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So You Want to Begin a Career in Fashion

3/30/2014

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By Lizbeth Kariuki
Suzie Wokabi, Sharon Mundia, Serah Kanyua and Emo Rugene, do these names ring a bell? They have all managed to curve out a niche for themselves in the Kenyan fashion industry. I had the pleasure of attending a forum last week at USIU where they discussed their successes and challenges of being an entrepreneur in the fashion industry. For women or men out there who are still looking to create their own niche in the Kenyan fashion and beauty industry, here are some pointers from those who have already forged ahead.
PictureSuzie-Suziebeauty.com
Susan Wokabi is the CEO and founder of Suzie Beauty, Kenya's first cosmetic beauty line. Suzie graduated from USIU a few years back and moved to New York where she trained with the well-known beauty brand Clinique for about a year. With a burning desire to continue in the beauty industry and specifically the make-up world, she returned to Kenya to setup her own business. After visiting around 30 factories all around the world that could produce her make-up line (with a formula she created for the African skin), she finally found the one and thus the birth of Suzie Beauty.
She encompasses what hard work and determination can bring forth. The make-up line has grown immensely, and she reminisced on the way Lupita Nyong’o used a product and sales shot for the Lupita lipstick.  She mentioned that one of the most important things is to: “Get the product right.” And you cannot go wrong.

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Lupita Nyong'o took pictures of herself before appearing on The Queen Latifah Show. She was wearing one of Suzie Beauty's lipsticks.
PictureSharon Mundia-This is Ess
Sharon Mundia is a full-time Kenyan fashion blogger. Her blog is named This is Ess. She created her blog around two years ago after completing college and at the end of a romantic relationship. Since then, she has developed it into a business for herself.

For those who are interested in creating business from their blog, these are the key pointers she outlined:
  1. Grow your blog numbers (statistics) to market it
  2. Be authentic
  3. Be unique
  4. Come up with a good rate card and business strategy


Read More
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DIY: 6 Steps on How to Create a Bow

3/24/2014

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By Lizbeth Kariuki
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Shear top: Mr. Price Jeggings: New York company Strappy heels: Alfani
I was recently invited to a party where the theme was to bow-ties or Ankara prints. I really wanted to wear a bow-tie since I never have. Now, the only bow’s I own can be found on my hair accessories, and I had an extremely short time to go searching for a bow-tie to purchase.
That’s where my spirit for creativity kicked in and I decided to make a bow for myself and a friend of mine. I loved the final result, and I thought I would share how to make one with you. As much as it was meant to be a bow-tie originally, I soon came to realize it can really be an accessory for anything – hair bands, bracelets and any other trinket.

STEP 1: Pick a piece of fabric that you would like to use. You could even cut out the fabric from a piece of clothing that you do not wear anymore. The key thing is to pick a print that you would love, or pick a basic neutral color that can go with anything you wear, i.e. black or white. The size of the cloth depends on how big you want to make the bow. My piece was about 15cmx20cm, and this measurement is what I used to direct the rest of my tutorial.
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STEP 2: About 3cm off the edge of the fabric, cut off a piece of fabric. The fabric will serve to hold the middle of the bow. NOTE: You can decide to use a different colored fabric to hold the middle of the bow.
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STEP 3: From the left and right sides of the fabric fold in about 3cm each and sow them in place.
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STEP 4: Fold in about 2cm from the top and bottom and sow in place. Repeat step 3 and step 4 for the thin strip of fabric cut off in step 2.
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STEP 6: Cut off any unwanted hanging threads, and with the thin strip of fabric, wrap it around the bow. Sow in place, and it should come together.
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FINAL RESULT: This is how the bow's came together. To keep it in place as a bow-tie I used a safety pin.You can also use a large rubber band.
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Tips&Tricks: What to do when you lose your earring stopper

3/4/2014

4 Comments

 
By Lizbeth Kariuki
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Kitenge earrings from Otenge
As a lady, losing your earring stoppers is one of the most common and most frustrating thing that can happen. Worse still, is if it happens when you are out and about and can't grab a stopper from your earring collection. That's what happened to me today when I was heading to work. My earring's completed my look fantastically, and all of a sudden the earring stopper on my right ear decides to come loose and I left it somewhere behind on the street.

I had two choices; either run the risk of looking weird the whole day with just one large earring on (and act dumb like I didn't notice the other was missing), or just go without earrings.
Well, I chose neither and instead used this old trick I learnt while in high school. I took a pencil eraser and cut of the end bit, large enough to act like a stopper, and guess what - it worked!

So if you are ever in a fix, and lose your earring stoppers, cut off a piece of an eraser and it can work as an earring stopper for the rest of the day even forever.

Have a FAB day!
4 Comments

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