This year marked the fifth edition of the Heineken Lagos Fashion and Design Week that takes place in Nigeria every year. One of the brands that showcased its collection on day 2 of the event was Akpos Okudu.
Since 2011 that its first edition was organized, Heineken Lagos Fashion and Design Week has remained dedicated to the growth and promotion of fashion in Nigeria and Africa by providing a platform for them to showcase their works to a larger audience. Check out the pieces that were showcased by Akpos Okudu at the event.
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It’d be nice if everyone who began a career in real estate became as successful as tycoons like Don Burns overnight. However, the truth is that building a real estate career takes many years of time and effort. No one becomes a mogul in the blink of an eye.
One of the best ways to improve your real estate career is by making valuable industry connections. Connections can be the bread and butter of moving forward in your career. To help you take your real estate practice to the next level, here are some tips on how to make connections in the real estate world.
Attend Industry Events
Many real estate professionals avoid industry events, as they assume that they will be dry and boring. While not all events are exciting, they are great places to meet top industry people and make new connections. Anyone who wants to move forward in their career should make attending these events a priority.
Always Have A Business Card Ready
Meeting potential clients and investors doesn’t just happen at conferences and events. Rather, it can happen at places completely unrelated to the world of real estate. You could strike up a conversation in a grocery store only to realize that you’re talking to a potential client. For this reason, always have a business card at the ready. Even though we live in a world where many people just exchange phone numbers on their cell phones, it’s easy to forget a phone number when it’s saved amongst a hundred other numbers in your phone. A business card is a physical, tangible reminder of who you are.
Be Friendly And Extroverted
People are drawn to those with friendly and extroverted personalities and real estate is a world where people need to be drawn to you. You should strive to have an outgoing personality. It will help you to create connections with new people and strengthen your relationships with the clients that you already have.
Encourage Friends And Family To Pass On Your Information
Encourage your friends and family members to pass your information on to any potential clients. People trust word-of-mouth marketing and it’s really the best way to get your name out there. The more your friends and family pass on your reference, the more connections that you’ll make.
Study Up
There are numerous great self-help books out there that are designed to help real estate professionals improve their people skills. Invest in a few of these books and study up on how you can improve your interpersonal skills. The more time and effort that you put into perfecting these skills, the more naturally you will make connections within this industry.
Real estate is all about who you know. Even if you don’t yet have many connections, you can make them if you follow the above tips. Just remember to be friendly, extroverted and to treat each and every interaction as a potential new business contact
Hello Afro Cosmopolitan fashionistas, this one is hot from the runway. The pieces are from Totally Ethnik collections at the just concluded Ghana Fashion and Design Week. The pieces are made of laces, tulle and much more. The fabrics consist of mono colours as well bold prints. White, yellow, blue and green are the most prominent colours in the collection.
What do you think of the pieces in this collection by Totally Ethnik? Do you think they are great and something you would wear? Share your views by leaving a comment below.
Dutch Design Week (DDW) looks back on a successful fourteenth edition. For 9 whole days the event presented experiments and ideas, answers and solutions by 2,500 designers in almost 100 locations. The event attracted an estimated record number of more than 275,000 visitors.
What if…
Under the banner of ‘What if…’, the question with which every designer and all innovation starts, DDW presented work by renowned designers, but as tradition dictates also with plenty of space for young talent and experiment. Extra attention went to the future thinkers, dreamers, changers and their innovations. Good examples of this were the ‘Chilling in a Box’ from the BioArt Laboratories, ‘Playing Life exhibition’ by Transnatural Art & Design and the exhibition ‘It’s Your World’, in which designers used everyday and less everyday issues (refuse, health, industry) to speculate on what design could mean for us all and for tomorrow’s world.
Ambassadors
This year too, the DDW ambassadors made an important contribution to the week.
Designer, philosopher and scientist Koert van Mensvoort launched his new nature movement Next Nature Network, provided direction for Design Fiction and focused special attention on design in relation to the current refugee issue. Designers Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey (Studio Makkink & Bey) concentrated on the stimulation of collaborations between designers, drew the public to workspaces and laboratories, and played an important part during international press tours.
