Lupita Nyong’o, Met gala and the Zimbabwean story

Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o turned heads at the recently held Met gala awards. She wore a rainbow coloured gown with frills and rocked an over the top afro with golden combs protruding from it.

The outfit was seen by many as a representation of black culture and coutoure.However news spreading around is that the afro hairstyle might have been inspired by our very own Sarah Mpofu, commonly known as Tashi from the hit local series ‘makorokoza’.

Tashi is said to have worn the same hairstyle at the Bulawayo arts awards last year. Although there are a few differences on the hairstyle, the basic theme and outlook is almost identical. People have been having on and bragging about how the local actress’ style might have influenced the Hollywood actress’ look on the night of the awards.

The theme for the met gala awards was that of ‘camp:notes on fashion’. It allowed artists to go wild and theatric on their designs. Lupita opted for an African inspired creation and implemented an afro theatrical theme in her hair. Her hairstylist Vernon Francois remarked as follows”our goal was to demonstrate the power, mealleability and luxuriousness of natural hair texture”.

The French stylist also tried to do a rendition of the French queen Marie Antoinette’s style. However instead of her tall pouf he out in agravity defying afro with combs which look Tashi rocked at the awards in Bulawayo last year.

With the current natural hair craze it is no wonder that Hollywood has joined the bandwagon and embraced black natural hair.