Two Queens – Dami & Fiona, One Creative Designer – Toju Foyeh & Gorgeous Newspapers for ThisDay Style!

On Sunday, the front cover of  weekly style magazine, ThisDay Style featured two beauty queens garbed in creatively constructed Newspaper garments by fashion designer, Toju Foyeh.

The dresses definitely got  fashion enthusiasts excited and I thought it would be befitting to have a brief chat with the designer about the experience.

Read on…

Ijeoma Ndekwu: What was the inspiration behind the dresses?

Toju Foyeh: The inspiration was something girly and ‘over the top‘

IJ: Was it difficult working with newspapers?

TF: It was quite difficult but I took it as a challenge. It was more of a learning process for me as I had to think of the best way to bring out the design without losing the fact that I was working with newspaper.

IJ: How long did it take to be completed?

TF: The outfits took roughly a week to complete.

IJ:  How did the idea come up to work with newspapers?

TF: I was actually given the task to work with newspapers. The Editor of ThisDay Style (Ruth Osime) always knew she wanted to have a newspaper cover and Latasha Ngwube, the profile correspondent thought it was a good choice to create the dresses. Before I knew it, there was a stack of papers at my door and I was like “let’s get to work people”!

IJ:  What did you find rewarding about the experience?

TF: The opportunity to have designed the piece for ThisDay Style itself was great. The challenge in itself; bringing the concept to fruition, opening my mind to stuff outside the box and meeting the new fantastic people. .I’ve been overwhelmed by the reviews in person, on Twitter and Facebook. The amazing photographer who shot the shot,  Okam Anthony was awesome. He needed to see the vision as we saw it, and bring it to life and I’m glad he worked on this project.

IJ: What are the design mechanics involved in creating a piece like that?

TF: It involved a lot! I used glue, staplers, and hangers on the skirts to make it stay up the way it did, if not the papers would have laid flat, it was more like construction. LoL

IJ: What do you plan to do with the dresses?

TF: I’m going to store them, till I find a way to exhibit it, who knows I may just be creating something along those lines soon.

View photos below:

P.S: These pictures are raw and untreated. They are not fully representative of the photographers work. However, we thought it was refreshing to publish these raw images.

The Beauty Queens were photographed by Okam Anthony [email protected], www. okamanthonystudios.com

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