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Lagos Fashion Week kicked off once again last week cementing its position as a platform for Pan-African designers. Brands from across the continent came to the Nigerian metropolis to present their Spring/Summer 2025 collections, including Boyedoe and Ajabeng from Ghana, Lilabare from Kenya and Loza Maléombho from Côte D’Ivoire. The five-day event, which ran from 23 to 27 October, had thousands of people in attendance and over 60 designers on its schedule.
For emerging African designers, having a presence during Lagos Fashion Week is an important opportunity to connect with buyers, press and other key industry leaders. This year, that included figures from the UK’s Bicester Collection, London-based Moda Operandi and Nordstrom in the US, as well as local luxury retailers such as Alara and Temple Muse. This season marked a significant uptick in international buyers, according to Lagos Fashion Week, many of whom had been previously curious about the event.
“As we close out on Lagos Fashion Week 2024, we celebrate the communities, creatives, and collaborators that made this event more than a showcase,” says Lagos Fashion Week founder Omoyemi Akerele. That includes event sponsors Heineken, and Bicester Collection, who co-hosted a breakfast with Lagos Fashion Week and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. “This season marks a turning point and reinforces that through collaboration and co-creation, we can successfully build an industry that sustains, transforms, empowers, educates and honours traditional African craftsmanship.”
From a welcome party, hosted by Möet and Chandon, to Nigerian musician Davido making a surprise appearance on the runway for local tailoring brand Ugo Monye, the happenings that took place kept the city buzzing
Calling designers back to the continent
Even those who are building a presence outside of the continent felt called to return to the Nigerian city this time around. Orange Culture, which most recently showcased its collection at the Victoria and Albert museum in August, closed Lagos Fashion Week on Sunday night with an installation at buzzy new members’ club Amah. Meanwhile, Lagos Space Programme also made a return to the fashion week schedule, keen to build the brand’s audience in Nigeria. “It’s important that people in Lagos get to experience what this brand is all about,” says founder Adeju Thompson.
For other designers, fashion week is about gathering all your clients in one room and selling pieces directly to them. Ejiro Tafiri, a Nigerian luxury brand founded in 2010, did exactly that. Eponymous designer Tafiri, who kicked off Lagos Fashion Week, drew in a different kind of crowd, filling a room with iconic Nollywood actors, producers and other high-net-worth individuals. For the Lagos-based designer, fashion week is about creating a collection that appeals specifically to her audience irrespective of trends, thus making the clients feel recognised and valued. “They’re my customers, they buy my clothes,” Tafiri says. “Fashion is really about what people consume as opposed to the flashiness of these shows.”
Fledgling labels including Ghana’s Wote KI Design and Boyedoe made their Lagos Fashion Week debuts. “To me, Lagos Fashion Week is one of the most important fashion weeks in the world today,” says designer David Boyedoe. “More than ever before, the world is looking at Africa and there is no doubt that Lagos Fashion Week is at the pinnacle for promoting African craftsmanship and true luxury.”
Other emerging brands returned for their sophomore showcase, including Nigeria’s LFJ. Founded by Juliet Olanipekun four years ago, it is quickly gaining an international cult following, with fans of the brands eager to snap up pieces shown on the Lagos runway. Her success at Lagos Fashion Week is taking her to new unexpected markets, including Thailand, where she plans to showcase her SS25 collection. “Lagos Fashion Week has been instrumental in helping us expand into new markets,” says Olanipekun. “The platform connects us with a global network of buyers, fashion enthusiasts and media, which has significantly increased our visibility internationally. Through the exposure here, we’ve been able to gauge interest from different regions and build relationships that support our brand’s growth abroad.”
Business lessons
Designers across the continent have spoken openly about the challenges that come with operating a fashion business. Most recently, Thompson of Lagos Space Programme and winner of the 2023 International Woolmark Prize withdrew from the Paris Fashion Week schedule in June, citing difficulties scaling the business internationally.
With a lack of fashion schools on the continent, Lagos Fashion Week stepped up to help educate designers on the business of fashion. This took the form of daily talks and masterclasses aimed at providing designers and business owners with the skills needed to break into the international market. One of the key sessions, titled ‘Bridging Markets — Strengthening Access for African Fashion in the US’, centred around how designers can utilise the African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA), a legislation that provides select Sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the US market.
