Friday 23rd of May 2025

Nairobi, Kenya

Tag: Fashion Icon

Digital Hustle: How Social Media Content Creation is Empowering Kenya’s Youth

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

In a country where traditional white-collar employment opportunities remain scarce, many young Kenyans are embracing digital platforms to carve out alternative careers. Content creation and photography, once seen as hobbies, are now becoming viable income sources for Kenya’s youth, who are leveraging social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to build audiences and generate income.

According to the United Nations, 35% of Kenya’s population is aged between 15 and 34, with an alarming 67% of this demographic currently unemployed. Against this backdrop, content creation has emerged as a beacon of hope for many.

Turning Creativity into Livelihood

Every Sunday, groups of young Kenyans gather in parks and public spaces armed with cameras and smartphones. They choreograph dances, film skits, and create engaging content, later uploading their work to various social media platforms. For individuals like 22-year-old Vincent Otieno, this effort provides more than just entertainment—it is a livelihood.

Otieno, along with his six-member dance team from Nairobi’s slums, earns money through tips from TikTok fans, YouTube ads, and live performances at events. Each team member makes an average of $120 per month, which Otieno sees as a significant step toward financial independence. “We post on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where we make around $100 a month, which is better than nothing,” he says.

Rising Stars of Social Media

For 25-year-old street fashion model Caycee Achieng Mboya, known as “Lupita Nyakisumo,” social media is more than a creative outlet—it’s a professional venture. With over 200,000 TikTok followers, she advertises products for clients, showcasing how social media can rival traditional jobs in income generation and exposure.

Similarly, the trio of 20-year-olds—Angeline Muema, Trisha Pangie, and Cecilia Nyambura—have been active content creators on TikTok for a year. Together, they make $600 monthly through fan contributions and partnerships. Angeline, still a college student, views this as a pragmatic choice in the face of Kenya’s unpredictable job market. “It’s better I do these videos and earn something than just staying idle. Even if I graduate, there’s no guarantee I’ll get a job,” she reflects.

Government Support and Policy Changes

In 2022, the Nairobi County Government acknowledged the growing role of creative industries by waiving all business permit requirements for photographers and filmmakers. This policy change eliminated the need for licenses from the Kenya Film and Classification Board, which previously posed barriers with heavy fines and potential arrests for non-compliance.

A Pathway Away from Social Vices

For 25-year-old dancer and nursing graduate Mark Maranga, content creation is about more than financial stability—it’s a means to steer clear of social ills. After failing to secure a job in his field, Maranga turned to dancing and content creation to support his family and provide a positive alternative for youth in his community. “Instead of indulging in activities like stealing, now they engage in dancing and earn something to feed their families,” he explains.

A New Dawn for Kenyan Youth

As traditional employment avenues shrink, social media platforms are becoming lifelines for Kenya’s youth. By combining creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship, they are not only earning incomes but also redefining the concept of work in a digital age. For many, content creation isn’t just a hustle—it’s hope for a brighter future.

Content courtesy of  NFH Digital Team

Fashion Icon: Dame Vivienne Westwood Passed Away at The Age of 81.

Posted on by Ann Mumbi

Fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood has sadly died today, aged 81, according to a statement released on the designer’s Twitter account. The designer passed away surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London.

In a statement posted at 9:04pm this evening [29 December] the designer’s house said: “29th December 2022. Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better.”

29th December 2022.

Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London.

The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better. pic.twitter.com/YQwVixYUrV

— Vivienne Westwood (@FollowWestwood) December 29, 2022
Vivienne Westwood rose to fame in the 1970s, bringing in punk to the mainstream and opening up her store Let It Rock with her then partner Malcolm McLaren.

Over the years her designs have been worn by celebrities including Dita Von Teese, Sarah Jessica Parker and Princess Eugenie.

Westwood was also known for her activism work, often bringing attention to causes including climate change.

In 2006 she was made a dame for her services to fashion.

Vivienne’s husband and creative partner Andreas Kronthaler has said: “I will continue with Vivienne in my heart.

“We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with.”

Other tributes have also begun to pour in from celebrities and politicians including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan who tweeted: “Vivienne Westwood was a creative icon who helped cement the UK at the very forefront of modern fashion. My thoughts are with her family and friends.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one winner The Vivienne tweeted: “Vivienne Westwood is the woman that showed me I could do anything, I could wear what I wanted, she was an ICON and I lived my life through hers in some sorts of way. There will never be another, but we’ll continue your fight.”

TV presenter Johnathan Ross has also tweeted his condolences saying: “RIP the great Vivienne Westwood. Unique. Brilliant. Uncompromising. Thanks Viv x.”

