The Fashion Stylist
Fashion! Images of celebrities, trendsetters, blazing colour and sleek models immediately come to mind. The fashion industry in Kenya has grown phenomenally over the last few years – influencers are setting trends, Sunday best has become every day best! Connie Aluoch is at the centre stage of the growth of Kenyan trends as a fashion stylist – and as an artist.
The best part about growing up for Connie Aluoch was watching her parents get ready for different occasions. The time taken to carefully select and accessorize each outfit, was a real life fashion movie and she forever credits her self-discovery to the moments spent playing around with her mum’s makeup and dad’s ties. As the saying goes, ‘Life is a journey with lessons to learn but most importantly experiences to enjoy’.
While at Kenya High school Connie suffered through the sciences but sailed through the arts, and she realized that the quiet fun she had as a six year old child might be where she would find her career. In 1996 she enrolled at the Evelyn College of Fashion and Design to pursue just that. The two year introductory course was an eye opener as she earned her diploma in Fashion Design and Garment Making. One awakening was that while she loved clothes, sewing garments was not her forte. Researching on fashion and piecing outfits together was what she loved and her focus became styling.
In 1998, she dived deeper into the industry at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York and four years later she attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design. While at FIT, Connie also did a one year program at Polimoda International Institute of Fashion Design in Florence, Italy. Talk about a passion for fashion! Turns out fashion takes years of theory, practicals and immersion to perfect.
In 2003, Connie moved back to New York to put to practice all she had acquired – slogging away at the bottom during various international fashion weeks hosted by leading designers. With her work experience she was admitted into the prestigious Instituto Marangoni in Milan for a Masters in Fashion Styling making her the first female in East and Central African region to obtain a Master’s in Fashion Styling.
Next destination: Nairobi, to put all her skill to good use. Mentoring aspiring stylists outside of her business – Connie Aluoch Styling Management, Connie is keen to bring fashion as a practice to the lecture halls of our academic institutions. She lectures at The University of Nairobi’s School of Arts and Design, and trains on personal branding at the Strathmore Business School. Many of the icons we see on our televisions each day owe their carefully curated looks to Connie and her able team. In March 2017, Connie Aluoch became the first Kenyan to be certified as an International Styling Tutor at the Italian institute she was once a student at – Instituto Marangoni.
What excites Connie is the transformation Kenyans have gone through with regards to their appreciation of fashion. Social media has been a game changing accelerator as people are constantly on the lookout for new looks, trendsetting styles and tips. We see the results all around the streets of our cities and towns – Kenyans are with it! For her it means that the industry is growing which in turn translates to more opportunities and jobs for those with a creative flair – designers, dressmakers, makeup artists and of course stylists.
We congratulate Connie Aluoch for embracing her art and continually pushing us all into the wonderful world of fashion!
