Celebrity stylist reveals why he left Genevieve magazine

Dimeji Alara is all the buzz in the Nigerian fashion world right now for resigning from his high profile job as editor at Genevieve magazine. Prior to working at Genevieve magazine, Alara was a founding editor at Style Mania magazine. There have been lots of speculations about why he left and know we get to hear from the man himself on why he left, in an interview as he covers the second issue of MADE Edit magazine in an outfit by Tokyo James.

Dimeji says “The truth is, I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things, then I feel like a caged animal, and I'd rather not be in a cage. It’s tough as a creative person to give your best when you have very little time to create, especially when your work becomes commercial and people expect you to constantly churn out your best every month.

As a creative person, you do need time to vet your ideas, love and hate them, scrap and come up with something else. I barely had that time at Genevieve, everything was moving so fast, and I was dealing with exhaustion. I started hating everything I created and couldn’t even stand the sight of it.”

He went on to say “I did have the opportunity to work with some amazing people at Genevieve, people I’m still very much in touch with till today, and I’m very grateful for that. I had a very understanding publisher too, even though we didn't always agree.”

In regards to plans for the future, he discloses that “Somehow, I’m enjoying not knowing what’s going to happen next, what my next step would be, or where I’ll find myself tomorrow. It’s a mix of fear and excitement. 

Call me crazy, but I think that's what I love about my life. There's no maniacal master plan. It's just unfolding before me. I have been getting quite a number of offers, but I am being very careful as to what I accept. I don’t want to act on impulse and just jump at anything that comes my way. For me it has to be substantial and add to my brand. I'm not desperate”

It’s clear there is no bad blood between Alara and his former employers and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors.  You can read the full interview in the magazine.