In 2024, I watched Jade Osiberu’s Christmas in Lagos and wrote about three moments from the film that stayed with me.
One was a conversation between Ajani and Ivie, a writer struggling with self-doubt. He asked her:
“Do you want to break your own heart before the world has a chance to?”
I wrote at the time that the world already comes with its share of challenges. Why add to them by being overly critical, doubtful or unwilling to give ourselves a fair shot?
Two years later, Rachel Ojuromi’s story brought me back to that thought. Because whatever else you take from Rachel’s story, this young woman gave herself a shot.
Long before Rachel walked Chanel’s runway in Paris, she was walking the streets of Lagos. Literally. She and her friends would put looks together and create fashion videos on ordinary Lagos streets. Markets, roads, passers-by, traffic. The city became part of the set. There was no international fashion house waiting for them. No elaborate production budget. No guarantee that the right person would ever see what they were making.
For one of the projects that would eventually change things, Rachel, stylist Debby Fasingha and photographer Odey Ikpä recreated looks from Chanel’s Métiers d’Art collection using thrifted pieces and clothes they already owned. They worked with what was in their hands. And they put it out into the world.
Rachel has spoken about wanting to create something where she did not have to wait for somebody else to give her an opportunity. So she didn’t wait. She gave herself one.
I think there is something audacious about that.
At times we often begin people’s stories when the world notices them. The big contract. The successful company. The viral moment. The promotion. The award. The money.
But there is usually another story before that story. The part where nobody knows whether this thing is going to work (what I called the Invisible Season in an earlier Note). And perhaps that is where the real lesson is. These are a few gentle reminders I’m taking from Rachel’s story.
1. Give yourself a shot.
I have learnt that sometimes the first person who has to give you an opportunity is you. We spend so much time waiting. Waiting until we have enough money. Waiting until we know enough. Waiting until somebody chooses us. Waiting until the idea looks respectable enough to announce. And sometimes we don’t start because we are already imagining what other people will say. That part fascinates me.
Why are we worrying about what hasn’t even been said yet?
Someone might laugh. Someone might think the idea is ridiculous. Someone might think you’re doing too much. Someone might not like it.
So?
Let them.
Why should an opinion that does not even exist yet have enough power to stop something that does?
Sometimes nobody has rejected us. We rejected ourselves first.
2. Work with what is in your hands.
I also like that Rachel and her team did not wait for ideal resources. They had Lagos, their clothes, a camera, ideas, and more importantly, they had each other.
Rachel has spoken about not wanting a lack of money to become a limit on creativity. That does not mean resources don’t matter. Of course they do.
But the resources required to become bigger are not necessarily the resources required to begin.
Sometimes what you have is enough for version one. Your phone. Your knowledge. Your kitchen. Your laptop. Your small audience. Your first customer. Your spare room. Your imperfect product.
Whatever is in your hands. Start there.
3. Don’t be afraid to look different.
There is another thing I find interesting about Rachel’s work. It didn’t look like everybody else’s. She didn’t need Lagos to pretend to be Paris. Lagos was Lagos – the streets, the markets, the people walking into the frame, the unpredictability of the city. Those things became part of what made the work interesting.
Sometimes we spend so much time trying to look like people who have already arrived that we remove the very thing that might make someone notice us.
Different is not always a disadvantage. Sometimes different is the point.
4. Start messy. Then keep going.
We have become very good at seeing people’s polished chapter and forgetting that they had earlier drafts. Rachel’s story is a useful reminder that you don’t have to begin looking like where you are going.
You have just started and it’s perfectly okay for your first attempt to be awkward. Your first video may not be great. Your first idea may need another ten versions. The good thing about starting is that the next version would be better. keep learning and keep adjusting.
Rachel has described success not as an overnight event, but as a series of things that compound.
I like that description. Because the Chanel runway makes sense only when you look at everything that happened before it.
5. Sometimes, the dream needs a partner.
Rachel’s story is also not really a one-woman story. Debby Fasingha was styling. Odey Ikpä was shooting. Rachel has been deliberate about acknowledging the people creating alongside her and has said plainly:
“I can’t do it alone.”
Sometimes you need somebody who sees the slightly crazy idea and says:
Okay. How do we make it work?
Someone who will hold the camera. Make the clothes. Build the website. Read the draft. Make the introduction. Stay up late. Try again. Not necessarily someone powerful or with money, just someone willing to get in the trenches with you.
6. Execute.
Ideas are wonderful. I have plenty of them. But ideas sitting in our heads don’t get the opportunity to meet the world.
Rachel has spoken about trying to see her ideas through whenever she has one. And perhaps that is the simplest lesson here.
Do what you have to do, even when no one understands it. Do it because an idea cannot become anything while it remains only an idea.
Rachel and her friends recreated Chanel on the streets of Lagos. The work travelled. Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy saw it. And on October 5, Rachel Ojuromi walked Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The girl who had been creating her own runway eventually found herself walking one of the biggest runways in fashion.
It is a beautiful ending.
But the real work happened when there was no invitation. When there was just an idea, some clothes, the streets of Lagos, a camera and a few people audacious enough to see what they could make from them.
Back in 2024, I wrote:
Why add to the world’s challenges by being overly critical, doubtful or unwilling to give ourselves a fair shot?
Two years later, Rachel’s story has brought me back to the same thought. Maybe the world will say no. Maybe they won’t understand. Maybe they’ll laugh. Maybe it won’t work the first time.
So?
Give yourself a shot first.
and Let them say.
Until the next note,
– STB
Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.
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