Nigerian designer Amaka Osakwe of Maki Oh has been steadily climbing the fashion ranks at an unstoppable pace, but this week added ‘personal guest of Michelle Obama’ to her list of feats in fashion, having been invited to attend the First Lady’s Celebration of Design event at The White House.
The event – an initiative by The President of the United States’ wife, aimed at providing 50 students from 14 schools in the US with insider fashion industry knowledge – took place on Wednesday 8th of October, and saw a list of Ms Obama’s favourite designers teaching students how to create wearable technology and how to construct garments.
Top names including Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu and Narciso Rodriguez were in attendance for the workshop, as well as infamous fashion editors Anna Wintour, Eva Chen and Cecilia Dean, who were on hand to teach students about journalism and fashion reporting.
Michelle Obama told guests in a speech at the event;
“Fashion is about so much more than just a pretty pair of pumps or the perfect hemline. For so many people across the country, it is a calling, it is a career, and it’s a way they feed their families.”
Amaka’s invitation to the evening reception following the workshop came after Ms Obama was spied wearing a top by Maki Oh last year, while on her tour of Africa. It seems having fallen in love with Ms Osakwe’s designs, Maki Oh isn’t too far from Michelle’s mind when pulling a list of her favourite designers together.
Attending the reception, Amaka mingled with fashion’s stars Naomi Campbell, Duro Olowu and Zac Posen, showing off her own designs by wearing a piece from her just revealed Spring/Summer’15 collection.
With Maki Oh finding fans in Beyonce, Solange Knowles, Rihanna and Kerry Washington to name a few, and now being firmly on Michelle Obama’s radar, we at SPICE predict massive things from Ms Osakwe and can’t wait to see what’s next from one of African fashion’s best reps.
See below the designer’s snaps from the night, and peep her latest lookbook here;
Image source: @Maki.oh, @Zac_posen, @31philliplim, @Michelleobama
