you still having finals, all the best on yours and have a stunning weekend! Outfit Details Cut Out Croptop: Custom made Ankara Shorts: Custom made Shoes: Antonio Melani Purse: Segolene Always, Miss LAJA
Cubed So I wore this outfit to the Kim Shui Fashion show, I will share my experience on working behind the scene with a designer for the first time so make sure to stay tuned for that. Anyways, this new purse just came in the mail and I am absolutely in lovvee! I had been on the lookout for a go-to red bag and I’m happy to say that I have found it. This purse is by Segolene En Cuir and I was looking for a high quality, chic and structured purse and this fits all the criteria. I am in love. For the fashion show, I decided to wear this jumpsuit and my trustee ankara jacket and accessorize with red. I opted for flats cause I knew I’d be running around a lot and no one has time to run around for four hours plus in heels BUT I had to look good. I hope you like the look! Yes, the pants swept the floor like crazy but oh well… Stay tuned for the next half for the fashion show and have a great weekend! Always, Miss LAJA
M’Orange Is it obvious I’ve been loving orange lately? For real, I’ve tried to stay away but I keep going back at the same time. It’s safe to say, the obsession is real. Things have been really interesting so far considering it’s a countdown till finals but that’s just by the way. I like being honest with you so I’ll share some sentiments I have been feeling lately. I’ve been feeling that my outfits are too “basic” and I would beat myself up about it cause I felt the slaying spirit was slapping me left, right, front and center when I finish getting dressed, haha… But seriously, I’ve been feeling really “minimal” lately. Clearly not colour-wise, but wearing less accessories and making my outfits as simple as possible. When I start getting stressed out about deciding what to wear, I just grab for some simple, basic pieces (cause basics are African prints’ best friends) and pull the whole look together with a leather jacket. Bless you leather jackets. These wedges are the most comfortable thing ever. I got them back in Paris and wore it Every. Single. Day. And I walk ALOT. So bringing these babies out came with bursts of joy and nostalgia. I really, really miss France/traveling and these wedges make me feel oh-so-Parisian (minus the colors) even when France is (as on now) a delicious memory… We’ll see what this summer has to offer. Enjoy the rest of your, lover and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Always, Miss LAJA
LAJA Unseen #4 Don’t forget to check out the name of this pose for the picture above on LAJAgram (@miss_laja). Enjoy! LAJA Unseen 1 |LAJA Unseen 2 |LAJA Unseen 3 The “Yeah, I Shouldn’t Have Said That” Pose The Ha! Catch Me If You Can” Pose The “Hold Up, I’m Tryna Be Sleek” Pose The “Slender LAJA” Pose The “What Did I Just See?” Pose The “My Comeback Was Hotter Than Yours” Pose “Just Another Long Hair Problem” Pose The “Stop, You’re Slaying Me Softly” Pose The “Wait, I’m Trying To Think If I Care” Pose The “Cause I Really Sleep In The Sun” Pose Nah, I Just Really Love This Photo. Ha! Always, Miss LAJA
Bloom I hope you’re loving this boubou as much as I am! It’s the perfect “I’m too lazy to pull together an outfit but I still want to look gorgeous” piece. My African maxi dress, I love to call it. Simple and chic. Happy Easter in arrier, I hope you enjoyed your day and it was filled with much love, gratitude and joy. I wore this lovely one to church for the celebration and things were different this Sunday because we held mass outside in the Duke Gardens. It was absolutely amazing and the weather was beautiful. Sunny, warm, basically LAJA weather, hahaha! However, my forehead did get quite burnt. Yup, it was that hot. There were soo many people in the garden and this has to be my most awkward (for obvious reasons) and stressful shoot till date. The photos weren’t coming out right, my camera’s battery was running low, my tripod fell down and broke with my camera mounted to it. I almost passed out. Luckily, it fell on grass so my camera was more that fine. Phew! But, you get the gist. All in all, I hope you enjoy your week and are welcoming Spring with open arms like I’ve been for quite sometime now. I’m so happy and I’m really just praying for strength and perseverance especially in this final lap of the semester. One last this, I am ecstatic that Duke won the NCAAs *sheds multiple tears* #ForeverBlue Gosh, that game had me falling off the chair and rolling on and ignoring homework. It was well worth it! Outfit Details Boubou: Custom Made Sandals: Ralph Lauren Purse: Antonio Melani Always, Miss LAJA
Doing The Most Happy New Month! I hope you had a wonderful end to the month of March. If you didn’t know, Miss LAJA and I celebrated our birthdays on Saturday and Daddy LAJA celebrated his on Monday. Woop woop for Marchian power! It’s officially a countdown till the end of the semester and the weather has finally decided to be warm and have mercy on me so I’m super excited to be styling spring and summer inspired looks on here. I’ll start with this super bright outfit of mine. I was really skeptical of wearing the blue jacket with it cause I thought it’d be too much but then I thought, why not? Orange and blue are a wonderful combo and I have seen it happen many, many times. All in all, I hope you experiment more with colors this Spring to brighten up your mood (and wardrobe) to help transition from the harsh winters. Trust me, implementing colors into your life really helps. I’m pretty pumped for Spring/Summer. I hope you like this look. Have a great rest of the week and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Always, Miss LAJA
Birthday Behavior Hey, stunner! I’m feeling on top of the world today not only because today is my 19th birthday but my site, Miss LAJA turns 2 today. I am eternally grateful to God for keeping me this far and his unrelenting mercies in my life, family, friends and projects. I’m so, so happy with where I am now especially compared to where I’m coming from. 18 was a special year, I achieved so much that I would sometimes think I was in a dream. I keep saying this but it’s crazy how time flies and how things change so quickly. All in all, I’m grateful. I went to an Italian restaurant for with my girlfriends and we ate and talked for hours. Good food (AKA pasta) and good company are two of my favorite things in this life. Starting from today, I would say turning 19, I want to be more comfortable with my body image and fully embrace myself as a woman. It sounds so serious when I use “woman” because I still consider myself a kid but loh and behold, it is the truth. I am no longer a child and for me, 18 was more about finding my way around since I started college. Things fell apart and I had to build myself back up. I learnt a lot of things about myself thanks to the college and my site, Miss LAJA. 18 was more finding out who I am, knowing my worth, learning about my strengths and weaknesses, like and dislikes etc. I feel like I have a fuller grasp of who I am as an individual thanks to the things I’ve been through and the people I surround myself with and I’m happy for this. It was a bumpy ride but it’s a great feeling. I want 19 to be a year of accepting myself, flaws, strengths and all, wholly and unapologetically; physically, emotionally, personality-wise, mentally, spiritually and the list goes on. On this journey onto a new chapter in my life, I hope this spills over in Miss LAJA and it touches you in ways that will encourage you to do the same, whether you’re a boy or girl. I wasn’t as excited about turning 19 not because I’m afraid of getting old or anything but 19 is a weird age. However, this outfit made me think twice. I loveee this outfit so much and when I was picking it out, I knew I wanted something a little more risqué and out there than usual. Yes, hun, there are days when I don’t wear ankara. My goal for my ensemble was sleek and chic. What do you think? I’ll be saving looks like these for special occasions, haha. I just had to channel my inner Beyoncé and Rihanna then add a touch of Miss LAJA. Love, love, love it! Cheers to a new chapter for Miss LAJA and Miss LAJA. Hope you’ll continue this ride with me. Happy Birthday, I’ll Always Be, Always and Forever, Miss LAJA