By Prisca Sam-Duru

New York-based Fashion Entertainment company known as Fashion Entertainment Television Hub (FE TV Hub), is collaborating with Brendance and Crusader, organisers of the Mr & Miss Nigeria pageant, to host the much anticipated reality television show to boost Nigeria fashion industry.

The fashion entertainment reality show, first of its kind is geared towards shooting the country’s industry into the international space via the reality television show.

The partnership between FeTvHub and Brendance and Crusaders is aimed at injecting international contents into the Nigerian fashion industry by harnessing the potential of gifted Nigerian fashion designers and bringing them to the international limelight. While the founder of Brendance and Crusaders, Brendan Nsikak brings his experience and knowledge as technical director to the programme, New York-based fashion entrepreneur and CEO of FeTvHub, Bob Cal, comes with a fresh take on fashion to revolutionise the local industry.

 The show, this year comes in three packages; fashion, entertainment and reality television. It features two televised events ‘Fit for A King’ and ‘Inferno Runway’.  Fit for a King is a men’s fashion designer competition searching for the best men’s designer. The Inferno Runway on its part, showcases beach wears tailored towards Nigerian local adire fabrics. It is a spicy high fashion affair, a beach wear designer competition searching for the nation’s top beach wear designer who can embody the powerful femininity that Nigerian women are known for.

Entry for participation is free and open to individuals across the country while the age bracket for contestants is from 18 – 35 years. The judges were selected from an array of professionals with reputable characters, while three celebrities from the USA will be in attendance to lend credence to the show.

In addition to prizes to be won, the overall winner of the show will enjoy a sponsored trip to New York. The winner will play an ambassadorial role of promoting Nigerian fashion designs for Brendance and Crusader. Other successful candidates will go home with prizes too.

At a press parley, Bob Cal who is in Nigeria for the show, explained the need for the collaboration on the reality television show, stating that the world cannot wait to feel the impact of the enormous talents Nigeria is blessed with. “Nigeria has a big entertainment industry. I registered with the Fe Tv Hub USA in Nigeria to transform the fashion entertainment business in the country to bring it at par with the USA and Paris fashion level,” he stated.

While affirming that Nigerian fashion is one of the best in the world, Cal pointed out that it still needs a good platform to compete with their counterparts globally. “I am bringing in a fashion entertainment reality television show to Nigeria because the country doesn’t have a big fashion entertainment reality television show. I’m bringing the show in partnership with Brendance and Crusader to project the narrative that Nigeria has potential talents to offer the world. Nigeria fashion designers need directions and strategies to excel,” he added.

Also speaking, Brendan said that the project was designed to raise fashion talents who lack the platform to excel at the international stage. The collaboration with US-based FE TV Hub he noted, was to give young designers a boost emphasising that Brendan and Crusader has come a long way in doing things differently to redefine the Nigeria fashion industry to international standards. Project coordinator of the show, Teslim Shittu, said that the project is unique in that it combines fashion, entertainment and reality television show adding that it will run some episodes designed to entertain the audience and fashion enthusiasts.

According to him, the entire project is also designed in a way that it will have a ripple effect on empowerment for the youth as it exposes them to the international scene.