Alfred “Fredash” Nemfor and actress Stephanie Tum do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to Cameroonian celebrities patronizing local designers.
While the fashion businessman says Cameroonian celebrities do not encourage fashion designers by wearing local designs, the actress says local designers lack proper finishing and professionalism. Hence are not worth been patronized by stars.
Fredash (as he’s fondly called) took to his Facebook over the weekend, calling out celebrities who have continuously ignored the importance of consuming their local products but are quick to flaunt foreign designs at local events.
“As a celebrity, you should always dress to be remembered not simply to be noticed. We have hundreds of fashion designers and tailors in Cameroon but its a shame to see some of these celebrities wear D&G, GUCCI and so on. Some even wear local Chinese dresses and flaunt the red carpet. Let music, movie and fashion industry work together. Lets wear our own. #WearCameroon,” Fredash wrote.
“It’s not only about promoting local designers my dear friend it’s also about local designers stepping up their game and improve on finishing and quality. I am sure you will understand that just because we want to promote doesn’t mean we should promote mediocrity. I for one I do promote but will only go for the best which maybe 3 out of 20. So excuse some people if they chose to play safe .
Not to mention the fact that most local designers will not even support your own project or promote your own project but when you wear their designs you have to mention them and promote them.
It is high time we stop dis double standard bullshit and let our designers know they have to up their game and be innovative because we pay for these dresses it’s not for free and they should also promote our stuffs,” actress, Stephanie Tum disagrees!
Stephanie and Alfred‘s clash on how celebrities should value local designers opened doors for further discussions on the vital role stars play in valuing the creativity and consumption of locally made designs. One social media user, Clari Banz, also stepped in to share her opinion.
“Anybody should wear what they are comfortable in… If Gucci makes you stand out, do you…. To the best of my knowledge, most tailors have poor finishing… You show different design, they do the one that their machines can sew.”
Yikes! Dcoders, what do you think about Alfred and Stephanie’s arguments? Who do you think is right? Hit us up below.
They are both correct in my opinion. Cameroonian designers/tailors generally do poor finishing! But my question is this, how far do ‘you’ as a cameroonian, public figure or not, go to support the ‘1%’ of designers/tailors who do good work?