Trends from Lagos Fashion Week
The 11th edition of the Lagos Fashion Week has come and gone but its impact will last way beyond the main event. Africa’s biggest fashion event congregates fashion designers, buyers, celebrities, stylists, tastemakers, photographers, and filmmakers from all over the continent.
The week is jam-packed with runway shows, presentations and informative workshops as a means to support and propel talented designers. It gives them an opportunity to grow their brands and think more sustainably about how they source materials and produce garments. Written by Lethabo Nxumalo.
The event is also a celebration of rich cultures coming from all over the continent, expressed through fashion. From the prints to the patterns, the feathers and the ruffles, the extravagant to the subtle, Shelflife takes a look into some of the trends and styles to come out of Lagos Fashion Week.
From The Runway
For their Summer/Spring runways, many designers elected to mix neutral colours with bold and bright colours in their collections. Designers like Olisa Kenya, Algueye Dakar, Desiree Iyama and Simone Elise employed bright orange and yellow, deep reds, cool blues, peach orange and luminous and pink.
Another common feature in many of the collections was the use of loose and light fabrics to create a free flowing silhouette. Designers like JZO, Fruche, Abiola Olusola, Eki Kere, and Olooh still maintained the body shape to create effortless glamour.
Some brands like Fruche, Heru Shezi, Oshobor, and Olisa Kenya flipped the script by bringing knitwear to the runway. Whether it was with an off-the-shoulder top or bodycon dress, they turned amazing looks.
Brands like FIA, TJWHO, Gozel Green, and Duaba Serwa (who recently dressed award-winning actress Lupita N’yongo for the Wearable Art Gala) utilised rectangular, triangular, curves and arcs as part of their shape-shifting aesthetic.
Craftsmanship and tradition is always a consistent running theme for designers showing at Lagos Fashion Week. Designers like Sahr Zad, Aorah, Pettre Taylor, JZO, and Algueye Dakar used sustainable and locally sourced, hand-woven textiles for their collections.
Onto The Streets
The attendees of Lagos Fashion Week brought another level of glamour to an already stylish event. The category was modern with a lot of the guests donning sophisticated and elegant looks.
Some guests went for exaggerated silhouettes with voluminous shoulders and sleeves, while others went for a simple but chic look in classic tailored suits.
Others used their clothing to bend the gender lines by wearing androgynous get-ups either through two-pieces or three-piece sets.
