Happy New Year!! Missed me? I hope you did *straight face*.

Straight to the talk of today. Two days ago, someone contacted me that she wants to be a model and she wanted to know how to start. I gave her some good advice which included looking around for a good photographer who would be willing to do a  test shoot with her. She explained how this might not be easy, I told her to try and gave other options.. *hold this thought*.

Yesterday, I was chatting with a model already rooted in the industry. By rooted I mean, walked the runways of top shows in Nigeria and all that. She mentioned she didn’t really have good pictures and I gave her the same advice I gave the aspiring model but she expressed the obvious fear of being ignored. Surprised?? Don’t be.

So here’s  an aspiring model and an already working model having the same issue. Its nothing new!

When I was almost done with school, I knew I wanted to take modelling seriously in Nigeria. I was studying in a small country but somehow I decided to contact a top photographer . I sent him a message on facebook and asked how much he’ll charge. Surprisingly, he replied that he wouldn’t take any money from me. I was shocked and excited. I immediately started picking out clothes and practicing poses. ”It had to be perfect o” and for a model just starting, it definitely was.

models- Toyin and Binta

Next, I  started uploading my new pictures on credible online directories like this one. I uploaded my pictures on facebook and tagged fashion professionals in Nigeria that I admired. I told myself even if they did not like or comment, they’ve seen my face and I was pretty pleased with my pictures. Also, I was hoping to get contacted by a few photographers.

In the end, it was all worth it. I remember walking into a top photographer’s studio that I had never met but had tagged in my pictures. Immediately he saw me, he called me by my name and made good comments about my pictures. I was so pleased. I also got messages from  a few photographers and got to work with them.

This morning, I was reading some model tips from a photographer and this part got my attention -  ”As a photographer, when I’m selecting models for a job, I tend to go with models I’ve worked with before because they’re known and reliable, and I already have a good working relationship with them. Next in line are the ones who have been talking to me for a while, perhaps having written me a really well-worded introductory email. Models I don’t know come way down the list, whether or not they’re represented by an agency.”

He couldn’t have said it better. Do you see where I’m going with this?

-Photographers constantly have ideas and are on the look out for models that fit whatever they have in mind. They’ll never pass on a request to shoot with  you if you meet their standards.

-Never be afraid of rejection!! It comes with this territory. If the photographer ignores your message or mail, keep it moving. If loads of photographers don’t get back to you, its safe to say you need to check yourself. You might be doing something wrong.

It’s a crowded market(every Tomisin, Dickson and Arieta is a model,  lol), so you have to be proactive and contact people you want to work with. Sitting back and waiting for people to come to you is living in fool’s paradise .

By the way, many photographers for some “amazing” reason will find it difficult to send your pictures. They are forever busy! lol. So just be prepared to go back to their studios to get your pictures. You may not get many pictures so just take the ones you can, smile and go home. hehe

yours truly,

THE MODEL

view profiles of all the models on styljunki 

view profiles of all the photographers on styljunki  *wink*

For all the modelling related posts.. view styljunki’s models corner

if you will like to send me an email, send to themodel@styljunki.com

Rachael Williams in FAB Magazine Power issue photographed by SubySinem

Press Release

Want to be a model and grace the covers of magazine or international runways? Or perhaps sign a lucrative deal to be the face of a commercial brand? Well, for $50 (£30, 8,000NGN, 90GHC) a year, now you can be in with a chance to do just that learning the tricks of the modelling trade from one of the finest commercial models and former Miss Black Britain Racheal Williams.

Rachael Joy Williams is an International Commercial model, based in London, UK. Of West Indian heritage, Rachael was born and raised in South-West London where she still resides today.

Rachael has a degree in Psychology and Counselling, and has stated that it has enabled her to empathize with, and portray different emotions and characters; something which has indeed improved her ability to model.

After taking time away from modelling to complete her degree, Rachael began modelling professionally in 2009. Her jobs range from runway to editorial, TV advertising and Hair and Beauty Campaigns. Rachael loves to travel and her favourite destination is Miami where she has had numerous model shoots. More recently she did catwalk at Nigeria’s MTN Fashion Week and a skincare advertisements in Southern Spain with well known photographer, Christele Jacquemin.

Founded by Rachael, The RJW Model Academy aims to train  international models. From catwalking to managing finances, the courses offer a range of well needed tools to assist and brand the careers of all those who attend making their dreams a reality.

