A grandmother in rural Zambia has transform an unintentional taste icon and web sensation – then agreeing to play games dress-up and swapping outfits together with her fashionista granddaughter.

Margret Chola, who’s in her mid-80s, is understood to the sector as “Legendary Glamma” – and adored by means of 225,000 Instagram fans for her placing and playful type pictures.

“I feel different, I feel new and alive in these clothes, in a way that I’ve never felt before,” Ms Chola tells the BBC. “I feel like I can conquer the world!”

The fortnightly Granny Layout was once created in 2023 by means of her granddaughter Diana Kaumba, a stylist who’s primarily based in Untouched York Town.

She got here up with the speculation when she was once visiting Zambia to mark the second one yearly of the loss of life of her father – the individual she says impressed her interest for type as a result of he all the time dressed neatly.

All the way through that seek advice from Ms Kaumba had no longer impaired all her moderately curated outfits, so she requested her grandmother – or “Mbuya” within the Bemba language – if she sought after to struggle them on.

“I wasn’t doing anything at the time, so I just said: ‘OK. If that’s what you want to do let’s do it – why not?'” Ms Chola stated.

“You will miss me when I die and at least this way you will be remembering me.”

Ms Kaumba wore Mbuya’s supremacy and “chitenge” – a work of patterned material wrapped across the waist. And Mbuya’s first outfit was once a silver pantsuit.

“I thought it would be nice to dress up Mbuya in high fashion and then take photographs of her in her natural habitat,” Ms Kaumba tells the BBC.

That herbal abode is a farm within the village of 10 Miles, simply north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

Maximum incessantly Ms Chola is photographed in all her glamour outdoor – incessantly sitting on an grand wood chair or lounging on a leather-based settee.

Within the background are uncovered brick constructions with corrugated iron roofs, ploughed farmlands, mango bushes and maize plants.

“I was so nervous when I posted that first photo. I left my phone for 10 minutes and in those 10 minutes there were 1,000 likes,” Ms Kaumba says.

“My mind was blown. The comments were flying in and people were asking for more.”

It was once in April 2024 that the Granny Layout in reality took off – then Ms Kaumba posted a line of footage of her grandmother in a pink Adidas gown, a number of chunky, blonde necklaces and a glittering jewelled crown.

“It surprised me to hear that so many people around the world love me,” Ms Chola says – who does no longer know her precise era as a result of she does no longer have a start certificates.

“I didn’t know I could make such an impact at this age.”

Ms Chola poses in garments which can be a mixture of colourful colors, textures and types.

From a inexperienced American soccer jersey, blended with a layered frilly pink gown styled as a skirt – within the colors of the Zambian flag to pay homage to 60 years of self determination.

To a blue, cloudy and inexperienced sequined supremacy, whole with a blonde snake necklace and bracelet.

And Mbuya’s non-public favorite – denims, a evocative T-shirt together with her symbol at the entrance and a yellowish wig.

“I had never worn jeans or a wig before – so I was happy, and I was dancing.”

Ms Kaumba, who has been a stylist since 2012, says that her grandma has “courage, grace – and nails every look”.

The entire seems replicate her maximalist-chic aesthetic – which celebrates the enjoyment of plenty, eclectic mixtures, the obese and the daring, and clashing patterns and hues.

On the middle of all of it are attention-grabbing equipment – daring shades, outsized hats, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, rings, gloves, luggage, yellowish wigs, crowns.

That affect has come without delay from her grandmother, who has “always been a lover of pearls and bangles”.

In a single specifically playful scene referred to as GOAT – cut for biggest of all hour – Ms Chola seems with a goat – this is decked out in Mbuya’s loved pearls.

Alternative equipment additionally replicate Chola’s character and tale.

In some photographs Mbuya is protecting the loved radio that she carries round all week and takes to mattress together with her.

Or she’s clutching an “ibende” – a protracted wood stick that over time she has worn to pound millet or cassava or maize.

She is smoking a pipe or protecting a steel cup filled with tea, and striking off the threshold of the chair arm is an “mbaula” or charcoal brazier that Zambians incessantly worth for cooking – particularly now that the rustic is plagued by means of terrible energy cuts.

Ms Kaumba hopes that the Granny Layout will spotlight that used public nonetheless have a dozen to do business in – and making reminiscences in combination is an remarkable approach to “leave footprints for the next generation”.

“Do not write them off, love them just the same till the end because remember we will be just like them one day.”

On account of Mbuya’s picture shoots, Ms Kaumba’s been leased by means of 4 granddaughters to taste their grandmothers – elderly between 70 and 96.

Ms Chola hopes that the Granny Layout will encourage public “to live their lives and not worry about being judged by society”.

She urges public to “always forgive yourself for whatever mistakes you made. You can never change your past – but you can change your future”.

The picture shoots have introduced granddaughter and grandmother nearer – and thru their particular bond Ms Kaumba has learnt so a lot more about her Mbuya’s incessantly tricky generation.

Ms Chola was once raised by means of her grandparents, went to college till she was once 12 or 13 and after, as a result of financial causes, was once pressured to marry a person in his 30s.

She had 3 kids, ended up ingesting closely and in the end escaped the wedding.

That shock nonetheless haunts her – however her sudden world popularity has given her a brandnew hire on generation.

“I’m now able to wake up with a purpose knowing that people around the world love to see me,” Chola says.

Penny Dale is a contract journalist, podcast and documentary-maker primarily based in London.