Lagos fashion, the biggest and finest fashion event that happens big time in Africa is Lagos fashion week. Finally fashion is breaking boundaries and embracing a more inviting attitude to international fashion industry, celebrating world talent and its place on Lagos stage.
Omoyemi Akerele founded Lagos Fashion Week in 2011, she was a lawyer and a stylist. She said over the phone in Lagos, “I was just bored or ambitious enough to think this was something we could do.”
Some participants in Lagos Fashion Week
Lisa Folawiyo
Lisa Folawiyo has built her reputation on her mix of traditional Ankara textiles (the wax-resist dyed fabrics from West Africa) with contemporary tailoring and feminine silhouettes. This season, she delivers playfully mismatched prints and a palette of vivid brights on cropped tops and midi skirts, alongside slickly tailored trouser suits on the Lagos Fashion Week.
Website: lisafolawiyo.com
Christie Brown
Obuobi combines a rich colour palette with lace and brocade for the ultimate in feminine silhouettes, featuring waisted shapes enhanced by bustiers, ruffles and statement sleeve details.
Website: christiebrownonline.com
Maxivive
Dispensing with traditional seasonal collections in favour of two collections driven by Africa’s dry and wet seasons, 2021’s Harmattan (dry) collection delivers a searing palette of hot pinks and cool indigo blues, worked in relaxed, layered silhouettes with an Eastern appeal.
Website: maxivive.com
Nkwo
The artisanal brand is heavily inspired by the free-spirited lifestyles of Africa’s nomadic tribes. This season, it rocks a youthful vibe, with patch worked denim pieces alongside iconic indigo tie-dyed cottons worked in casual, cocooning silhouettes.
website: nkwo.design
Fashion Week Activities
- Runway Shows and Presentations featuring new season collections from designers
- Fashion Focus Africa – talent discovery initiative that creates access to Fashion Focus Fund, knowledge transfer, information exchange, networking opportunities, and access to market;
- Fashion Focus Africa – talent discovery initiative that creates access to Fashion Focus Fund, knowledge transfer, information exchange, networking opportunities, and access to market;
- Fashion Business Series to facilitate conversations with key players from the Nigerian and Pan African industries and beyond, as a useful tool for exchanging ideas, networking, and developing the fashion industry.
- Green Access – Talent discovery with a vision to encourage designers to create social, economic, and environmentally sustainable fashion brands
- Visual Makers Fellowship – Created to empower budding filmmakers and photographers with workshops and masterclasses
- LagosFW Showrooms – Access to shop some of your favourite fashion brands
- After parties – an opportunity to experience Lagos’ nightlife and connect with some of Africa’s finest creatives in a relaxed environment.
