1 More Day To The Grand Fashion Show | Africa Fashion Week Nigeria Is Gearing Up

This weekend, Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, will host the second edition of Africa Fashion Week Nigeria from 23rd to 24th of this month. Solomon Elusoji writes that with the activities lined up for this year’s AFWN, fashion aficionado will find no better place to spend the weekend

A tenuous-long stage bathed in warm lights; lanky-chesty models strutting up, down, up down; eccentric-cool designers fretting behind the scenes; jaggy-smooth music streaming from invincible speakers; a perceptive-relaxed audience spotting, critiquing, enjoying, and window-shopping. Good night, fashion show.

No, fashion shows are more than what you see on television or hear in gossipy conversations with people who have never attended one. It is about the bliss of glamour, the eccentricity of style, the chemistry of fabrics, and, yes – the very important one, because money makes the world go round – the business of design. It is about how to strut the what-to-wear, how to know the what-to-wear, and how to grab the what-to-wear before it becomes so ubiquitous you can’t turn a head without saying ‘oh you’ve gotten it too’.

Across the world, fashion is big business. Giorgio Armani is worth over nine billion dollars. Miuccia Prada, over eleven billion in dollars. And these are just some individuals in the game. Of course, this should be no surprise. There are over seven billion people on Planet Earth, and they all need to wear clothes. Right?

In Nigeria – you can extrapolate to Africa – the fashion industry is also gathering pace. For so long, Nigerians depended on foreign designers to dress to those fabulous occasions where brand names are important—something like who are you wearing?. But that started to change around the turn of the century. Now, we have Deola Sagoe and Jewel by Lisa, and several internationally acclaimed ‘fabric-engineers’. They’ve made us so proud that some persons are even claiming the Nigerian fashion industry is worth over $10 billion. Okay, that may not be true – these people don’t have figures to back up their outlandish claims – but something really cool is happening in this space.

The entrepreneurial breeze blowing in the country has seen a lot of small scale fashion designers storm the industry. Although, the business climate is harsh and difficult to operate within, most of these small scale designers have been able to sustain their businesses, break even, and even make sizeable profits.

But, in an economy where not much is being invested into the fashion industry, the opportunities for budding fashion designers to break even are very limited. The reasons range from the dearth of quality platforms to showcase their works, appropriate training and education, to the unavailability of funding, a dead textile industry, unfavourable policies and apathy on the part of government. Despite the multi-faceted problems, though, the industry has a promising future. Remember, there are over 170 million people to dress up.

And this is exactly where Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN) comes into the picture – consolidating on the small gains of a budding industry and accelerating its growth by bringing together the major stakeholders in the industry and providing a platform for creativity to sparkle.

“The AFWN was established in 2014 to showcase talented fashion designers who remain largely unknown, for the purpose of strengthening and developing the international competitiveness of Nigeria’s fashion industry,” AFWN’s Head of Public Relations and Marketing, Yetty Ogunnubi told THISDAY.

“The initiative is to support, showcase and promote Nigeria’s most innovative fashion talents in a bid to move Nigerian fashion forward through the development of fashion businesses,” she added.

The main event is scheduled to hold on the 23rd and 24th of this month at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos. But what exactly should you be expecting?

This year’s edition is themed “Showcasing Our Cultural Heritage through Fashion”, and in honour of that, the event will feature a photo competition for fashion lovers tagged ‘Evolution of Iro and Buba’. So, there will be lots of flashy-gushy embroidery flying around, aimed at making you swoon, die, go to heaven, come back – there will be no ambulance at the venue – and testify, hopefully.

Moreover, participants in the ‘Evolution of Iro and Buba’ competition, stand a chance to win 2 VIP tickets to the Gala Night and After Show party, tickets to all the shows, fabrics, a designer outfit and a meet and greet with Brand Ambassador, Oreka Godis.

Also, besides the red carpet paparazzi and all the glitz and razzmatazz, there will be an Education in Fashion segment, a fashion management workshop for young designers in collaboration with the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, and a fundraising for the chosen charity organisation – the Sickle Cell Foundation.

