FlyGirl Chronicles: Styling Mahogany, Ohio Entertainment Awards Model of the Year Nominee

Mahogany: Ohio Entertainment Awards Model of the Year Nominee

When the gorgeous Mahogany hit me up to be styled for the Ohio Entertainment Awards after being nominated for Model of the Year, I was too pumped lol! I was excited for her nomination because she is one of the hardest working models in Cleveland and she was great to work with on the Cruelty Free fashion video a few years ago, I was super happy when she called me to dress her for the red carpet event.

Mahogany had an idea of how she wanted to look and after showing me a few pics, I got to work putting in calls to all my designer friends and boutiques to see if I could borrow something. Over the course of a week I made arrangements to beg, borrow and steal a deal if I could lol. 

Our first stop was Lillie's Fashion Bar where I had a fitting room full of dresses for Mahogany to try on- some very similar to what she showed me, others not so much. As a stylist, my job is not to tell my client what is wrong, but to show what looks right on their bodies and why. Many of her choices were floor length gowns with lots of materials that would have overwhelmed her petite frame, so I chose  a few mini dresses, and if the pieces were long, then I made sure they were sheer and showed lots of skin to create balance. She tried on at least four dresses in the store and one custom designed dress from Anton Zbarhz that was gorgeous but would have swallowed her 5'4 self right up on that carpet. 

She surprised herself by falling in love with a sexy royal blue convertible dress that was no where near on her radar but she looked so good in it that even she could not deny it. She wanted to buy it right then, but we had at least two more stops to make. She did end up buying a really cute and trendy tie dye dress from Lillie's. We continued our adventure on to downtown Bedford and ended up at CC's Fabric and Design, where the owner and designer Candence Caprice ended up being a distant cousin of hers! Small world right lol?

​We went through several dresses and was ready to head on to our final stop when Candence pulled out the sexy show stopping number Mahogany didn't even know she wanted. We both gasped in delight and I stood on pins and dang on needles as I waited for her to try it on. She came out and the dress looked amazing on her! Even better because it was custom made and she would not have to worry about having a "bish stole my look" moment on the red carpet lol.

Once again she was ready to wear it out the door and decided to forgo our last stop lol. The only thing left to get was the accessories and we agreed to do that the next day. We left the dress with Candence to alter and went our seperate ways. The next day we were on a mission. We picked up the dress, did a final fitting, and then hit the streets to go accessories shopping. With the dress being short, black and mesh, although tastefully covered in strategic spots, I knew it could straddle the line of being just sexy enough or too hot for TV based on the accessories we chose, so I kept that in the back of my mind as we hit up the shoe stores and other specialty shops piecing together the last bits of her look.

We hit every point in the city and finally after a long exhausting search we got everything she needed- shoes, clutch, jewelry, even a small compact mirror and fashion tape for any potential wardrobe malfunctions on the carpet. The day of the awards, Sunday- I again waited on pins and needles for that full body photo to come through and when it did boooy I tell you! Mahogany looked hot AF!! The dress fit her like a glove, her accessories were understated, her hair and makeup was on point and she just looked great! I was proud to have styled her for this event. She did not win the award, but shoot- you can't tell me she didn't look like it lol!

Do you have an event coming up that you would like to get styled for?  Hit m e up: ladysilk@thehouseoffly.com and let's discuss how to make you look and feel like a celebrity...