Brendance and Crusader Ltd, an entertainment, pageantry, training and tourism event company, has announced May 26, 2024 as date for the forthcoming Mr. Nigeria International Fashion Competition.
The competition, which aims to promote and showcase Nigerian fashion talents to the international world, will be held at Jevinik Place, Ikeja, Lagos.
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The company also plans to hold the Miss Nigeria International Fashion Competition as well as Lagos Fashion Entertainment Reality Television Show on October 27, 2024 and November 7, 2024, respectively. The reality television show will be organised in partnership with the Lagos State Government.
Entry forms for the Mr. Nigeria International Fashion Competition have begun online www.mrandmissnigint’l.com for over two weeks to end on March 30, 2024.
Brendan Nsikak, CEO, Brendance and Crusader, made the announcement recently at a media briefing held at the organisation’s office in Lagos. The briefing was at the instance of Teslim Shittu, general manager of the company, Halima Abimbola Seriki, assistant head of public relations, Lagos Fashion Entertainment Reality Television Show, and Gbenga Peters, project director.
Speaking at the event, Nsikak noted that the Mr. Nigeria International Beauty Pageant project would be in conjunction with the Fashion Television Hub, USA to produce the first-ever fashion television show.
“The ETV Hub USA has agreed to partner with us as part of sponsors of both the fashion and pageant,” Nsikak said.
The CEO noted that the company would fuse both project runway and tutorial secret concepts, respectively, to blend with the African content to project to the world at the event.
Age brackets for participants in the competition ranges from 19 – 40 years, and contestants must be single. Intelligence is considered a priority to match with beauty so that the winners will be fit to market himself and the company as a brand and image laundry for Nigeria in the international space.
Brendance and Crusader noted that it is very strict when it comes to criteria for selection of fashion and beauty contests to ensure quality content. It takes verification of backgrounds of intending contestants before selection. Masculinity, glamour and ability to market Africa to the world will form the basis of the concept for this year’s competition.
Judges will cut across all genres from different professions based on the theme of this year’s event. Bob Cal, a guest judge, will be coming from the United States of America for the event.
Speaking on the Lagos Fashion Entertainment Week Reality Television Show, Teslim Shittu explained that the contest is a fusion of fashion and entertainment. “It is not a one-off show, but a reality TV show that will have some episodes designed to entertain the audience and fashion enthusiasts,” he said.
Shittu emphasized that the show would have a ripple effect on empowerment for the teeming youth of Lagos as the project would expose them to international space. It has a continuity that will stretch to the next episode yearly.
“The reality television show will bring designers to participate as every participating designer will benefit from the Lagos State Government in terms of mentorship and empowerment,” he said.
He further said that the project would have inferno dimension in the fashion designing event, tailored towards the competition. A fashion hunter dimension will be fused into the show where two designers will compete with some tasks to get the winner.
Again there will be the male and female segment of the show. Finally, a designer crown for the king and queen designer from the male and female categories will emerge.
The inferno is a spicy high fashion affair, a beach wear designer competition searching for the nation’s next top men’s designer. It is fused with top notch Nollywood stars and Nigeria fashion icons. Contestants will compete and unsuccessful ones will be eliminated for the best to emerge.
According to Halima Seriki, the initiative is in line with the Lagos State Government agenda on entertainment and creative economy.
She noted further that the project is designed to bring the teeming participating youth of Lagos State to the front burner of the world as they would leverage on the initiative to market their creative talent to the global space.
For her, the fashion industry in the world has advanced. The New York, Arabian, Indian and European fashion industries are models and challenge for the Nigeria creative industry to rise beyond the conventional to show the world great talent.
Seriki stressed that the Fashion Entertainment TV scheme would raise the bar in the Nigeria fashion industry during the reality television show.
The program will be aired in some major national televisions in the country as the Lagos Fashion Entertainment Week is strictly a Nigerian affair.
It would be recalled that Brendance and Crusader had consistently organised Mr and Miss Nigeria International without any issue. Interestingly, both pageants are the first ever in Africa.
In 2022 Brendance and Crusader split the Mr and Miss Nigeria International to hold at different times. The reason was to give room for adequate preparation for the gender participants for the international outing.