Highlights
A valuable contribution to the week was the new Veemgebouw location, where Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie provided a good idea of the new generation (digital) designers and architects with the intrinsically strong exhibition ‘In No Particular Order’. Other highlights were ’Age of Wonderland’ by Baltan Laboratories and Hivos, ‘The Allegory of the South’ by Aart van Asseldonk in the Paterskerk, ‘London Calling’ in the Stroomhuis (with work by Lucas & Lucas, Maarten Baas, Kiki van Eijk & Joost van Bleiswijk), OXI on Sectie-C (by Justine Kontou, Tessa Koot and Club-C), ‘Fontys Factory CANCER’ at the Temporary Art Centre (TAC) and ‘Dutch Invertuals presents NO STATIC’ by curator Wendy Plomp.
Connections
Partly thanks to the attention from a large number of professionals from the design scene, commerce and the media partners, DDW demonstrated its function as an international stage for design. During the extensive programme that included lectures, seminars, workshops, network meetings and talk shows, personal contacts and intrinsic connections for the future were made between commerce, the manufacturing industry, knowledge institutes and government bodies. Strong examples are the project ‘Bottle-up’ (six designers exploring solutions for the glass refuse problem on the island of Zanzibar) and the ‘CoLab: Toon® Design Challenge’ by Eneco (about energy consumption and the smart thermostat). Other design competitions, like the Volvo Design Challenge (winner Lilian van Daal) and Pastoe Design Contest (winner Marjan van Aubel) put new talent in the limelight. So too did main sponsor ABN AMRO that, together with designer Miriam van de Lubbe, granted fledgling talent a special place in one of its Hotspots.
Awards
Saturday evening 24 October the annual Dutch Design Awards were presented. Submarine Channel came out the big winner during the festive award show in the Effenaar. The agency’s interactive documentary ‘Refugee Republic’ won in the category Communication and also took home the Future Award (the prize for the most promising design for the future). The encouragement prize for young talent (Young Designer Award) was awarded to designer Teresa van Dongen. All award winners can be found on the Dutch Design Awards website.
For the first time this year, there was a prize for the most surprising or impressive presentation to express extra appreciation for the designers and exhibition creators who make DDW a success. The ambassadors awarded the Best of Dutch Design Week Award to ‘Modebelofte: Performing Advancers’ by concept store You Are Here, curated by designers Niek Pulles and Harm Rensink. The project was praised for its special presentation in an unusual spot (the Philips Stadium); for the fine entrepreneurship of all those involved; and for the organisers’ effort and generosity towards the fashion talent taking part in the exhibition.
Good atmosphere
The DDW organisers look back at a successful fourteenth edition. Thanks to a record number of participants, locations and visitors, Eindhoven again manifested itself as the centre of design for nine whole days. The good atmosphere was reinforced even more by a generously filled and very busy evening programme with DDW Music at different locations spread across the city.
Waje’s outfit to Divas Simply Singing event 2015 is made with the ankara African print fabric.
Nigerian singer, Waje wore this African print outfit to the 25th edition of the Divas Simply Singing concert that was hosted by hosted by Sheryl Lee Ralph. The Nigerian musician, who is currently in LA was one of the artists that performed live at the yearly event that was held last night at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood, CA.
The mother of one rocked the outfit with her two-toned short blonde hair, a gold purse and earrings, a large ring, and a bracelet.
Spend some time to look around the site for styles to give you the inspiration you need to get that showstopping outfit. From formal to casual, there are different kinds of styles to steal from.
Ghanaian actress, Nadia Buari attended Susan Peters’ traditional marriage ceremony that took place in Benue State in Nigeria. The Ghallywood star was wearing this gorgeous body-clinging lace dress that shows off her curves and great body features. The new mum who gave birth to twins not long ago attended the Nollywood’s actress traditional wedding wearing the beautiful dress and wrapping her head in a yellow scarf that matches well with the golden lace fabric that was used to make her dress.
On 22 October 2015 the first ECO coin – a coin for nature’s ecology value – was presented symbolically by initiator Koert van Mensvoort from the new Next Nature Network. It was launched at the Now Future Talkshow during Dutch Design Week, for which Koert is an ambassador this year. Next Nature Network is a new nature movement in the Netherlands that does not want to go back, but forward towards nature. Koert presented the coin to Yoyo Yogasmana from the project Age of Wonderland, for his work in Indonesia conserving more than 130 existing rice varieties without any use of insecticides.
