VIDEO: “If You Can Not Use A Nigerian Model Why Should We Buy Your Products” – Joan Speaks!

Last year October, I turned a few heads when I wrote the article Not One Ghanaian Model Has Campaigned For Holland’s Vlisco.

Afterall, Vlisco is the all big company that has various diplomats and fashion shows attend it’s fashion shows, how dare FashionGHANA.com writes an article identifying the fact that, despite them making so much money off the concept of Ghanaian fashion, the brand to date his not hired one Ghanaian model nor Ghanaian photographer for it’s campaign.

It’s absolutely absurd that we can continue to support any such company that can totally disregard using our faces for so many years to market amongst ourselves. Especially one that is enrooted in our struggling fashion industry.

Recently, Joan Okorodudu of ISIS models has been promoting Black Models Matter in Nigeria, and even hosted the founder from USA to speak at a seminar. Black Models Matter is a concept that began in America due to the unfair treatment of black models. I have always been puzzled as to why the concept of Black Models Matter would be relevant in Nigeria or Africa for that matter, and been a little reluctant to see it as such.

However, a short video clip of an interview with Joan Okorodudu popped up on her instagram and in that short space of time, she made great points and reiterated what we were identifying in our article.

Black models matter#blackmodelsmatter#models@fashionone@cctvafrica@cnnstyle@cnninsideafrica@cnnafricanvoices@ftv@abc@vogueitalia#vogueitalia#vogueuk#vogue.com

A video posted by IsisModelsOfficial (@isismodelsafrica) on May 14, 2016 at 8:54pm PDT

The reason Donald Trump is picking up so much steam in America is not because he or America is racist, that is what corporations which fear they won’t be able to control him pay the media to put in your mind. The reason he is such a supported figure is that he puts America first when it comes to jobs and foreign and local entities scrounging off America but employing abroad. This is not to say exclude anything foreign, but trade must be acted upon mutual respect.

This is a necessary stance that must be adopted in Ghana. Don’t sell us your phones to us if you can not hire a Ghanaian model, don’t sell us your fabrics if you can not shoot your campaign here in Ghana with a Ghanaian photographer and then brag about how foreign you are. Maybe if more Ghanaian’s start to say “If You Can Not Use A Ghanaian Model Why Should We Buy Your Products”, Vlisco might just use an African based model for their campaign.

And there are many reasons why only FashionGHANA.com is the only fashion blog in Ghana that will speak out on this, but that’s another article. Goodluck to Joan Okorodudu and her campaign in Nigeria. She will also be attending Accra Fashion Week and judging at #Face Of AFWk 2016.

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