Oluchi, Nigeria’s contribution to global modelling

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By OKEY OBIOZO

When beautiful Oluchi Onweagba-Orlandi won the maiden edition of the M-Net Face of Africa (now Nokia Face of Africa) competition in 1998, it was like a dream to her friends and family members.

Her winning the competition was remarkable because considering her humble background and disposition in life, nobody gave her a chance.

However, with the encouragement of people around her, she was able to prove significantly that where there is will power, there must be breakthrough. Her success story has remained an inspiration and motivation to many who are aspiring for new accomplishments around the world.

She was born on August 1, 1982. She grew up in Ojuelegba, a suburb of Lagos, with her two brothers and sisters. Her father was a civil servant and her mother a nurse.

Oluchi, as she is famously called, grew up ordinarily like every other child in her neighbourhood. So, from inception, there was nothing special about her to indicate that she would later in life make the spectacular success that she has become.

As luck would have it,when Onweagba was 16 years old, she won the “Face of Africa” contest. Like her first name that means God’s work in Igbo dialect, her ethnic background in Nigeria, she truly was portrayed to be seen as God’s masterpiece of creation, a feat that helped her to emerge winner in the contest. Name, they say, imparts destiny and in Onweagba’s case, it was proved to be true.

However, she was urged by a family friend to enter for the M-Net “Face of Africa” preliminary screening at the M-Net office in Victoria Island, Lagos without any prior grooming about modelling. It was the agency that brushed up her to be one of Nigeria’s entrants for the 1998 competition.

This was despite the fact that, growing up, she had maintained a relative ignorance towards fashion and modelling, but with the support of her family and friends, she decided to compete in the first-ever continent-wide modelling competition organized by the South African channel M-Net in collaboration with Elite Model management.

Courageously, she won the competition at just 17 years old. The fame of her heroic achievement made the Elite Model management to award her a three-year modelling contract.

The contract gave her the required exposure to mount the world stage and showcase her talent to the admiration of great fashion designers and international modelling companies that quickly saw in her raw talent waiting to be tapped.

She, thereafter, took modelling as a full career striding so many run-ways across the world. In order to attract the appropriate clientele needed to project her career, she relocated to America.

After moving to New York City, where she still lives, Onweagba graced the covers of Italian Vogue, I-D, Elle, Untold and Surface magazines; she also was featured in Nylon, Marie Claire, Allure, and other national editions of Vogue around the world.

She became the face of campaigns for Gianfranco Ferré, Gap, Express, Banana Republic and Ann Taylor, as well as working for Victoria’s Secret.

Onweagba’s runway experience has been with John Galliano, Christian Dior, Costume National, Chanel, and Giorgio Armani, amongst others, in London, Milan, Tokyo and Paris. She has worked with such notable photographers as Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, and Patrick Demarchelier.

Beyond modelling, she tries to serve as a role model for other aspiring talents in Nigeria, especially young girls. She volunteers her time and her image for such NGOs as LEAP Africa, an entrepreneurship incubator and NIPRO. She also is continuing her higher education, having studied for an associate’s degree in the New York City educational system.

After her three-year contract with Elite expired, she signed with DNA Model management. The highlight of her career so far was when she was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue four times, from 2005 to 2008.

In 2008, she launched a modelling agency in South Africa, O-Model Africa, with offices in Johannesburg and recently in Cape Town. The 2008 winner of M-Net Face of Africa, Kate Tachie-Menson, was awarded a US $50,000 modelling contract by O-Model Africa.

In August 2005, Onweagba married her long time companion, Italian fashion designer Luca Orlandi and the union has produced a son.

The supermodel currently runs her production outfit, LuLu Productions, which will produce the African version of the America’s Next Top Model reality show. It is a show that is gaining acceptance across Africa and is billed to bring up more raw talents from the continent to the world.