The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
In a shoot for an upcoming online feature, he handed out outfits to his four androgynous models — two men, two women — in an understated Lagos hotel room decorated with floral pattern wallpaper.
He said he wanted to “transcend existing genres”. But not by the hotel pool, which would be far too public.
“Can you put this dress on?” he asked a young man with close-cut hair and a slim face.
Abstrakt, a 21-year-old Nigerian singer who describes himself on Instagram as a “model and madman”, resents being pigeon-holed and wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “to be honest, I’m not normal”.
Head on to https://t.co/SAKIo6wfdA for more on this editorial by Opas, Sessi and Lota! pic.twitter.com/iJwRvC7rFT
— Richard Akuson (@richardakuson) June 15, 2017
And even if he was not overly enthused by the prospect of wearing a skirt, he did it anyway — “for fashion”.
“And you… can you put on this men’s blazer?” Richie asked a pretty young woman with long braided hair that reached down to her back.
– ‘I love controversy’ –
She wore the dark green velvet garment, created by a celebrated Nigerian designer, with neither bra nor trousers — but with tights to preserve her modesty.
“I love controversy, I’ve always been a rebel at heart,” said the woman, Ajoke Animashaun, a law student and model.
“In Nigeria we are so conservative. Girls have to be well dressed, be pretty, have their nails done… but I don’t!”
For many women, painted nails are simply a matter of preference. Not in Lagos, where going unpainted is seen as an almost revolutionary feminist statement.
Wole Lawal, a 22-year-old professional model, traded in his leather boots bought in London for baggy multicoloured trousers at Richie’s request.
Like Nigeria’s king of Afrobeat Fela Kuti, Lawal went shirtless for the shoot, joking that the hotel room’s fierce air conditioning was freezing on his bare skin.
“Nasty Boy allows men to show the other side of who they are,” he said, in a deep voice, his face shimmering with glitter paint.
“(It’s) an opportunity to know how it feels to be a woman… and I would say it’s quite tough.”
