Fashionista at heart: Sylvia Njoki

Destiny is a choice, so they say. It may tug, pull at you and even give you sleepless nights, but it is up to you to decide whether or not to follow.

“I always wanted to be a fashion designer. In high school, we had Maasai shukas as bedcovers.

I would take these and create funky designs, wrap them around my schoolmates and take photos,” says Silvia Njoki, the current Stylist of Tusker Project Fame Season Six.

It took a while before Sylvia took steps to pursue her passion. After high school, like most parents and many students alike, fashion design and styling was not a career worth engaging in, as it wasn’t known, let alone paying enough to earn a living from. Her parents had other plans.

“After high school, my parents enrolled me to study Certified Public Accountants (CPA) section one. Afterwards, I joined the University of Nairobi to study Food Science and Technology. They were both totally unrelated to what I really wanted to do,” says Silvia.

“However, as I studied, I fed my interest by reading through fashion magazines. I later heard that Connie Aluoch was back from fashion school in Italy. I reached out to her to be her intern. It was this internship that gave my fashion interest a life of its own,” she adds.

It’s universal knowledge that interns do all the dirty work. Sylvia was no exception. She’d steam clothes and fix loose buttons and broken zips. It’s also the same year — 2007—that the fashion doors opened.

Arise Magazine

“There was a workshop by FAFA in Sarova Shaba, where I met Hellen Jennings, the editor of Arise Magazine, who was overseeing the fashion photo shoot. She invited me to London for a six-month internship with her magazine,” Sylvia recalls.

As she went to London in 2008, she thought it best to combine her internship with fashion school. She enrolled to Central St Martins Fashion School.

Her parents had already accepted that she was interested in fashion as a career and they gave their blessing.

“I got the internship with Arise Magazine while in Fourth Year at the University of Nairobi. I was faced with the difficult decision of either to finish my studies or to go ahead and pursue my passion. I chose the latter,” says Sylvia.

The experience in London was overwhelming.

“I felt like I was in my zone. I dressed up, as opposed to the drab lab coat I used to wear in Nairobi. I could go to class in heels and make-up. Exciting is an understatement. I particularly enjoyed being sent to pick clothes for photo shoots from Loius Vuitton and Prada shops (just to mention a few), designers I had only seen in magazines. I got to interact with fashion lovers from around the world. I also kept the designer clothes,” Sylvia smiles at the memory.

Her highlight experience of London would be attending the London Fashion Week, where she attended the John Kaveke Show and even wrote about it in the Arise Magazine.

Her parents further extended their support by enrolling her in another fashion school in Milan, Italy. The classes in Milan were more outdoor compared to London. During the three-month stay, they visited various fashion shops, compared different trends and wrote about them.

How was it coming back to Kenya? I ask.

“Well, of course, there’s the expectation that since you have these qualifications under your belt, it should be smooth sailing. It’s not. I was out of work for a while before the then Eve Girl magazine (Standard Newspaper) took me back as the stylist for the fashion pages.”

Value Art

“I also started getting TV jobs. I was the stylist for Churchill and Eric Omondi during the Churchill Show. I also styled artistes Mumo, Mrya, P-Unit and Janet Ikua for the How to be Rich show. I was also the fashion editor for the Passion Magazine.”

So how did she get to be the stylist for the reality TV, Tusker Project Fame (TPF)?

“I was Connie Aluoch’s intern during TPF 4. During TPF 5, I sent in my CV because I felt I could handle a project of that magnitude. I was interviewed amongst other well-known names in the market and I got the job. TPF 6 is my second stint with the reality show,” says Sylvia.

Just as interning was her lucky break into the fashion world, she also gives a chance to other interns to help her.

“When we started the show, we had two interns, as the participants were many. But as TPF continues, my assistant and I have only one intern who comes in on the weekends. We interchange them to allow many potential stylists to get an experience,” she says.

This is not the only gig she engages in. She styles Kalekye Mumo and makes baby outfits for clients who order from the designs she posts on her blog.

“When I had my baby, I busied myself by making clothes for her and for myself and posting photos on my blog. I had no intention of selling any of the pieces; I was just sharing them for the fun of it. People started asking me to make clothes for them, especially the baby ones. I foresee myself opening a workshop. The orders are becoming too many for me and the fundi I’ve hired.”

Although she had to surmount many challenges to get where she is, Sylvia says she counts herself lucky. 

“I started at a time when the fashion industry was opening up. However, the biggest challenge is that people still do not respect or value art enough to pay the equivalent,” she says.

Noticing her subtle sense of style at our interview, I ask whether her preference influences her clients’ orders.

“I do not impose my fashion style on a client. As much as my style is subtle, I do love to experiment and try out different styles. When dressing a client, he/she has to be comfortable with what they are wearing first before we work on accessorising. Of course, the choice of outfit has to match the occasion,” says Sylvia.