If you were going to be a fly on the wall for anyone’s prep process from the much talked about Filmhouse Ocean’s 8 Premiere, there was probably no better candidate than Nowe Isibor. As founder of the Mose Store, she has access to some of the very best in fashion and beauty; which means you’re more or less ready for a picturesque evening.
Which is exactly what we got, as well as a chance to chat with her glam team, one of whom was none other than acclaimed stylist Jane Michael Ekanem.
Check out our chat with Jane below:
Jane Michael Ekanem:
On inspiration and the creation process
I had done some Met Gala research on the various mind blowing themes, so after consultation with Nowe, it became clearer what I wanted. Her personality is vivacious, she is graceful and tends to light up a space by just being herself.
This for me I translated as a gift of light which is quite a goddess-like virtue to have so I opted for a seamless merge of 2003’s “Goddess: The Classical Mode” theme, this informed the color of fabric I choose….White depicting light I also wanted a subtle 2016: “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” reference so while shopping I needed a fabric that had metallic, chrome-like details, which I found in the jacquard fabric.
We pleated the fabric to achieve fullness, also cut it in asymmetrical way so that it gave her legs a peek-a-boo feel. Nowe has such beautiful skin and décolletage so the bodice was cut pretty low to show that off and emphasize her luminous glow.
The last theme I wanted to reference was the recently concluded 2018 ‘Heavenly Bodies-fashion and the Catholic Imagination’ theme. I initially planned to custom make a Pope-like headgear to complete the look.
On the finishing touch
We really wanted Nowe to be comfortable in her outfit, so when she mentioned that she is Catholic and would not want anything remotely resembling blasphemy, we had to rethink [it].
While trying to figure it out, I was randomly on Instagram and saw “ENVY OF ANGELS” on her bio, I called her up to ask what it meant. She explained that her brother Uwa gave her the name.
It hit me! Catholic-Christian-Heavenly Bodies-Guardian Angels.We could easily interpret that with the head piece instead of the papal mitre. This is where Urez came in. I gave her the brief and she interpreted and delivered the beautiful headpiece which completed the look and tied in our last theme.
On the hair and makeup choices
Since we were going with three themes, we had to tone down the makeup,but we still wanted to make reference to the goddess of light (Theia),so Ara by Laide delivered the ‘Glow-rious’ (This term was coined by Nowe!) makeup look.
For hair, we wanted the angelic head piece to stand out while it frames her face,so we opted for an elongated fishbone whispy ponytail which Ope delivered
I think Nowe wore the look to perfection.I couldn’t have asked for a better muse,It was spectacular.
The Final Product
Watch clips of Nowe getting ready below:
Credits
Nowe @theblackruby
Makeup @arabylaide
Outfit @janemichaelekanem
Headpiece @urezkulture
Photography @anny_robert