Supermodel Oluchi Onweagba-Orlandi; The Timeless Face of Africa

It came down to that final moment; standing on a stage in Zimbabwe, amidst other apposite contestants; her name was announced and her life changed forever. Oluchi, face of Africa became her new calling card, all at the age of 17.

Born Oluchi Onweagba, from Eastern Nigeria in 1982, the lissom beauty was soon on her way into the world of global high fashion, runways for designers of note, and gracing the covers of some of the world’s most fashionable magazines. To put it mildly, she went, she saw, and she conquered.

For the girl the girl that she once was, who was scorned for her tall leanness, Oluchi sure has a reason to vaunt her gauntness in womanhood. A 3-year contract with Elite Modelling Management as a prize for winning ensured that even in the face of her prior inexperience, Oluchi excelled in the high-powered world of international fashion; the kind we can only imagine or covet through our TV screens.

For an African woman who has walked for some of the world’s greatest designers including Chanel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Luca Luca, Tommy Hilfiger and Kenneth Cole, from New York to Milan and Paris, Oluchi’s life journey must be quite a story; thrust as it were, into the laps of glitterati from her life as a teenager in the suburbs of Lagos. Cognisant of a life after modelling, Oluchi received an associate’s degree in Business Organization and Management from NYU, and plans to take more business classes in the future.

Presently living in South Africa with her husband, designer Luca Orlandi of Luca Luca and child, Oluchi birthed her own modelling Agency, O Model Africa in 2008 with the desire to enable prospective models gain the experience and exposure that they need to take their game to the next level.

In April 2013, Oluchi obtained the rights to Tyra Banks’ “Next Top Model” franchise through her company, LuLu Productions. The African version, “Africa’s Next Top Model” would be sponsored by the South African Tourism Ministry.

Oluchi Orlandi spends her free time in charitable pursuits and is a volunteer at a few NGO’s including LEAP Africa.