Content courtesy of Cosmopolitan Magazine & NFH

Renowned French fashion designer Pierre Cardin dies at age 98

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

Legendary French fashion designer Pierre Cardin died Tuesday at the age of 98 at a hospital in Neuilly in western Paris, his family told AFP.

Born on July 7, 1922, in Venice, Italy but emigrated to France as a small child, Pierre Cardin was known for savvy business moves and his space-age designs that made him highly successful

Iconic French designer Pierre Cardin, who was hailed for his avant-garde styles in the 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 98, according to the French Academy of Fine Arts. The academy did not give a cause of death or say where or when he died.

Cutting his teeth working at top couture houses such as Christian Dior, Cardin went on to launch his own brand and pioneered the use of licensing in fashion, plastering his label’s name on products of all kinds. His savvy business sense brought him a mix of admiration but also scorn from fashion purists at the time.

In the 1960s and ’70s, he upended traditional fashion with his futuristic, avant-garde looks. He became known for his visionary creations, shaking up fashion with bubble dresses and geometrical designs. Cardin was also one of the first to bring high fashion to the masses by selling collections in department stores beginning in the late 1950s.

While he no longer presented runway collections in his later years, Cardin remained active in the industry, attending parties and events and taking young designers under his wing.

He had previously been a mentor to prominent designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier.

According to Reuters, “In a career spanning more than 60 years, Cardin drew scorn and admiration from fellow fashion designers for his brash business sense. He maintained that he built his business empire without ever asking a bank for a loan. Cardin was the first designer to sell clothes collections in department stores in the late 1950s, and the first to enter the licensing business for perfumes, accessories and even food – now a major profit driver for many fashion houses.”

According to Britannica.com, Cardin’s father was a wealthy French wine merchant who wanted him to study architecture but he was interested in dress designing. After World War II, he joined the Parisian fashion house of Paquin, where he helped design costumes for Jean Cocteau’s film Beauty and the Beast. He also worked at the couture house of Christian Dior.

In 1950, he opened a shop of his own and gradually gained a solid reputation as a men’s suit maker. In 1959, he created one of the first ready-to-wear collections for women, and in 1960 introduced the first designer ready-to-wear collection for men.

“I had a sense for marketing my name,” Cardin had told Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in 2007. “Does money spoil one’s
ideas? I don’t dream of money after all, but while I’m dreaming, I’m making money. It’s never been about the money.”

He was most noted for his stark, short tunics and his use of vinyl, helmets, and goggles in the 1960s, which helped launch the so-called space-age look. Cardin later became famous for licensing his name for use on a variety of products (such as sunglasses). The practice of licensing subsequently became common for fashion designers.

 

Gowns and bodysuits in fluorescent spandex were fitted with plastic hoops that stood away from the body at the waist, elbows, wrists, and knees. Bubble dresses and capes enveloped their wearers in oversized spheres of fabric. Toques were shaped like flying saucers, bucket hats sheathed the model’s entire head with cutout windshields at the eyes, reported AP.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CENbxoaCany/?utm_source=ig_embed

For his latest venture in February this year he teamed up with a designer seven decades his junior. Pierre Courtial, 27, unveiled a collection at Cardin’s studio on Paris’s chic Rue Saint-Honore, with pieces that echoed some of the veteran designer’s geometrical aesthetics.

Cardin said he still rated originality above anything else.”I’ve always tried to be different, to be myself,” Cardin had told Reuters. “Whether people like it or not, that’s not what matters.”

Content courtesy of France 24, Indian Express & Nairobi fashion hub 

French Fashion Icon Hubert De Givenchy Dies at the Age of 91

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

Hubert de Givenchy, the aristocratic French fashion designer whose understated style represented a golden age of elegance, has died aged 91.
Givenchy dressed Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy and is famous for the “little black dress”. He died at the Renaissance chateau near Paris that he shared with his partner and fellow designer Philippe Venet.

At 6ft 6in tall, Givenchy, whose full name was Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy, was a giant of the fashion world in every sense.He created on- and off-screen wardrobes for Hepburn for films including Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Funny Face. His enduring muse, Hepburn inspired Givenchy’s first perfume, l’Interdit, and is credited with the designer’s subsequent success and popularity in the US.
Givenchy, who learned his trade from another fashion master, Cristóbal Balenciaga, produced restrained designs of what admirers called an “extreme elegance” that became his trademark. His creations were eagerly awaited and sought out by the titled and wealthy in the 1950s and 60s, including Princess Grace of Monaco and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

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