Nigerian Pride

I’m originally of Nigerian descent but migrated to the United States when I was 10 years old. However, I have always been very proud of my Nigerian culture and heritage. My appreciation for my culture has heightened even more as I’ve gotten older. A big part of Nigerian culture is reminiscent in our vibrant clothing and jewelry and our love for extravagant things. I remember as a young girl always being in awe of how fly my grandmother was. An elderly woman who raised 6 children but always made sure she looked impeccable every time she got dressed up. Her 2 daughters (my mom and my aunt) also followed in her footsteps and I sometimes find myself thinking that I wish everyday Nigerian women like these were celebrated more in mainstream media.

So for this shoot, I wanted to celebrate my culture and showcase Nigerian inspired wardrobe with a contemporary abstract twist. The goal was simple: showcase the beauty of Nigeria through fashion, capture some dope images and show that it is not a shithole country (despite what someone falsely stated fairly recently). I shared a few of these images on my Instagram account on October 1st to celebrate Nigeria on its Independence Day. Here is the full assortment of images from that shoot…Enjoy! Great job to Tolu Bamwo for the shots and Autumn Breon as the muse.

(For behind the scenes action of this shoot…check out my highlights on Instagram @ascotsandpearls).

Credits

Photographer: Tolu Bamwo

Model: Autumn Breon

Wardrobe Styling + Creative Direction : Ascots and Pearls

REDEEM SPRING 2017 LOOKBOOK CAMPAIGN

We understand that styling is more than just clothes and what to wear. Great styling enhances brand management and how products or services are presented to the public. We enjoy being a part of that process and are always thrilled when we get the opportunity to work on projects related to brand management.  

REDEEM is an upscale boutique in Northwest Washington, DC that offers some really nice and unique clothing for both men and women sourced from a variety of designers worldwide.   Ascots and Pearls had the opportunity to create and style a Lookbook campaign for Redeem's Spring 2017 collection.  Lori (the owner) wanted the lookbook to highlight statement key pieces in the store's new collection. The clothes in this collection were very versatile and filled with neutrals, tans, and grey based color palettes.  The goal of this shoot was to ensure that we maintained the brand's minimalistic approach to fashion and showcase its identity throughout all the images. We collaborated with a great team of people on this project  and overall Lori was pleased with the images from this shoot.  If you're ever in the city, feel free to stop by and check out Redeem, DC. And as always, let us know your thoughts on this shoot.  Feedback is always welcome!

Credits: 

Client: Redeem DC

Photography + Creative Direction: Samson Binutu 

Wardrobe Styling + Creative Direction : Ascots and Pearls

Makeup: Megdi Tedla

Hair: Justina Samaiye

Models: Lekan, Paige, Adam    

FLY Girl | The Editorial

"FLY Girl": a girl who knows what she wants and goes for it. She does what she wants and doesn't care what anyone says about it. She's sexy in every way and doesn't take crap from anyone!

We came up with the FLY GIRL concept because we wanted to showcase a grittier side of the many ideas that keep floating in our heads.  The overall theme of this shoot was urban inspired chic with hints of futuristic and quirky vibes.  We shared some hair and makeup ideas with Megdi (MUA) and Justina (Hairstylist) that would really complement the clothing because we really wanted the hairstyles and makeup to elevate the concept.  We also wanted to feature a model that would be able to pull off the looks we had in mind. Ideally, we wanted a female model that would embody a mix of sexy, quirky and cool.  Sam introduced us to Paige and the minute we met her, we knew she would be perfect as our "Fly Girl". As you can see in the images, she embodied everything we were looking for!  We got together again with our super team of Sam (photographer),  Megdi (Makeup Artist) and new friend Justina (Hairstylist) and together our powers combined!

As always we thoroughly enjoyed working with each other and really loved how the images turned out. We believe in the power of a good team and plan to continue to challenge each other during our collaborations. So let us know did we pull it off? What are your favorite images? Don't forget to check out our behind the scenes Snap Chat footage of this shoot below and follow us on Instagram @ascotsandpearls.

Credits:

Photography: Samson Binutu 

Creative Direction + Wardrobe Styling: Ascots and Pearls

Makeup: Megdi Tedla

Hair: Justina

Model: Paige

The WALE INITIATIVE

Wale Afolabi is a musical prodigy! He is a super talented musical producer, beat maker, and songwriter.  He also plays almost every instrument (saxophone, drums, keyboard.. amongst others) and did we mention he also DJs? Wale is undoubtedly one of the most creative people we have ever met and he manages to stay so humble.

A few months ago, Wale reached out to us to help him create a concept for a photoshoot that he wanted to use as promotion for his work. He requested that we style him for the shoot as well.  Not only were we the stylists, we were also the Creative Directors of the shoot.  Wale entrusted us to come up with an overall concept, determine different outfit options and find unique locations that would complement the theme. We wanted to have a shoot that would reflect Wale's many musical talents, flair for fashion, and Nigerian heritage. We utilized an eclectic mix of formal, urban, contemporary and traditional (Nigerian native) clothing options to create an overall rock star vibe.

When we say that Wale was such a fun client to work with, we're really being modest. He has such an infectious personality and brought a lot of energy on set.  We also pulled in the extremely talented Arthur Adeola to capture the images. Arthur did such a wonderful job with the shots. His unique eye brought our vision to life. We collectively had such a great time together and can't wait to do it again. With Wale's unique talents coupled with his cheerful personality, we just know that he is going to be successful in his musical career and any other ventures he decides to pursue in life.

With that being said, we present "THE WALE INITIATIVE." Please tell us what you think of the shoot, your favorite images, favorite outfits, how great Wale's smile is:) etc. 

Client:  Wale Afolabi

Concept + Creative Direction + Wardrobe Styling: Ascots and Pearls

Photography: Arthur Adeola

Men's Grooming: Olivia

The Man in RED

Gold DUST!

MR. UNSTOPPABLE

THE MAN IN COLOR

COLORPOP

MARCH TO THE BEAT OF YOUR OWN DRUM!

AFRICAN PRIDE

WINTER IS COMING | The Editorial

Our first blog post. We're so excited! So can you tell that we are big Games of Thrones fans? A few months ago, we developed the concept of this "Winter is Coming" editorial. We wanted to showcase late Autumn/early winter looks inspired by the women on the show but with an added contemporary twist.  We had specific ideas about how we wanted the wardrobe, makeup and hair to look like and we were able to communicate that to rest of the team. So while brainstorming wardrobe ideas for our model April, we kept coming back to a running theme of FUR, FUR and more FuR (well faux fur). Fur just naturally became the running wardrobe theme of the shoot. We teamed up with some pretty creative people for makeup, photography and hairstyling (see links below) and had such a blast on this shoot.  

Creating this series and styling April (the model) was a lot of fun and we have to say she gave us some serious "Red Queen" vibes in some of these shots. Oh and did we mention that we met the cutest dog Homer while he was taking a walk (see below). A big thank you to Homer's owner who let us use him for a few shots (we wish we got his info so that we could share this with him). Anyway, here are some images and behind the scenes footage from the shoot...Great job to Samson for the awesome photography in this series. So what do you all think of the final results? Any Games of Thrones fans out there want to chime in?

Credits:

Photography: Samson Binutu 

Creative Direction + Wardrobe Styling: Ascots & Pearls

Makeup: Megdi Tedla

Hair: Chris

Model: April

Behind the scenes....Ascots and Pearls in motion...