This week just flew by and last night was the night for the Sudanese African Girls' fashion parade night in Perth. Organised by WA's top model Sarah Ayor from Scene Model Agency, the show effectively paved its way to become a platform for up and coming African models to showcase their talents.
As far as I know this is the very first of its kind in Perth. Apart from Sarah and garments donated by fabulous designers - Betty Tran from Betty Sugar and Taku M from Ribbons of Africa there were no pros involved and it was all supported by friends and family members. As Taku pointed out it takes a lot of guts to put something like this together. There was obvious chaos backstage (as with any fashion shows) and the show was delayed (as with all fashions shows). There was a police vehicle outside the building for no reasons other than a whole bunch of African guys attended the show in support of the community. Nothing exciting happened outside as far as I know.
Inside the Morley Recreation Centre, however, was rocking. As I always say, it doesn't matter whether it's a fancy luxury brand show or charity show (bad lighting and a so so venue) if there is good loud music, a runway and pretty girls I'm there. So it was plenty of fun with African style enthusiasm even from a small crowd of people. Boy, they can really shout and cheer. That made the show all so special I thought.
I could see that Sarah (in black pants and polka dot dress) put a lot of effort into training the girls.
It's been announced that The future Modelling of Sudan (or Africa) will become an annual event. And, there will be a modelling competition. Now, that's going to spice up things a little. Why is Sarah doing all this off her own bat without any commercial help or assistance? I can only guess that as a mother who had a child at the age of 17 it must have been a quite a life turning experience modelling for Scene and appearing in magazine covers and having her photos in London and New York. That gives a lot of hope for young African girls. That should be reason enough I think.
The set of photos above were just a small selection out of the Young Models' parade. Let's say that if I was a casting agent I would have had a second look at the girl in top two photos. After sitting behind a camera in numerous shows, I know a thing or two about 'spotting good models'. I wonder if any of these girls will pursue the modelling career in the end.
Perth is a small city but as someone I met pointed out it is full of pretty girls. There are three major modelling agencies. This means there's a bit of competition. It may seem all glamourous but it's not all that lucrative and I know for a fact that a lot of people work for free. That is true with all fashion industry related jobs. There I said it.
Is money everything though? Of course not. So here we are (there I was as well) for love of things. Sarah's emotional speech at the end of show summed it up. It's about giving girls hope and opportunity to experience something different.
For a show organised by a first time show organiser, fashion model, Sarah, it was pretty damn good. I'm looking forward to the next year's Future Modelling of Africa (as I'm sure there are other African nation girls with similar aspiration). Well done, Sarah and congrats to all the girls in the show.
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