Okay, so it's official, I'm not the same as I was. It feels like I say this a lot. Maybe I say it too much, but no matter. As they say, the price of the fish in the market remains unchanged, and more appropriately, the money in my bank account has neither apprexcated nor depprexcated, so let's get on with it.
On Saturday, the something of July (psst. the 19th of July) I resumed my event whoring lifestyle. I can hear my pastor's voice in my head.
"Afam. Afam. Event whoring is bad for your soul."
"Pastor. Pastor. Everybody's a whore for something, and champagne is as good a thing as money, so show me the Dom!"
I went to the Kingdom Tees Pop Up launch event at Temple Muse.
That thing above this line is the instagram flyer that they used to promote the event. Truth be told I saw it, but I wasn't going to go. I've been warring with the whoring lifestyle. I mean I'm worth more than a Belvedere cocktail aren't I? Getting me to come should cost more than a bottle of fizz, or a chilled chapman right? I swear, I was going to give it a miss, but on Friday night I bumped into Ozzy Etomi, one of the girls behind the Kingdom Tee shirt brand and I made up my mind there and then that the universe was speaking to me.
"Afam, my dear boy" The Universe whispered softly.
"You know that you've been drooling over those Kingdom tees ever since they got Boss Lakin to shoot that dark dark skin against pink magenta wall campaign"
I was tensioned. It was true. I had been drooling. I am still drooling.
"And let's not forget the card brandishing frenzy you almost went into when you saw the Nsibidi Chief tees."
That too was true. I brandished my cards all the way to the dustbin. I struggle with self control. When I'm tempted, I lose my cards.
"GTB card, where are you? Stanbic's running dry"
I had lost both the battle and the war. Come Saturday, I knew where I would be. As I sipped my free glass of red wine out of a Coke pint glass, I planned my journey to Temple Muse and back by return of google maps.
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| Afropolitan Vibes. Mixed Crowd. Lagos haze. Afam daze. |
Kingdom is an international street wear brand set up by Caven Etomi (an international fashion company). The brand designs and develops luxury street wear that shares little bits of Africa with the rest of the world. And they don't just share any bits of Africa, they share the good bits, like the history, the wealth, and the breadth of culture. It's a little bit of an Afrocentric brand, but it isn't Afrocentric in the way that many things or people are. If you aren't keen on checking your references then the nsibidi writing of the Ejegam people that makes its way unto a few of their tees is cool and tribal, and the Idia collection inspired by the infamous Queen Idia mask is just cool art on a tee (Maybe that last one is me reaching).
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| T shirts on the wall. |
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| Here we've got my sweedest girl Oyinye, and Deji. Look out, cos she's just too sweed for words, and it's breaking my heart in two, she's got too much soul for me. I don't like it but it's true. I think I've used this song before. I need more references. :( |
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| Latasha Ngwube and a friend. I can't believe I did the person and friend thing. :(. They had a selfie wall there. I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, it was as cool as a selfie wall can be, and I took a selfie and all, but you know, I'm a little bit tired of selfies. There are only so many times I can suck my cheeks in to give myself Olivier Rousteing like cheekbones. |
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| Faridah, who's lovely. She's got this hard exterior that I haven't cracked yet. I'm sure I will in time. I'm nothing if not loveable. |
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| Bidemi. I think she's inspiring, so when she said, "Afam I'm going to let you take my picture today." There were no complaints. |
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| Deola Adebiyi, senior writer at Hello Nigeria, co-owner of the fashion blog, Omoge Ruwa, and fellow champagne trail trudger. |
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| All poison is indeed poisonous, no matter how sweet, no matter how tart it is. But, the sweeter the poison, the greater the indulgence, toeing the line between the cliff and the fall. I toed the line like a pro that day. |
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| She's wearing the Nsibidi Nigerian hairstyles tee. I quite like that one. It's neutral, and it would look great baggy. I'm into baggy clothes again. |
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| Ozzy Etomi |
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| This isn't a very quiet smile is it. The question I had for myself after speaking to her is, how long can you go talking to someone without letting them know that you can't remember their name? It's actually cowardly. Must aspire to be more gung ho about these things in the future. |
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| And this my friends is some Kingdom art that you can own for N75,000. It isn't unreasonable you know? That's roughly £300. It seems like a fair deal to me. |
If you're interested in any of this, or all of this, then click on this link right here
http://www.cavenetomi.com/. It will take you to the world of Kingdom, and Caven. If you're in Nigeria, then Kingdom tees, and the two large paintings above can still be found in Temple Muse.
Temple Muse: 21 Amodu Tijani,
Victoria Island Lagos,
+234 708 726 4853
info@templemuse.com
Happy Days,
Afam
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