Nneka Michel wowed us when videos of her creative ways of combining bright colours in her outfits went viral on Tiktok. The fashion icon and mother of three shares her experiences, journey, inspiration, and everything else that goes into the creation of her viral videos.
Nneka rose to prominence after her videos, in which she wore colourful outfits inspired by the flags of various countries, went viral. Since then, many people have asked her to create outfits in the colours of their country’s flag or outfits inspired by a theme.
In this interview with THI, Nneka explained how everything began and how it is progressing.
1. Can we know who Nneka Michel is?
Michel is my husband’s name. I was born in Nigeria, Enugu state to be precise. I moved to Germany, 14 years ago. I’m married with three daughters.
2. How important is fashion to you?
Sometimes we do something without knowing why we are doing it. It’s just comes out naturally and it has been a passion and it empowers other people because it’s a language. Fashion is an expression for me. As a child, I grew up watching my dad wearing suits all the time, I lost him early in life, but I just adored the way he styled his suits, so I guess that’s where the passion for fashion came from.
4. How does it make you feel to see your videos go viral?
It’s so uplifting and then we get the comments where women are like saying ‘oh you have been my inspiration’. This is the rewarding moment for me. When you know that you have inspired someone positively, it is very important for me to know that I have done something that has a positive impact on people. So, I feel humbled seeing my video going this far and getting these comments and all that.
4. When you started, did you know that it would come this far?
So, during the first lockdown, 2020 and I was locked in here with my two kids. My oldest daughter has been telling me. “Hey mum there is this thing called Tik Tok”. Of course, I love dressing up and I’ve been dressing up and people would always tell me “oh you should do this, you should be active on the internet “. Do some fashion tips and all that but I never took it seriously because I was busy with studies, work, kids, and family. So during the lockdown I sat down here with my kids chatting with them to keep them busy and my daughter said “oh mom, I want to download this” so as an African woman, I said I’m sorry “you cannot be on social media, you are a child” Later I said okay, now I have an idea. Let’s download it on my phone and we can do something and because we all love dancing me and my kids. Initially we started with dancing, learning choreography, we would stay here learning all these moves, laughing and laughing and doing this thing and posting it. I started that, and then sometimes I started with transitions and just like that.
I keep getting followers and positive comments. I keep growing and growing, before I knew it, I got like 1000 followers. When I got 1000 followers, I thought, wow! Okay I could go live because if you get 1000 followers you can go live and my daughter said, “you have to, you have to go live” and I was like what am I going to say when I get there. So, from 1000 to 2000 to 10,000 followers. Then I started with transitions and doing all these fashion transitions and all that and remember even my dance videos used to go viral. I get like 30,000 likes and I’m like okay, that’s good. The first one that hit me was the first video I made with a stranger. Then I had this idea, I told my daughter, You know sometimes you don’t know what to do. You want to do transition you have no idea and I told my daughter I want to start a transition where I would start at home and I will end up outside then we do the next one after going to service.
it was on a Sunday and my daughter was “what nonsense is that mom! “I said I want it like that.
So, I did this video, and I did this transition in the train station and I posted it. That time I don’t even know how to edit it. I used to do my video on Tik Tok and suddenly, the video went bombastic. My highlight was when Jessica Alba commented on the video and started following me and I’m like what?!
The support system is from my kids. My kids, they do the video, they work with me and my Manager, Sir Bucks, he has been with me even when I feel like ” oh man I can’t do this” he is like “come on come on”.
5. Your Instagram bio says, “Telling my story through fashion”, what is this story that you’re trying to tell?
What I want the world to know about me is that in everything, the struggles, and the defects that we have in life, if we collectively put them together, we all are beautiful enough and capable.
6. How are you able to match bright colors together?
The thing is, I don’t think. I’m known for not thinking. It’s more like a playground now, it just flows. I’m coming from Africa where color is everything and I just must embrace it. When you talk of ‘Ankara’, our mothers in their glorious activities when they want to go for parties, all you’ll see is them wearing is glamorous colors. You’ll never see them wearing dark colors unless they are mourning their partners or family member. If not, everything is bright colors.
7. Is the name of the Brand Important when You’re buying your clothes?
It’s not the brand, it’s you. Brand doesn’t matter. It’s not the brand I’m selling, it’s the style. My own is that you can spend less while looking beautiful and glamorous. Most of the things I wear, I do not buy them at a very expensive prices. So, it like trying to say, you can look good without breaking the bank. You don’t have to buy Gucci or Channel to look amazing, just make use of what you have and present it, showing that I am beautiful with what I have.
8. How would you describe your style?
I love varieties. There was one of my videos that I pulled off the tomboy look and that’s how I go back out sometimes. I love comfortable clothing and sometimes in a very class way. It’s just the variety, it’s the styles of life. I love fashion because you can experiment with it and create your own world.
9. Have you ever influenced someone’s fashion style?
One I got recently was when I dressed in a coat for this Indian Inspired outfit and this lady actually went shopping and got the exact same outfit, took a picture of it and sent me a message with it saying “you are my inspiration” as a proof that I was bringing her out of her shell into wearing more bright colors. I get a lot of people that dress like me.
10. how did you come up with the idea of incorporating colors of flags into your outfits?
I made a video and posted it and people would comment asking me to pair different colors and I can vividly recall that someone wrote something and put a flag emoji, I looked and it and said! what does she want? Does she want me to do something with it? Then I looked at it and I went to my wardrobe and said, “okay, let me just try this flag thing.” So, I paired the colors, and I created a video and from putting that first video, it just kept bringing more requests and I think I’ll spend like 20 years before I do all the videos for all the flags.
11. What Fashion Advice do you like to give?
For my African sisters especially, be humble. Just work hard and that little thing you can afford buy it and rock it.
12. Is there something we should be expecting from you soon?
Yes, I like to surprise my people, but something is cooking.
13. Is there something you would like to share with THI and our readers?
Yeah, when people see my videos, they think I have the perfect life and I don’t have any struggles, but we all have struggles. I have my struggles; I have my mountains to climb but I work through it with pride and faith. Just trust in your potentials, with less comparison and more hard work.
Listen to the interview below
Watch one of Nneka Michel’s reels
Culture Beyond the Mainstream 