The Academy is owned and run by professional, working models, giving potential models’ careers the best possible start into today’s industry. The RJW Modelling school offers a broad range of Modelling, Personal Development and Self presentation courses for beginners with no experience and advanced courses for working models interested in advancing their skills.

Interested? You can enroll right here   


Styljunki News By Ama Obiefuna

Ama Obiefuna has had a flair for modeling since age 3 with her role models being Oluchi Orlandi and Agbani Darego. She has been working with various fashion professionals and is scaling greater heights in the modeling field and daily working towards her great vision for the industry. Ama also enjoys writing about the fashion industry and is currently a contributor for styljunki .

Twitter: @TheAmaObiefuna

Someone tried to scam me once..  A friend of a friend said someone on her bbm needed professional models for a well paid job and it was urgent. She hadn’t met this guy before but she told me of how he has connections with big commercial modelling jobs and she really wanted to get one of those. Anyways, I gave her permission to give him my pin to discuss further with the agent(let’s call him John).  He told me he is Ghanian, works for some advertising company and the job was for an international magazine.

The job would involve me travelling to a place, taking nude pictures but my face will be cut out of the picture and I’ll get paid over 2000dollars. We had our first chat earlier in the day and I received details of the job via two voice notes. Later in the evening, he started chatting with me like we had not spoken before, asking for my name again and sending me the same voice notes. Yup!! Everything about him was off and I’ll give you more reasons pretty soon. In the end, I warned him, deleted him and told the girl that introduced me to him to do the same. I also gave her  some advice that I will share with you.

When I listened to the voicenote, John sounded like a Nigerian with a funky fake “british”  accent. I can not understand why some Nigerians feel the need to borrow accent. *sigh* This was free comedy for me but when I thought about it later, I felt sorry for the girls that might fall for it especially since the pay was high.

In July this year, someone contacted me on facebook that her sister met a guy who promised to get her into Arise Fashion Week 2012 if she will pay him some amount of money. Her sister believed him but she wanted to contact me first to be sure. I told her it was very untrue and I was disappointed that her sister who wants to be a model doesn’t know that the biggest show in Africa had already been done in March.

There are a lot of “funny” people in this industry. People that are ready to take advantage of how desperate some models are.Once they smell desperation on you, they’ll feed on it. They’ll tell you lies to get money from you and offer you “shortcuts”  to the top. FAKE agencies, FAKE agents and FAKE modelling jobs.

Here’s some advice that might be useful to some of you

You can not want to be a model and not know about the fashion industry. You just can’t!!  Be patient and  try to know all the important people in the fashion industry first. Be familiar with the top fashion events and competitions. You have to be knowledgeable about the industry you want to work in. As they say, Knowledge is Power. Sites like this one are here to help you. There’s also www.hautefashionafrica.com and many others. Magazines like mania, complete fashion, fab and genevieve magazine are also useful. Also, be up to date with the fashion industry abroad as well.

When someone approaches you about a job, ask him or her for their website, blog , facebook page,  twitter page, instagram , pinterest or wherever it is he or she has a portfolio ONLINE. Find out jobs they’ve done and who they’ve worked with. You can get all that information online. Anyone that claims they have none of their works online or starts to tell you stories shouldn’t be trusted.

 Find out about the job or about the company or magazine that is requesting for a model. If you google about some jobs , you’ll most likely find many other people that have been scammed with that same job!!

If you are new and don’t have any friends in the fashion industry that is experienced , I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you find and Join a good agency(check out some here).  If for any good reason you do not want to, then look out for only respectable shows e.g Arise fashion week, music meets runway, lagos fashion and design week, etc or competitions like elite model look nigeria,  face of sleek, etc  especially for those that want to go into runway and editorials. Events like these will expose you to the right kind of people and will help you grow.

I hope all these helps and be sure that if I come up with more, I’ll update this page

See you Next Wednesday

yours truly,

THE MODEL

view profiles of all the models on styljunki 

For all the modelling related posts.. view styljunki’s models corner

if you will like to send an email, send to themodel@styljunki.com

 Hey!! Hey!! I have done my best to reply all the comments and emails today *phew* and I hope my replies are helpful. Today, I want to discuss two sensitive topics. Sensitive because I think people try to avoid discussing about them and some models especially the new ones want to be clear about them . 

