March 2024

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Last July, Lupita Nyong’o was in France visiting Paris Couture Week for the first time. While there, she graced the cover of Vogue for the second time and gave an exclusive interview to the magazine. She had come directly from a visit to her native country Kenya, where she was helping save the elephants, but she did not appear tired in the slightest; she was beaming and cheerful as always as she dished out details on her professional and personal life.

Connected with her roots

The actress has loved fashion long before she was gracing the red carpets. She remembers wearing a stylish eighties red cord mini skirt with suspender straps when she was five years old, stating that fashion and presentation are very important in Kenya. “You dress formally. You can’t just wear flip-flops. My mother always had her own style. She wore A-line, tea-length flowery dresses, very well fitting. Her nails were always perfectly done.” While growing up in Nairobi, she remembers going to the salon every two weeks to get her hair braided, washed, or treated.  

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She loves the couture fashion

During her visits to the salon, she was exposed to American, British, and a few African magazines. Her fashion sense evolved from there – “Then I would design my own clothes. In Kenya it’s much cheaper to get clothes made than to buy them. We would have everything run up by a tailor, or my aunt Kitty, who is very creative, would sew things for me.” This visit to Paris was the first experience she had trying on a couture dress, which she said was so powerful it made her cry.

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But her early life was not all glamorous

Lupita’s father, Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, was an opposition politician under the Moi regime and the family was forced to hide out in Mexico for three years. Lupita was actually born there and did not go to Nairobi until she was one. Her father would sometimes be in jail and the family had to destroy a lot of documents in his absence.  

“I wasn’t allowed to go to school. We were basically locked up in the house. The curtains were shut all the time, and we were just burning papers…I was definitely exposed to some extreme situations. Tragedy is something that I have known and that I have tried to accept as part of life. But I don’t dwell on it”

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Her experience with race

Lupita is Luo, one of the darkest skinned groups in Africa, was often told she was too dark for parts in Nairobi. When she moved to the United States, she was confronted with a very different idea of race than what she grew up with. “As Africans, we don’t grow up with a racial identity. We grow up with cultural and ethnic identity before racial identity. I never used the word black as a child. It was never a thing. When was I ever discussing black? Why?” she recalls. She soon realized that people would treat her differently because of her race, but that did not discourage her from pursuing success. She has overcome so many hurdles and has become one of the most in-demand actresses with several major projects coming up, including the latest Star Wars movie.

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SEE ALSO: 10 African Actors And Actresses That Hit The Big Time.