Nigerians react to current trend in make-up, costume

Over the years, the fashion and make-up industry has grown to be very lucrative. The demand for make-up and fashionable clothing has also continued to rise.

Like Rachel Zoe, an American fashion expert, said, Style is a way of expressing oneself without uttering a word.

The fashion trends in Nigeria are quite unique with rich and colourful designs one wouldn’t want to miss. The fashion industry has really evolved with more exposure, standard and style.

The make-up industry isn’t left behind as well. There has been a high surge in the number of make-up products all over the country. Young women (and in some cases men too) have resorted to studying the art of make-up and the number of young people applying to learn make-up has increased significantly.

90 per cent of the trends in fashion in the country are as a result of Western influence on our African society. Nigeria wants to be a part of the global community of fashion and as such follows and adopts trends from the western culture. Some of these trends are good while some do not even sit well with the idea of ‘being Nigerian.’

While some Nigerians are embracing these trends, others have a different mindset about it. Having spoken to some group of persons about the topic at hand, this is what they had to say;

A make-up artist, Kelvin Demigod said; “The development in our make-up industry has undoubtedly contributed to improving employment.

“There is no denying the disappointment in the fact that our Nigerian make-up industry has allowed the western concept of physical perfection to influence our cultural standards of beauty.

“At the end of the day, make-up is life and it helps some ladies suffering from lack of confidence. It helps to make them feel beautiful and good about themselves therefore we have to embrace it.”

An older man, Mr christopher Ikechukwu, on the other hand is of the opinion that women don’t need make-up to feel confident.

Ikechukwu said, “I personally do not like it when ladies put on make-up. You can apply very little and you’d still look beautiful. Heavy make-up just makes one look scary.

“So I think that women are more beautiful without all those painting on their faces.

“What if there was nothing like make-up, what will all these sisters do?

”When it comes to fashion, some people are very simple and really don’t have time to follow all these trends while some will do literally any and everything to be up to date with each and every trend.”

Mrs Precious Aliko, a fashion designer stated that fashion is a way of life and there’s a saying that says “dress the way you want to be addressed.”

She said; “In my opinion, people should be able to express themselves through fashion. Following the latest trends on fashion, it is a way to let people know that as the years go by, the world is evolving and that staying the same isn’t exactly embracing the evolution.”

A supermarket owner, Adams Wadata said his is not happy with what the world is turning into fashion wise.

Wadata said; “It is really sad to see how our youths dress this days, back in the days, you will see people dress decently but these days, almost every girl wants to show vital part of their bodies to the public.”

He added that he is not a fan of current fashion trends and the government should do something about indecent dressing in the Nigeria.