In the aftermath of a charged 2020—a global pandemic, protests against police brutality and racial reckoning across the world—Lagos Fashion Week returns for its tenth edition in its eleventh year. Since its launch, the platform has showcased the best of Nigerian and African clothing and accessory designers to the rest of the world, and has done even more to build a less fragmented and more supported industry.
In October 2020, the lights were off on Lagos Fashion Week’s runway for the first time in its decade-long history. Founder and visionary behind the platform, Omoyemi Akerele tells me over a Zoom call that 2020 was the year plans B, C and D could not have made up for the original vision of plan A. Which was supposed to be a four-day traditional-digital hybrid event bringing together designers, consumers, buyers, media, industry stakeholders and enthusiasts in Lagos, arguably Nigeria’s fashion capital, to engage in the business and glamour of fashion. It wasn’t that the platform shut down its activities completely over the course of what was a very challenging year for industries like fashion and lifestyle. From creating digital portals to foster communication amongst designers to partnering with ecommerce marketplace Afrikrea, to help designers keep business going under its XRetail initiative; Akerele says her team did not dwell on the ways the pandemic, its ensuing restrictions and the socio-political uprisings upended things.
After its pandemic-induced break, Lagos Fashion Week returns this October with 110 designers showcasing new collections in runway shows and presentations that will feature a mix of in-person and digital formats. For the first time, brands will also be able to showcase their collections in their own spaces outside of the Lagos Fashion Week’s convening tent.
A Sustainable Future is Possible for the African Fashion Industry
Teething Problems
Under Style House Files, its parent company, Lagos Fashion Week launched at a time when the industry was highly fragmented and seriously underdeveloped. There was talent, a lot of it. Designers were creating innovative apparel and accessories, employing a value chain that empowered and supported small communities of artisans economically while telling rich cultural stories. Yet, there was a need for more: funding, business development skills, access to market, sustainable production lines, and presence on the global fashion scene.
So, while the illuminated runways began to draw the attention of audiences both locally and globally, Akerele was also putting together supporting infrastructure to strengthen the ecosystem long-term. Just as Lagos Fashion Week launched, it was closely followed by what was then known as the Young Designer of the Year initiative. Now called Fashion Focus Africa, the initiative was launched to present some unique opportunities for emerging talents to harness their skills through masterclasses, creative workshops, mentorships, and internships.
“On the back of that, we launched a small fund,” Akerele says. Called the Fashion Focus Fund, this provided emerging talents from the Fashion Focus Africa initiative access to funding to grow their businesses. “For us, this was instrumental because I’ve always believed that the future of the industry lies with its young talent. There’s only so much growth that you can achieve with established designers without giving life to new talent,” she adds.
In 2012, the Fashion Business Series (FBS) launched. The series brought together stakeholders from the private and public sectors to drive conversations around intellectual property, copyrights, access to market, and supply chains. In forging partnerships with trade organizations like the Bank of Industry, the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), and the International Trade Organisation (ITO), through an umbrella called She Trades; designers have not only been presented at trade fairs to market their designs, they are also closely supported in various capacities—from something as little as how to present their lookbooks to how to present line sheets or contacting buyers. “We’ve been able to effectively capture, engage and connect with different industry players, stakeholders, contributors, policymakers, potential investors and so much more through FBS,” says Akerele.
With its SHF Trains initiative, the focus shifted to a critical component of the industry, manufacturing. Akerele says producing in commercial quantities was challenging for designers. By collaborating with NEPC, SHF has been training and developing capacity in apparel manufacturing in the country. Since its launch, over 3,000 women and youths have been trained under the initiative and provided with channels that assure access to employment through grants and schemes. “I’m talking about people who, everywhere else in the world, may be viewed as being at the bottom of the pyramid,” she says. “Without them, you cannot have an industry.”
Nigerian and African fashion to the world
All of these initiatives have paid off in some way or another. Back in 2012, the Lagos Fashion Week platform was presenting designers at some of the most relevant fashion trade fairs globally. Nigerian designers were selling in Dolce and Gabbana’s multi-concept store as well as on platforms like Luisaviaroma and MyTheresa.com. Lagos Fashion Week facilitated the first pop-up store by Africans in Selfridges and has opened up opportunities for more of such markets to younger designers. And with every iteration, there has been an introduction of new designers from across the continent.
