Fashion bloggers are not fake — Akosuavee
Fashion blogs apart from serving as a guide for dressing also provide readers with an easy way to keep up with fashion trends.
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With the trend gradually taking over conventional fashion journalism the world over, fashion bloggers in Ghana who prefer to be known as celebrity stylists are leaving no stone unturned to commercialise the trend in the country.
The advent of social media has provided platforms for bloggers to showcase designs and clothing trends with many posting high fashion photos on a daily basis.
It has also made it easier for bloggers to share fashion tips and photo illustrations.
However, there is a general view that such platforms have become a place where stylists and bloggers create public personas in a desperate move to draw attention to themselves.
Majority of photos posted by bloggers are over-edited to show off expensive clothes, shoes and accessories, and in some cases, their status updates display photographs of what they might wear for a particular occasion, which in some cases could be an embellishment of the truth.
Fashion blogger and celebrity stylist, Voilet Bannerman Quaye, popularly, known as Akosuavee has, however, debunked the assertion, saying, “It is overly wrong for people to label fashion bloggers as fakes.”
According to her, there are many positives to the social media phenomenon and fashion blogging.
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She indicated that the venture has created an avenue for many young graduates to be engaged in a useful manner which translates into income for them.
Akosuavee, who had been selected by wax print manufacturing giant, Vlisco Ghana to be part of a team of bloggers to promote the company’s Pret-a-Couture, told Graphic Showbiz in an interview that fashion blogs run by stylists serve as platforms of marketing for many boutique owners and dealers in fashion accessories such as hair extensions, bags, jewellery, among others.
“We get paid by boutique owners and dealers in fashion accessories if we do photo shoots and blog details on our websites and social media platforms. These platforms serve as a customer link for these retailers,” she said.
“If you are doing something and there is no reward for it, then there is no point in doing it”, she added.
She is of the view that many members of the public have lots of clothes in their closets but are unable to match colours appropriately, until they see bloggers combining similar colours beautifully,”she said.
“These days, I hardly ever buy clothes, hair pieces, shoes and even bags, because shop owners give them to me free of charge, knowing followers of my social media pages will get in touch with their shops for similar items,” Akosuavee hinted.
The popular blogger, who runs the akosuavee.com blog, where she shares tips about trends as well as where customers can purchase particular outfits for occasions, said her daily update on social media which serves as an advertorial for dealers, also goes to increase sales for her clients.
The BSc Marketing graduate from Regent University in Accra, whose blog started initially as a project work for her friend, Dora Arkorful, a former student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), said she had not regretted venturing into the terrain.
“When my friend created the blog under my name with my pictures, I realised it would be a difficult task, since I will have to do photo shoots, and also come up with write ups about the outfits I wore in the photos.
“I wanted to give up, however, my big break came when actress, Nana Ama McBrown contacted me through a friend to style her for a photo-shoot,” she said.
“I even make money by offering for sale some of the clothes and accessories I wear for photo shoots on my blog, and I do personal shopping for people too.
So there are diverse sources of income from what we do as fashion bloggers and stylists,” she said boastfully.
Akosuavee who has celebrity clients such as model, Victoria Michaels, popular television hosts, Nana Aba Anamoah and Basiwaa Duwuona-Hammond, publisher of Glitz African Magazine, Claudia Lumor, actress and television host, Selly Galley, among others believes the styling industry is making strides, since people had become conscious about their appearance.
The event appearance reward package concept introduced by Euro Star Limousines, Akosuavee said had equally made the styling job exciting, as it provided them with a platform to select outfits for celebrities attending red carpet events.
The stylist, who has also been contracted by TV3 to serve as a chaperon for the season 10 of the station’s beauty and cultural programme, Ghana’s Most Beautiful (GMB) pageant, is however, worried that the relatively competitive young styling industry was already faced with challenges such as badmouthing.
“In Nigeria, the fashion styling and blogging is a lucrative venture and bloggers willingly help each other by sharing posts to direct traffic to each other’s sites, but here in Ghana, the story is different”, Akosuavee suggested.
While calling for support from the creative industry, Akosuavee is hopeful the industry would also serve as a medium through which the country’s fashion industry could witness a significant growth.