Walk like a Fijian: Behind the scenes of Shaheel Shermont Flair's viral 'fashion show'

Shaheel Sanil Prasad, aka Shaheel Shermont Flair, in his viral fashion video. (Images: Screen grab from Instagram/shermont_22)

Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Saltz, who pulls no punches in art criticism, today shared a parody video of a ‘ramp fashion walk’ that he thought was ‘Better than most Biennial art’.

Better than most Biennial art. pic.twitter.com/Nqv27BmVVB

— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) June 30, 2022

Shaheel Sanil Prasad (aka Shaheel Shermont Flair), a 24-year-old Fijian, made the now-viral reel on a lark. “I never even imagined that the video would become so popular,” said Shaheel.

His hilarious recreations of fashion shows feature him holding props like a walker, a table, cardboard boxes, an iron gate, mops and buckets, and even a tall girl. In each frame, Shaheel strides in front of his camera with the fierceness of an haute couture model.

At a time when lot of the stuff posted on social media is trying too hard to seek attention – dance routines, couples goofily miming dialogues, and the reliably ‘funny’ videos of cats and dogs – Shaheel seems to have cracked an original idea.

“I had seen a few fashion videos where the models were wearing over-the-top things. And since I am known (on social media) for my comedy videos, I wanted to do a fashion video in my style, wearing things that would be funny,” he said. “I did it for fun.”

For the ‘fashion’ videos, he scoured for stuff lying around his house and “sometimes in my neighbour’s house”. It took him less than half-an-hour to make a reel, and sometimes when the prop was heavy, his cousins helped him carry it.

“I do the videos on my own, so I have to switch on the camera, run back to wear the prop and walk,” said Shaheel.

That walk! Viewers have raved about it as among the best they have seen, even on a fashion ramp. Shaheel is surprised by the reactions. “A lot of people told me it’s like professional catwalk though I have never done a fashion show before, never walked the ramp before, never seen a fashion runway before,” he said.

Shaheel, who lives with his extended family of grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, siblings and cousins, has previously worked in two call centres as a travel consultant and is currently doing “this and that” from home.

“Fiji is one of the friendliest countries in the world, a pretty peaceful country to live in, quite laidback, and people come here for holidays,” he said.

At first, the video went viral on TikTok, then it reached Twitter and Instagram across the world. “I am hoping for the best. Because of that video going viral, there have been some opportunities coming my way. So hopefully things will fall into place,” Shaheel said.

Though Shaheel doesn’t call himself an influencer exactly, he admitted “yeah, I do these promotional stuff”. Maybe soon, Shaheel may actually walk the ramp. This time, in haute couture.