Ode to Fashion!
I love what is happening with fashion in Namibia. Fashion has found a new lease of life. Everybody is conscious of what they wear. Everybody is fashion driven. Everybody is starting to appreciate fashion.
The biggest blessing is that entertainers have jumped on the fashion okawato as well. Entertainers make it a point to be “dressed” for the smallest occasions. I remember a time when fashion would only come to the fore during big events like the Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMAs), Namibia Sports Awards…etc. Now the trend is to look good and extra-ordinary for press conferences, listening sessions, TV interviews, Radio interviews, live shows, and church.
Though I am not really a big fan of a fashion parade at church it has come to that. It is a reality and it just demonstrates the influence of the fashion industry of late. What did the fashion industry do right in the last five years? Who led the fashion movement to such a point that it inspired not only entertainers but the ordinary man on the street to look good? Who is that person we can identify and say: “Meme, you started a fashion revolution”. Point me in the direction of the person who I need to grab and say: “Omes, you found a way to plant a fashion seed in every Namibian”. Though I have a few names who I suspect led the fashion revolution from the front, I may also be entirely wrong with these names.
Fashion gurus, bloggers of all things fashion, fashionistas…tweet at me and tell me who the G.O.A.T. of Fashion in Namibia is. Educate me. I’m ready to learn. I’ve never said that I know everything on this platform. Every industry has a G.O.A.T. and fashion should be no different.
We need to thank these individual(s)/team for laying a solid foundation for today’s players to thrive in. In my travels, I’ve observed that certain parts of the country, like the coast and the south, have made fashion part and parcel of their ordinary chills. I was left egg-faced when I met some old friends in December in Walvis Bay, as they dressed so well you’d swear the homies were getting ready to attend the NAMAs. Good old school NSK was dressed in sweatpants, a hoodie, and no trim. Ordinary young men and women who make a conscious effort to look good…it’s commendable.
No one took fashion seriously at one point in Namibia. It was also never an industry. Ode to fashion in Namibia for identifying its realities, re-strategising and implementing what must’ve been one heck of a plan. Anathi has been on my case to dress me for events. I might need to get in touch with the homie because he specialises in plus size. With the joys of donkey vleis, ekaka and gomasam…I’m definitely not slim fit.
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)