Lagos Fashion Week drew about 16,000 people across five days, up from 15,000 the previous season, as some 65 designers showed collections in what is billed as Africa's biggest fashion week. The designer Lisa Folawiyo marked the end of the week with a small, invitation-only dinner on Sunday evening, after returning to the event's official schedule following seven years away. Designers showed to journalists, social media personalities and other figures from the industry, at what is described as the continent's largest and liveliest event of its kind.
Local talent dominates Lagos Fashion Week
Local talent dominated this season, with many Nigerian designers showing both on and off the official schedule. Scheduled shows are held at the Federal Palace Hotel, while off-schedule events take place at venues around the city. Established names such as Emmy Kasbit, Ugo Monye and Sisano paired presentations with catwalk shows. Hertunba, another much-discussed label, welcomed guests into its new stores as well as holding catwalk shows, and LFJ staged her Spring/Summer 2027 collection show at Akoko, her concept store.
Designers who now also show at fashion weeks overseas are still eager to take part in the Lagos calendar. Iamisigo unveiled her range in Copenhagen, while Orange Culture and Fruché both showed in Berlin, but all three plan to keep returning to Lagos.
Foreign attention is growing for this 16th edition. Buyers and journalists came from the Middle East and from African nations such as Senegal and Ghana, while Eni Popoola and Alton Mason, creators and models based in the US, also turned up at the shows.
US consulate honours the founder
At a gathering held midweek at the US General Consulate, Consul General Brandon Hudspeth presented Omoyemi Akerele, who founded Lagos Fashion Week, with an Excellence in Commercial and Creative Leadership Award. Among the guests were Chioma Ude, who founded the Africa International Film Festival, the social media figures Popoola and Akin Faminu, and fashion names such as Ejiro Amos Tafiri. The prize honours the way Lagos Fashion Week helps push talent towards the global market, the US in particular.
[Akerele] has created a showcase that carries Nigerian fashion to a global audience, Consul General Hudspeth said at Friday’s event, adding: “American talent has found a home right here in Lagos. Last year, singer Ciara was right here making headlines on the Lagos runway during fashion week.” He also named US labels that have presented on the Lagos calendar, among them Tia Adeola and Studio 189, co-founded with the actress Rosario Dawson.
Hudspeth observed that Nigerian fashion talent is also expanding its reach well outside the catwalk. “Nigerian designers are reaching American customers, and that creates business for Americans and Nigerians,” he added. As examples, he cited Moda Operandi, an e-commerce platform based in New York that stages online boot shows featuring Lagos Fashion Week participants, as well as trade events such as Coterie, where local talent has been showcased. “This, of course, is cultural diplomacy, but it is also commercial diplomacy, and the consulate is working to build these relations and connections.”
Heavyweight designers return to the schedule
Several African designers with over twenty years in the business came back to the calendar, among them Christie Brown and Lisa Folawiyo, along with Nigeria's Bridget Awosika. “I feel it’s important that we were within the official calendar. It makes sense,” said Folawiyo. “It’s something I really thought about and I felt this is the right time.” Her label marked its 21st birthday this year and ended the week with a five-course dinner by candlelight, attended by a small gathering of famous guests, influencers, friends, and figures from the industry.
Ghana's Christie Brown came back after eight years away, as one step in a wider plan to grow across the continent. “As much as we’re building a global brand, we also do believe that there are certain key markets on the continent that we absolutely need to have a presence in,” said Aisha Ayensu, who established the label and leads its creative direction. Her list of priority markets takes in:
- Kenya
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- South Africa
“This is a re-entry into the market. We don’t want to come in guns blazing. We want to enter cautiously.” Shoppers in Lagos can now buy Christie Brown pieces through a residency lasting six months at the high-end store Temple Muse.
Ugo Monye, who founded the label bearing his name, was back after taking a year out. The well-known Nigerian designer said designers face enormous pressure to keep creating and to put design first. Plenty of them simply love the creative process and pay little heed to whether the business side behind the scenes is in good order.
Monye and a number of other African designers choose to release a single collection annually, in contrast to the West, where four or more collection cycles a year are the norm. He said pieces from collections made two cycles back still sell.
“I was dealing with some problems on the operations side, the load of work was heavy, and then adding fashion week to all of that, I just thought, 'Right, I need to step back, pause and get my breath back, then return,'” he said, noting that he is the company's sole employee. “Our sector is not yet fully structured, so you have to get involved in every aspect, even once you take on staff.”
Even after his pause, Monye plans to carry on showing in Lagos. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for a long time,” he said. “The brand [leaving] the fashion week calendar is out of the question.”
Abelia Anaba Franklyn, who founded the label Weiz Dhurm Franklyn, a house of haute couture, says that taking part in Lagos Fashion Week matters more and more as press attention grows. “[Designers] want more coverage. It’s such an important moment in fashion, African fashion and Nigerian fashion,” she said. “Nigerians have the spending power. Once you have a distinct point of view that is not a regurgitation of another brand, people will acclimate toward you.” The couturier is now pushing further into pret-a-porter, with her pieces priced from $600.
Post-Imperial closes its doors after a decade
Other designers treated the week as a stage for big business announcements. Post-Imperial revealed on Saturday that it would close after ten years. “I’ve said everything I needed to say with Post-Imperial,” said Niyi Okuboyejo, who started the brand, backstage at his last show, a joint effort with the Nigerian sustainable fashion label This Is Us. Across its ten years, the brand developed a solid wholesale business and was stocked by more than 200 retailers, ranging from Bergdorf Goodman in the US to Alára in Nigeria.
