Fashion in Nigeria

World publications are talking more and more about African designers, local brands become winners of prestigious fashion awards, and Lagos Fashion Week is an event no less interesting than European shows. Esquire understands how and why Nigeria and its fashion industry have received so much attention lately. Lagos, a port city in southwestern Nigeria, is not its capital, but remains the country's cultural and economic center. This city has a larger population than London and New York combined, and a huge proportion of that population is young people. And where there are young people, there is, of course, fashion. During GTB Fashion Weekend, a fashion event hosted by the Nigerian bank GTB, i-D spoke to the guests of the shows - the new generation of Lagos fashionistas: everyone is sure that local fashion has a great future. “Fashion in Lagos is crazy and unique,” ​​says 21-year-old Oluwagbenga Akiniele. “Now you can watch the world's fashion editors go to Lagos Fashion Week. Immediately after Milan and Paris, the next destination will be Lagos, ”ad Fashion in Nigeria ds Richmond Ekov Barens, model and contributor to several fashion publications. Amoo Ridwan, who models at GTB Fashion Weekend, also believes that Lagos fashion will soon enter the international arena: "In ten years we will definitely be compared to Paris." There are enough platforms in Lagos to develop the fashion industry. One of the leading - Lagos Fashion Week, the official city fashion week - has been actively developing and expanding outside Nigeria in recent years: for example, through a partnership with the London department store Selfridges, which hosted a pop-up event dedicated to Nigerian designers and showed the collections presented before that at Lagos Fashion Week. Another fashion week is taking place in the city - Arise Fashion Week, which brings together young designers. This event is much more vibrant, bold and attracting world stars as guests and speakers of discussions, for example, Naomi Campbell and Pyer Moss designer Kirby Jean-Raymond. What's happening with Nigerian fashion now looks like an explosion. In the final of the French LVMH Prize - one of the most prestigious awards for young designers - this year was Nigerian Kenneth Isedonmwen, founder of Kenneth Ize. His signature style is the laconic cut of the special weaving aso oke fabric: it is woven by hand (surprisingly, it is traditionally done by men, not women) on special looms, and in some regions of Nigeria it has been used since ancient times for the ceremonial attire of men of high status. Kenneth Ize clothes are already worn by celebrities like Naomi Campbell (the supermodel tries to support African designers as much as possible) and Imaan Hammam, although the brand is formally male. Kenneth Ize - albeit a loud one, but by no means the only name that is worth mentioning in connection with the fashion industry in Nigeria and its male segment in particular. Orange Culture reached the final of the LVMH Prize back in 2014, and now continues to create visually strong collections without reference to gender. The founder of the brand, Adebayo Oke-Laval, bases his vision on contemporary street culture and regularly collaborates with artists, both international and local. The designer is confident that Lagos is now becoming another fashion capital of the world. Nkwo Onwuka uses patchwork techniques for his brand Nkwo, creating items from old jeans, leftover fabrics and rag scraps: while European fashion is just beginning to actively talk about upcycling, in many parts of Africa this is a common, if not traditional, method of working with clothes. Emmy Kasbit specializes in tailored suits that could be called formal if not for the integrated details of bright fabrics with geometric patterns - partly vintage, sometimes hand-woven canvases. Nigerian fabrics generally give designers a lot of room to work: Diana Eyaita, founder of Wearyourmask, now lives and works in Berlin, but continues to draw inspiration from her Nigerian roots and uses traditional materials and hand-dyed and patterned techniques in her collections. The collections of the Nigerian Post-Imperial brand are based on adire dyed fabrics: the technique used by the Yoruba people is based on the use of indigo pigment and wax to create intricate geometric patterns. But it cannot be said that the heyday of fashion in Nigeria is a phenomenon of only the last few years. The unisex brand Maxivive was founded in 2007 and since then has successful https://jiji.ng/fashion-and-beauty/page6?listing_id=3YJmSmhqB8JQTfTi