Of course, we know, there are other fashion shows in the country. So, do we need AFWN? Ogunnubi answered brilliantly.
“The Nigerian fashion industry places so much emphasis on promoting the already established designers and little attention is ever paid to the young and upcoming designers who are equally as creative, and if not also as talented. Nigeria has so many undiscovered talents which the AFWN takes pride in unearthing.

“One of the platforms the AFWN is using to discover these creative geniuses in the making, is the NNTD (Nigeria’s Next Top Designer), which is a reality TV show whose primary purpose is to find the hard working, intelligent creatives to give them a platform to encourage, promote and celebrate young fashion designers in Nigeria.

“We give them the opportunity to work with mentors both in the fashion industry and the business world and then propel them into the limelight where they can reach a wider target market, which most probably might not have been possible without our intervention.

“The AFWN concession store, based in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, is also another platform we are using to help push Nigerian fashion designers. We stock designers that have the products but don’t have the space or platform to achieve that. We also have a concession store in London by our sister company, Africa Fashion Week London, in which we are also selling the made in Nigeria brands.”

But, while there is an unusual focus on emerging designers, the Week, since it aims to be the destination platform for showcasing fashion on the continent, also accommodates established and celebrity designers. It is about showcasing the gemstones of the industry.

Some designers that will be at AFWN 2015 include: Elawe Clothing, Massive by Fanny, MC Stell, Zhukkiifaro Design, Belle Array, Doughyeen, Enkaystylings, Nara Cole, Olayinka Clothing, and a host of others. Exhibitors will include: Inagbe Grand Resorts, Healthy Options by Ted, and House of Linen.

“More awareness is being created for the brand, more designers from different African countries and the African Diaspora are participating this year,” Founder of the AFWN, Ronke Ademiluyi enthused.

Ademiluyi, born and schooled in London, is some sorts of fashion enigma. Her Africa Fashion Week London (AFWL) is globally renowned, and has become an unparalleled platform for over 2,000 UK and non-UK designers. It was in 2014 she decided to come home and replicate AFWL’s resounding success. And with just the second edition approaching, the Week is stirring the fashion industry, as a good spoon turns a pot of soup.

She has also managed to assemble a brilliant team for this project. For example, AFWN’s creative director, Sola Oyebade, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mahogany International and is a fashion aficionado who has received so many international accolades.
Although the first edition of the Fashion Week was glamorous, AFWN 2015 is definitely bigger and better.

Ademiluyi is expecting “a much bigger audience” with a lot of work having gone into increasing the Week’s promotion and branding. Maverick presenter, Denrele Edun is the red carpet host, and “we will be putting a glamorous end to the fashion week, with Glo ambassadors strutting down the runway.”

“There is certainly more awareness and more up and coming designers are signed on,” AFWN’s global goodwill ambassador and daughter of billionaire, Rasaq Okoya, Ms. Abiola Okoya, told THISDAY. For the red carpet gala night, “it promises to be an exhilarating experience with variety of fun to hold you spell bound,” she said.

Previously, after being announced as the goodwill ambassador, Okoya had been quite delighted. “I am very excited at being honoured as the Global Goodwill Ambassador of such an international event, and also a pleasure working with the founder, Ronke Ademuliyi and the team; it’s an idea whose time has come and I believe it will continue to flourish and gain momentum.

“Creativity, certainly, is not lacking in the African community, but what is needed is a platform for them to showcase their talent, and funding to nurture it, which I believe AFWN will achieve,” she said.

The excitement isn’t just an Okoya monopoly. AFWN’s Brand Ambassador, popular on-air personality, Oreka, chosen after a call was put out, also felt rapturous.

“I am very privileged to have the great honour of being AFWN 2015’s Fashion Brand Ambassador. The creative team behind AFWN left no stone unturned in their mission to bring you the very best in as yet undiscovered fashion designers across Africa. There are lots of surprises in store this year and I look forward to sharing every great moment,” she said after being chosen.

Some of the show’s sponsors include Inagbe Grand Resorts, clothing outfit, Da-Viva, and Zaron cosmetics, who are the Week’s official make-up partners for 2015.