Newer initiatives include Green Access which launched in 2018 to encourage and educate budding designers on the need for economically, environmentally and socially sustainable fashion businesses. This year’s event also includes a Visual Makers Fellowship which will support budding filmmakers and photographers with workshops and masterclasses. “We’ve always had a motto that says once the lights go out, that’s when the work starts,” Akerele says.
For the task of building these sturdy infrastructures, Style House Files has and continues to work with a host of trade and creative organisations locally and internationally. Akerele makes note of two of the most important factors when deciding to go into partnership with an organisation: how they respond and their level of commitment or dedication to bringing to life the vision she has for the industry. “What’s most important to us is the meeting of minds, dedication and commitment to see a mutual vision come to live, thrive and prosper,” she says.
"The rise and rise of the digital economy is something we can no longer ignore and the role that technology plays in that is very deeply rooted,"
Where fashion and tech meet
The pandemic year shored up two big conversations in the global and local fashion industries. Talks about environmental sustainability within the industry were shy of becoming empty rhetoric and locally, conversations were ongoing about how long the new use and reliance on digital tools resulting from the pandemic lockdowns would be? “The rise and rise of the digital economy is something we can no longer ignore and the role that technology plays in that is very deeply rooted,” explains Akerele. “We’ve seen an unprecedented amount of brands, including luxury stores, refine their ecommerce and digital strategy as a useful tool for the future of fashion.”
In April 2020, technology proved critical in facilitating Lagos Fashion Week’s activation event, Woven Threads. It also enabled a collaboration with Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Open Studio, where Akerele says they were able to create an activation that was the first of its kind on the continent. SHF’s partnership with Afrikrea on X-Retail which used to be a physical event also happened online. “We’ve always known there’s always going to be a balance between the physical elements of the events that we do and being able to leverage technology elements and the digital space to achieve our goals,” says Akerele.
Beyond facilitating events, the pandemic year also saw the industry expand its ideas of the possibilities that exist with the meeting of technology and fashion. There was Hanifa’s 3D digital fashion show which left the fashion world in a glorious frenzy in the second quarter of 2020. More and more digital businesses are using artificial intelligence to reduce returns from sizing issues. And while still heavily reliant on non-technology driven operations, production times stand to benefit from technology advancements in factory operations. There’s also blockchain technology which Akerele says will be employed in a feature debuting this season at Lagos Fashion Week; a Swap Shop.
Sustainability is not alien to Africa
Only in recent times are sustainability conversations bringing consumers into the mix. The Swap Shop initiative hopes to address this by inviting consumers to think about the ways they can effect change with their own buying choices. “So, while fashion week has been predicated on what some people term as the idea of more—because you’re encouraging people to look at new collections and ultimately to buy them—it is important to re-emphasis that our designers in our ecosystem, their design ethos is predicated on longevity,” Akerele explains.
This means that consumers can swap items purchased from Lagos Fashion Week’s showrooms with the guarantee that they can become new in a different closet since they have been designed with durability, sustainability and the spirit of slow fashion. Swapping, outside of familial circles, isn’t very welcomed culturally. It is one reason why resale and thrifting is still ascribed some negative connotation in Nigeria. But with the digital ledger providing transparency, the hope is that the initiative will promote the ideas of circularity and sustainability on the part of an important group within the industry, consumers.
After all, the notions of sustainability are not new to Africans, according to Akerele. By necessity, our cultures are designed to conserve resources while investing in livelihoods and creating value from source to product. Where there’s been a disconnect, she says, is in taking ownership of this valuable belief. “So when we think of eco-sustainable living, what comes to mind is a Euro-American representation of what it should be which is often assumed to be only accessible to those who can afford it,” Akerele explains. What is important is to re-emphasise the existence and practice of this concept because it is neither new nor alien to African communities.
As the 2021 edition of Lagos Fashion Week, aptly titled The Future Begins Now, draws closer, Akerele is eager to see the community come back together again after being away due to the pandemic. She tells AMAKA, “We skipped a season, I think seeing our community come together again to work on something that’s important to us is something I’m looking forward to; the coming back together either in-person or digitally. And I really do hope that it’s a success for everyone.”