ECO coin
After previous buzzed-about projects, including the In Vitro Meat Cookbook, the Rayfish Footwear hoax and the travelling Nano Supermarket, the Next Nature Network will spend next year focusing on the initiation of an ECO coin that expresses the value of nature. Just like other currencies, such as the Dollar, Euro and even the Bitcoin, the ECO coin has a rate of exchange that fluctuates along with the necessity of protecting vulnerable ecologies – like the rain forest or the coral reef.
Next Nature Network
Next Nature Network (NNN) is a new nature movement in the Netherlands, encouraging people to view nature anew and differently. Traditional nature organisations have too romantic an image of unspoilt nature. Next Nature Network believes that we are surrounded by technology to such an extent that it has become our new nature. With stimulating products, publications, exhibitions and events, Next Nature Network wants to not avoid discussions about subjects such as nanotechnology, printed food, living cities and robots, but drive them. From today, it is possible to become a member of the Next Nature Network on www.nextnature.nl; the body of ideas is supported in exchange for a stimulating product.
“Next Nature is a new way of looking at the relationship between people, nature and technology. Traditionally, we see nature and technology as opposites, but we’re living in a time where technology is so omnipresent that it has become new nature”, says initiator Koert van Mensvoort.
The first NNN ambassadors, including astronaut Andre Kuipers, popular philosopher Bas Haring and designer Daan Roosegaarde have already endorsed the Next Nature Network.
Yoyo Yogasmana – Age of Wonderland
Yoyo Yogasmana (Ciptagelar Kasepuhan, Indonesia) is one of the Age of Wonderland creatives. Age of Wonderland is a four-year programme curated by Arne Hendriks by Hivos and Baltan Laboratories together with Dutch Design Week. In this second edition of Age of Wonderland, six creatives ‘hack’ the food system. This is necessary too, because the current food system is not capable of feeding the world population and does not function sustainably. The creatives – from Indonesia, Kyrgisia, Tanzania and Mexico – exchange knowledge with Dutch creative spirits, with specialists and the audience at large. This is done at a series of events, including an exhibition, the ‘future food seminar’, workshops and pop-up (food) labs. The artist Yoyo Yogasmana (1970, Ciptagelar Kasepuhan Community, Indonesia), grows 130 rice varieties and demonstrates how things can be done completely differently. www.ageofwonderland.nl
About Dutch Design Week
Dutch Design Week is taking place in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) from Saturday 17 to Sunday 25 October. With the theme ‘What if…’, DDW honours and emphasises designers’ power of imagination for nine whole days. DDW distinguishes itself from other design events by concentrating on designs for the future. The focus is on experiment, innovation, cross-overs and development of young talent. There are 3 design areas, 100 locations, 2,500 designers and over 380 events. www.ddw.nl
Hello Afrocosmopolitan fashionista’s, come in here and take a look at these out these radiant ankara styles. The ankara African fabric is one of the most popular material loved by all Africans. Before, top fashionistas only wore it at traditional events that were compulsory to wear cultural clothes. But today, the fabric has gone international and you can make almost any style with it.
With that said, check out these radiant African styles below and let us know what you think.
For more radiant African styles to slay at every outing, take a look at the website. You’ll find different asoebi styles, ankara skirt and blouses, long and short dresses, jumpsuits, children attires and much more.
So, a Nigerian doctor was stabbed to death by a student who broke into her home and murdered her. According to the Daily Mail UK, a Nigerian doctor has been murdered by a 21-year-old student named Christopher Frick. The accused killed the 55-year-old woman who is a psychologist because he was angry she had him committed to a mental health institution in Stanton, Delaware against his will. Frick committed the murder, three years after he was sent to the family involuntarily.
Frick broke into the home of the Nigerian, Dr Caroline Ekong last Wednesday and stabbed her to death for sending him to a mental institution. According to the evidence gathered by the police, the killer has been planning the murder for about one year before he finally carried it out.
Dr Ekong’s dead body was discovered by her daughter. Frick has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
Maheeda steps out in a black sheer dress with all her vital parts covered. Usually, the Holland based Nigerian and self acclaimed Goddess of X is famous for posting nude photos of herself to her social platform. Her Instagram account was once deleted because of the inappropriate photos she always post.
