Anjolaoluwa Abiosun
Prints, leather, and patterns were some design elements Toyin Lawani-Adebayo deployed to style the Shanty Town cast – Chidi Mokeme, Shaffy Bello, and Ini Edo, as they embodied their characters in the new thriller series.
Shanty Town tells the story of courtesans who attempt to escape a sex ring, but are faced with the greed of a dangerous kingpin and his affiliations with political powerhouses.
234Star spoke to Toyin Lawani-Adebayo about her artistic direction for Shanty Town, she gave us all the details of how she styled the cast based on their characters while giving originality, colour, and poise to their individual wardrobe.
“Shanty Town is a mix of all sorts of artistic directions. When you think it’s ghetto, it goes upper scale – into the rich and posh lives of the elites and their classy ways of life. So I had to style Chidi Mokeme like the king of the zanga while maintaining the street vibe, which was set in a ghetto scene. I also styled some of Ini Edo’s looks.
“You will notice it’s filled with originality and a boost of colours. I gave the upper-class elegance and poise, with few fashion-forward pieces, we had to bring the two worlds together without the both, losing their identity,” Toyin Lawani-Adebayo told 234star.
We all saw these in the cast costumes as Shaffy Bello was dressed in regal attire while Chidi Mokeme was dressed like a lout with wealth, especially with the infusion of colours, leather, and graphic clothing items into his outfits.
Typically it takes months to find the right designs and colours, but Toyin Lawani-Adebayo said it took her two weeks to design all the outfits for the main cast.
When Yolanda Okereke styled Kate Henshaw for her character on Blood Sisters, it took her two months. Dr. Toyin Bifarin, the costume designer behind Anikulapo, had mentioned to Netng that it took months of meeting with the production team to produce the costumes for the film. Although this does not take away the fact that the aforementioned are great costume designers in their respective fields, it puts into perspective the brilliance of Toyin Lawani-Adebayo.
But this is not the first time the creative designer has showcased her creativity with her designs. She did it with the costumes for Sola Sobowale on the Kemi Adetiba-directed film King Of Boys: The Return of the King, as she had designed 40 outfits in 14 days.
One thing is common with her designs, she dresses powerhouses. She dresses women and men who exude power in some way or form, whether it is with costume designs or celebrity styling. We had to ask her if she had an affinity for dressing powerful characters, and here is what she said;
“To be very honest I think the reason why these amazing movies choose me is because I identify with royalty, power, and my creations are always very strong, bold, elegant, outstanding, and speak for themselves. Once you step into a room, when it comes to depicting a theme, Toyin Lawani is the best at it.
The storyline, the style, and stunts are some of the highlights of Shanty Town, which is why when Toyin Lawani-Adebayo told us, “watch out for Shaffy Bello and Chidi Mokeme’s looks. The series still has a long way to go,” we had to do double take.
Is this a promise of Shanty Town season 2? If it is, we are definitely on the lookout for the story and style direction.
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