Nude pictures

“you are not a professional model if you don’t take nude pictures” is one of the lies I know some models have heard.

Taking nude pictures is a PERSONAL CHOICE and no one should make you feel it is compulsory for you to do it in order to become the person’s idea of  a “professional model”. 

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I remember when I decided I wanted to model, wearing heels was NOT my thing at all!! I am 5ft11 so I really did not see the need to look taller than that but I wanted to go into something that required I wore HIGH heeled shoes and to make it worse, I had to walk perfectly well with it. I remember thinking to myself “what in the world am I going to do”.

I am sure some of you are in this situation right now and struggling with it but I’ll share with you how I got out of the mess

First I had to learn how to walk comfortably in high heels and then  learn how to perfect my runway walk (finding a good runway walk).

So first of all, I bought this high-heeled shoes and asked my friend to try walking in it to be sure that even if it was high, it was generally a comfortable shoe. You know there are some ridiculous high-heeled shoes specially made to make everyone fall *le sigh*. Anyways, this new shoe was my practice shoe.

Then, I made the decision to walk every evening in my shoes using the corridor of my hostel or if it was too late, inside my room. At first, my friend will walk in hers and then I will try to walk in mine. It was actually fun.
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Sincere apologies that I have been missing in action for few weeks now. Truth is, I have been sort of clueless on what to write *covers face in shame* but I have found a way to make sure it does not happen again and I’ll need your help *battling eyelashes*. If you have any questions about modelling and/or about modelling in nigeria or you have  a topic you think I should discuss here on models corner, please feel free to send an email to info@styljunki.com and I will answer all your questions and discuss all topics here.

The casting for Lagos Fashion Design Week was yesterday and thanks to that I have something to talk about. Yes!  I was there and I’ll highlight a few things to help some models  that are still getting it all wrong

Snap Back To Reality: Now, I know that all your friends have told you how beautiful you are and how you will be the best model in the world. Some will even call you Naomi Campbell and that’s so sweet but don’t go to a casting with all of your friend’s praises in your head and think the judges will definitely share the same idea…cos darling they might not. If you are new to the industry, it is important for you to keep in mind that there are popular models that will most likely get picked. My advice is that you snap back to reality ,train yourself well to make sure you stand out . Continue reading →

Are you interested in becoming a model in Nigeria?? Well, things work slightly(or maybe a bit more than slightly) different here so I hope my posts/tutorials will come in handy.  If you’re ready, let’s BEGIN:

1.  DO A LITTLE RESEARCH: this is the first thing you have to do and a lot of upcoming models miss this part [VERY BAD]. If you wake up one day and decide you want to be in the modelling industry then you should atleast know what it entails. you don’t have to go deep into the research. Just find modelling pictures on the web, read a little about modelling, simply get a general idea on what its all about.
Read more !

I guess it is safe to say that last week wednesday, I “vexed”. Well, some people said I did but you know I feel it is important to tell things as they are especially in an industry like this so I intend to keep “vexing” once in a while lol.

Personally, I feel that one of the solutions to the problems I highlighted last week  is that there should be many CREDIBLE agencies and then every model  will belong to an agency. This way, modelling agencies get to set a reasonable amount that models should be paid..Anyways, let’s talk about something else today, shall we?

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 Now that you’re done with all I asked you to do in last week’s post Modelling In Nigeria:how/where to start  , its time to go find an agency or maybe not if you’re considering being a  freelance model.

To join or Not to join an agency. That’s the issue today!!

The proper thing to do is to join an agency.Companies/brands are supposed to deal with the agents and not the models directly but in Nigeria, this is
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In my last post which was just yesterday, I talked about test shoots and remember I mentioned that if I found any photographer interested in doing one, I’ll surely let you know.

Well, I have GREAT news. Styljunki in conjuction with Lynxx multimedia and TEJ Media is giving  a few of  our lovely styljunki readers that are models the chance to win a free model photoshoot session.

Lynxx team has the experience and expertise with their edge along these core areas: Digital photography, Event Coverage, Photo Studio, Graphic design, Printing Press, branding, multimedia, web design and application development.

Located at Suite H254-255, Ikota Shopping Complex,VGC, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria 2454. Contact no: 08062285228

Here are some of their works.
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