Few of us may have recognized Aamito Lagum as she walked Bottega Veneta, Giles, Paul Smith, J.Mendel, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rag & Bone, Lacoste, The Row this Fashion Month. She is the winner of the first cycle of Africa’s Next Top Model, the limited viewership of which has been a boon to Aamito — unlike her American counterparts suffering from the «Top Model curse.»<\/p>\n
As TBM wrote in 2013 as the show premiered,<\/p>\n
Being cast on a Top Model show is almost always a death sentence to a modelling career. But with a limited audience outside of Africa, perhaps this won’t mean instant overexposure for the contestants. (Read more)<\/p>\n
Coming off a great first show season, Aamito chatted with WWD about the show, moving to New York, and her family back home.<\/p>\n
Here are our highlights:<\/p>\n
In my country, it\u2019s not a good look. Most of the girls who claim they\u2019re models are actually \u201cvideo vixens.\u201d I did one runway show, but my mom said, \u201cNo, you cannot do this.\u201d And the jobs do not pay at all. Every time I would have a modeling gig, I would have to ask my mom, \u201cCan I have some money to go to the gig?\u201d And she would be like, \u201cWhat is the point of this? This is not going to take you anywhere. I need you to go to college, get your degree and become a lawyer or whatever you want to become, to be able to support yourself.\u201d She wanted me to study, be a good lawyer, have a nice car. She was being a good mom.
\nShe\u2019s a single mom and she didn\u2019t have that much to offer. So I finished high school, I studied, and then \u201cAfrica\u2019s Next Top Model\u201d came about right when I was beginning to look for a job. I was 20 at the time. I told my mom: \u201cLook, let me just give this one last try. I really wanna do this. I want to be a model. I want to do this as a profession. I feel like I love it and it\u2019s where I\u2019m supposed to be. But I totally understand that you can\u2019t do it in Uganda and survive.\u201d So she was like, \u201cFine. I\u2019m gonna give you transport fare to Nairobi.\u201d That\u2019s where the casting was. So I took a 16-hour bus from Uganda to Nairobi. I arrived there the morning of the casting and I took a bus back home that same night.
\nHonestly, when you\u2019re on the bus all night, you look like sh-t. I reached Nairobi that morning \u2014 I was among the first people to arrive \u2014 but I wasn\u2019t feeling confident at all. I looked horrible because I had only slept on the bus. My eyes were like\u2026it was crazy. Anyway, so during the casting, there were different stages. I made it to the final stage \u2014 all in one day \u2014 but I had to leave to catch my bus home. I told the producers, \u201cI have to catch my bus.\u201d It was leaving at 7, and the time was 6:15. The producer went into a room, came out, and said, \u201cAamito, we will call you.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a few days, they called me and said, \u201cYou have made it to be among the 12 girls on \u2018Africa\u2019s Next Top Model.\u2019\u201d My mom was like, \u201cWow, finally!\u201d
\nThe filming was in Cape Town. I had never been there before. I made it to the top three girls, and the top three girls got to come to New York. DNA chose me and I signed a contract.
\nWhen I was 16, of course everybody would comment, \u201cOh, you should be a model.\u201d But I didn\u2019t think about it. I felt like a black swan. In my country, people who are tall and skinny are not celebrated that much. They usually like a lady to be curvy. I didn\u2019t feel unique\u2026I didn\u2019t feel womanly or feminine. I didn\u2019t feel beautiful when I was growing up. My mom always told me, \u201cYou\u2019re unique, you\u2019re beautiful\u201d \u2014 things that your mom says. But since it\u2019s coming from your mom, it\u2019s like, \u201cWell, you\u2019re supposed to say that.\u201d You kind of don\u2019t believe her.
\nI love the runway so much. Every time I do it, it gives a nice thrill\u2026but at the agency, I really look stupid every time somebody gets out of the elevator and watches me practicing my walk in my heels. It\u2019s so awkward. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
\nBefore I came here, I heard the worst stories about model apartments. I came mentally prepared for the worst. But it\u2019s totally the opposite. The girls that I live with are amazing.
\n[My mom] misses me, but she\u2019s like, \u201cIf you\u2019re happy and you love what you do, then keep on doing it.\u201d I love it, I love it. It\u2019s new, I have to adjust to it, but I think I\u2019m doing pretty well in terms of adjusting. When she sees my work, she\u2019s like, \u201cOh my God, you look so beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Few of us may have recognized Aamito Lagum as she walked Bottega Veneta, Giles, Paul Smith, J.Mendel, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rag & Bone, Lacoste, The Row this Fashion Month. She is the winner of the first cycle of Africa’s Next Top Model, the limited viewership of which has been a boon to Aamito — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[987,977,979,1795,978,891,1794,795,554,517,1133,615,616,516,482,1793,1165],"class_list":["post-11073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aamito-lagum","tag-africa","tag-africas-next-top-model","tag-african-model","tag-antm","tag-cape-town","tag-dna-models","tag-education","tag-family","tag-fashion-week","tag-model-apartment","tag-new-york","tag-nyc","tag-runway","tag-social-media","tag-ugandan-model","tag-wwd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11075,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11073\/revisions\/11075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}