Our designers must pull up their socks

Lupita Nyongo is moved to tears by a poem from pupils of Mariwa Primary school during her homecoming ceremony at her rural home at Ratta grounds in Seme cnstituency in Kisumu County 01-07-2015. [Photo:Titus Munala/STANDARD]

Like many of the older designers in Kenya, I met Lupita Nyong’o when she was doing Miss Malaika. After that, KikoRomeo continued to provide clothes for her events, including the launch of the documentary In My Genes and her graduation from Yale.

We worked closely together, and she modelled for one of our photo shoots. So when she started to get nominated for awards, I emailed her and asked to dress her. She already had a team around her, so she introduced me online to her stylist Micaela Erlanger.