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.”
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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.