US officials took centre stage to encourage fashion businesses in the country to trade between Nigeria and America. US Consul General Will Stevens, who moved to Lagos two years ago, is hoping to create an ecosystem that supports long-term, durable trade and investment between Nigeria and the States. “We’re here today sponsoring the fashion industry because we believe Nigeria’s creative industries and Africa’s creative industries represent a massive opportunity for economic growth,” he said at the Lagos Fashion Week x Prosper Africa conference last Friday.
Beyond AGOA, there was an emphasis on how designers can build better strategic partnerships with wholesalers. “Most brands that aren’t fully versed in global trade don’t understand the importance of margins,” said Rizka Rivianti, a womenswear buyer at Moda Operandi, during Friday’s panel discussion. “It’s a conversation we have with designers all the time. It’s all about setting your pricing right. You’ve got to think about wholesale and your retail [strategy] because at the end of the day, the client looks at your retail value.”
Social media influencers take on Lagos Fashion Week
International influencers were in town for Lagos Fashion Week. Fashion content creators from London, Germany and the US, all of whom support and wear Black and African brands flew in to experience Lagos Fashion Week for the first time (the organisers did not pay for them to attend).
Tenicka Boyd, a US-based fashion content creator, says it was important for her to have a presence during the fashion week, as the region boasts her second largest audience on Instagram, after the US. “We have to [use our platform to] show the talent that is coming out of Africa,” says Boyd, who has spotlighted designers such as Tongoro, Fia and Imad Eduso on social media. She also points out that there’s often an air of hesitation or scepticism when it comes to travelling to other African nations. “We [international content creators] also have to show how accessible countries like Nigeria are,” she argues, adding that further moves like this will help grow Lagos Fashion Week’s presence in the international market.
For London-based DJ and content creator Mercedes Benson, coming to Lagos Fashion Week meant experiencing Nigerian fashion in a closer proximity to what she’s used to, as only a handful of brands are available overseas (Kai Collective, Kilentar and Nkwo to name a few). “To be able to experience the incredible energy [at Lagos Fashion Week] was so important… seeing how amazing and fashion-forward Nigerian designers are currently and how they can easily fit within the global stage was a must for me,” she says, adding that she plans to return next year. “I hope that my experience and documentation of the week is enough to get people thinking about African designers on a deeper and more economical level,” she continues, noting that consumers should be investing more in African designers.
Nigerian content creators were also present. One of the biggest names in town is Dr Akin Faminu, a surgeon and popular fashion and lifestyle content creator from Lagos. Faminu has been attending and covering Lagos Fashion Week on his social media platforms for over a decade. But now, brands are slowly waking up to the power of social media influencers at the fashion week, he says, noting that bigger designers and fashion week sponsors are willing to pay influencers to attend their shows. “Those of us that are involved in Lagos Fashion Week, we are setting the standard,” he says, explaining that the end goal for both brands and influencers during fashion week is to drive sales. “These conversations we’re having around the business side of it are going to get better, but we’re not there yet.”
While it’s not on the same scale as the ‘big four’ fashion weeks, there’s increasing opportunity for both brands and influencers to leverage the buzz. That means dressing popular content creators in exchange for social media content. On the first day of fashion week, for example, Faminu was spotted sitting front row wearing new season Boyedoe; a few days later, he walked during the runway show, and a series of Instagram videos and images dropped, generating buzz around the brand. However, as there are no social media agencies to measure media impact in Nigeria, quantifying the influence of such creators at scale remains an ongoing hurdle.
Lagos Fashion Week continues to be a springboard for emerging designers looking to go global. However, designers need to strike a balance between creating new collections and building a solid foundation for businesses to trade and survive long term. And bridging the worlds of fashion and business for African brands was at the core of this year’s event. “To think this is what Lagos Fashion Week can do with minimal sponsorships, limited funds and resources, imagine what will happen when the international market actually dives in to build and elevate what Lagos and African fashion designers are doing,” says Benson.
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