“Today’s a great day for me,” he added. “I also tried to expand the idea of what fashion is, and fashion shows aren’t necessarily just runway.” For this final collection, staged in the open yard, Okuboyejo asked friends of the labels to take turns strutting along the improvised catwalk, including the stylist Ugo Mozie, the product creator Nifemi Marcus-Bello, and Oyinkan Dada of Dada Gallery.
Lagos Fashion Week has a line-up that includes creatives and fashion houses from various African countries
Some people assume Lagos Fashion Week exists only for Nigerian designers. Locals do form the bulk of the line-up, yet a small group of designers from elsewhere on the continent made the journey to benefit from the excitement around the event. Among the newcomers and returning names on this season's schedule were Christie Brown from Ghana and IGC Fashion from Uganda.
Because no backer came forward in time for IGC Fashion, the label paid for its own trip, aiming to meet journalists, attract new buyers and move into a bigger segment of the industry. “We’re lacking media and big investors in the country. It’s a big opportunity for designers in Uganda to be at a stage like Lagos Fashion Week,” said Katende Godfrey, who established the label.
Moroccan creative Scheherazade Essrhir, from North Africa, shares that view. She took part in Green Access, the Lagos Fashion Week programme for emerging talent, and then spent time away honing her craft. “Through Green Access, I learnt that being a designer is more than creating and designing. It’s a lot of work,” she said. “[At Lagos Fashion Week], they support us even when the show is over.” She says Lagos gives her backing and a sense of community, with the organisers scheduling frequent catch-up calls and offering feedback.
Imprint ZA's founder, the South African creator Mzukisi Mbane, looks at fashion with a commercial eye and holds that Lagos is the right place for a label to be seen. “In South Africa, we have fashion shows. We have the glitz and the glamour. But for me, the bottom line is always important,” he said. “I want to be visible to people that can help the brand grow and be seen … even if [buyers] are not purchasing pieces, I’m still on their radar.”
Mbane was among the latest recipients of the Africa Fashion Up Award, a scheme that supports emerging talent across the continent. His prize includes mentoring from Balenciaga, since the house, which Kering owns, maintains an ongoing tie-up with the platform.
Reni Abina, a Nigerian-British creative, chose to present her collection in Lagos for a second time this season. “As we expand internationally, it's significant to me that we remain connected to the city and the community that first embraced us,” Abina said. “We've always wanted to build a truly global fashion brand, but I don't believe that global recognition should come at the expense of our roots.”
Buyers hunt for African fashion that people can actually wear
Few buyers came this season, though several of those who attended sensed a change in what was on show. “I’ve been coming [to Lagos Fashion Week] for a few years, and this is probably the most cohesive year that I’ve ever experienced,” says Arinola Fagbemi, who purchases for Alara, a concept shop in Lagos. She adds that buyers now assemble their collections with their own client in mind, and with an eye on what that client might want to purchase.
Fagbemi names wearability as a central concern. For this season, Alara teamed up with Lagos Fashion Week to run a showroom where designers could present their pieces once their runway shows had ended. The arrangement has been a real help to buyers, the Alara team among them, who can now view the garments in person and judge qualities such as how they are finished, their feel and their heft. The shows she rated highly were those of Orange Culture, Dukun and Orire. “We’re looking for the finishing. Clients are very discerning, especially the Alara client. They want things that are well-made. They don’t care that it’s from Nigeria or from Africa. Furthermore, they expect the same level of detail,” she says.
Retailers across Africa now ring-fence a dedicated pot of money for Lagos. “We’ve understood now that it works differently,” says Fagbemi, explaining that they sidestep the global buying calendar and commission stock for each season. “The fortunate thing is that the turnaround time for a lot of African brands is very quick. So what we’re seeing on the runway now, many of them will have it ready for the holidays, because of Detty December [a festive period full of parties and live music events] and that peak period.” The Alara buying team also attends the fashion weeks in Milan, London, and Paris.
Viva Accra takes a different route. “We have an allocation for African designers within our overall buying budget, rather than a completely separate budget for Lagos. It’s about finding the right brands and making considered buying decisions,” says Sacha Okoh, who is the buyer and creative head at Viva Accra, a store in Ghana.
Okoh sees Lagos Fashion Week as an important place to discover new talent. “We have a genuine interest in growing our African designer offering,” she continues, pointing out that her store already stocks several Nigerian and Ghanaian labels, though she is “always looking for designers whose work I feel can sit comfortably alongside our international labels.”
She continues: “A collection can be beautiful on the runway, but for me, it’s also about how those pieces translate into real wardrobes. I look for that balance between creativity, quality, wearability and commercial appeal.” Okoh singles out Christie Brown, Jermaine Bleu and Boyedoe as the collections that impressed her most, and she goes to shows and trade fairs on a regular basis in Milan, Paris, and London.
Sunny Dolat, who is a researcher and consultant as well as the creative director of Lagos Fashion Week SS27, gives his own view. “This year, the platform attracted an even larger international audience than last, with many visitors travelling to Nigeria specifically for fashion week,” he says. “This strongly indicates a platform that is not only well regarded and respected, but has firmly established itself as an important destination for discovering some of the most compelling design talent from across the African continent.”
