Nigerian model designs her future path

Anya Ekung, a model and crochet designer, catwalks during Africa's Next Super Model at Broadwalk Mall in Nairobi on November 9, 2024.

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

For Nigerian model Anya Ekung, her 16th and 17th birthdays will forever remain the two dates that changed her life for good.

Born in Cross River State, she has been on the European modelling circuit for eight years now, even though her interest has always been in design.

When Anya finished her Senior Secondary School, she was having fun with her friends one day, when someone walked up to her and started talking to her about modelling.

At six feet with a lean frame, she clearly stood out. Being her 16th birthday celebrations, she was too young to talk to the person who brought the proposal, so she gave him her home address to speak to her parents instead.

“My dad was away for a few weeks. When he came back, the guy visited and spoke to him,” Anya recalls.

Her parents agreed to give her six months to explore this opportunity. Her mother accompanied her to visit Joan Okorodudu, founder and president of Isis Models Africa and Nigeria’s top super modelling expert.

“With Nigeria, you have to leave your house very early because of traffic. We left way early and it so happened that there was no traffic that day. We got to her house at 5am and I told my mum that we should wait at a restaurant. My mum said we should wait by the security’s quarters instead,” Anya says.

The security guards at Ms Okorodudu’s house wouldn’t allow them in though. Then they heard a woman’s voice from inside the house asking, “Who is that? Let them in.”

Anya and her mother would find out that the recipient of President’s Lifetime Achievement Award last October from US President Joe Biden “doesn’t sleep”.

Anya says when Ms Okorodudu came out that morning, she built her confidence to a level that no one else has ever done.

She remembers Ms Okorududu using the words “amazing” and “stunning” when she saw her. Anya was a little confused. By African standards, skinny girls are not considered beautiful. Neither are dark-skinned girls.

“Someone describing me as beautiful, amazing, and stunning at first glance meant a lot,” Anya says.

Within three months, she got all the agencies she would work with. Three months after that, she was on her way to Paris. She set foot at the airport in the French capital minutes past midnight on September 24, 2017. Her 17th birthday would be the beginning of life like she had never experienced before.

“I had never even been to my home state or any other state in Nigeria since my parents moved to Lagos, when I was three months old,” she recalls.

Runway models pose for a photo donned in Alu Unung ('woman' in Bekwarra language) by Anya Ekung during Africa's Next Super Model at Broadwalk Mall in Nairobi on November 9, 2024.

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

Her first casting was for French multinational luxury goods company, Dior. To say Anya was a natural is an understatement. They loved her so much that the casting director sent her a beauty package of eye shadow, lip gloss, nail polish which she gave to her mother because she was too young to use them.

Though she doesn’t remember all the brands she’s worked for over the years, the 24-year-old’s favourites are Burberry, Alaya Cosmetics, Tom Ford, Valentino, and retailers Zalando. She got to do three consecutive seasons of modelling with Alaya, while she debuted for Burberry in 2021 for their worldwide exclusive and beauty campaign.

In 2021, Anya got to do her first Fashion Week runway. She’s done Paris, London, New York and Milan fashion weeks.

Growing up, Anya didn’t know exactly what she would end up doing, but she knew she really wanted to travel and see the world. She believes God read her heart and gave her the best way to do it.

“I get to travel, meet people, work with brands, stylists and photographers. It’s amazing,” she says.

After 2023, she took a break.

“I believe it’s good to step back, re-evaluate things and then come back. I also wanted to take the time off and build something for myself,” she says.

She’s talking about her design brand, Alu Unung.

Her parents didn’t want to invest in Anya’s dream to be a designer, even though she had the skill from a very young age, and would even mend her father’s torn outfits as early as eight years old.

She says everything that was ripped in their house, she would stitch. Her parents insisted that she “get a good education,” so she stopped giving it much thought.

In 2023, she came across a social media page that had crotchet hats she really wanted to get. The woman who ran the page said they cost £150 ($182.32).

While at a store, she saw a yarn and was floored by the difference in price. So, she bought it and some hooks then went home to try and make herself a hat.

“I understood why she wanted to sell it at that price. It takes a lot: a lot of time and work to get it done,” Anya says.

She also discovered there are different types of yarn that were beautiful and gave different quality, that many designers didn’t venture into outside of the normal cotton yarn: mohair, silk, microfibre, cashmere.

From her experience in the modelling world, having worked with so many international and African designers, she felt that she could make something that not many people had seen.

In her studio apartment in London, she started crocheting. One of her outfits, a long brown dress, was the most complicated piece she had to work on.

A runway model catwalks donned in Alu Unung ('woman' in Bekwarra language) by Anya Ekung during Africa's Next Super Model at Broadwalk Mall in Nairobi on November 9, 2024.

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

It took her an entire month to finish. Her corset designs took two weeks to complete and were inspired by Luis De Javier's corset, which he did for Beyoncé.

She says she really wanted to encapsulate the same essence and dedicated time to capture it. Other outfits took her two to three weeks.

She used herself as the model, designing the dresses to her measurements, but she would get her other model friends to try them on, so that she could see how it would look on someone else. She named the outfits after her friends and the line is called Alu Unung (meaning “woman” in her Bekwarra language).

In November 2024, she showcased these designs at Africa’s Next Supermodel competition organised by Isis Models Africa and held at Broadwalk Mall in Nairobi.

She wanted to crown the moment so bad that she even brought her personal jewellery which ended up being stolen backstage, just before her showcase.

From her earnings, Anya moved her parents from their apartment to a house in Lagos. She’s bought a five-acre farm for them in Ogun State, and property next to the airport in Lagos in which she hopes to build a hotel. She also started a dry-cleaning business for them.

She says she is an ambivert: she prefers staying indoors, but occasionally goes out.

The model says she missed the stage of being a teenager because she was always working and making money. So between 19 and 20, she slowed down making time for movies and going to parks with her friends.

Berlin is the city that inspires her creativity, through its art galleries and fashion.

Starting early, she had to learn to spot traps.

“As soon as people hear you’re a model, they want some of you. I was offered a lot of money, but I thank God that I wasn’t distracted by that paycheque. You’re going to get these offers as a model when you’re young and even when you’re old; but they’ll take the best years out of you, if you pick them when you’re young. That’s not what you want to be known for,” she says.