“Italian designer Caterina Bortolussi has started an ethical fashion label in Nigeria. Bortolussi has trained and hired girls from the region to become models and brand ambassadors. Next year she hopes to inspire more locals and teach tailoring skills“.

This is a recent report culled from CNN’s inside Africa – Dec 29 2011. It describes the story of an Italian lady who ‘trains’ female models from Port-Harcourt and employs them to model her cloth-line in the ‘slums’. Her designs are also inspired by Nigeria and the bright colours of Africa.

If we assess Nigeria’s very vibrant fashion industry and examine the giant strides made by Nigerian fashion designers telling the true Nigerian story worldwide, a big question pops in our mind: Is this really about changing lives and showing Nigeria’s rich fashion culture or is it just another half baked attempt at stereotyping Nigeria as a third world country filled with slums and ghettos.

It will also be interesting to note that it has become trendy to utilize grunge/dirty backgrounds and motifs for fashion modeling themes all over the world.

Give your comments below.