Africa Fashion Week Nigeria | Nigeria, Africa
Nigeria, Lagos
We aim to promote emerging Nigerian designers, within and outside the shores of Nigeria. We believe that fashion is about creativity & sustainability. AFWN is a new platform for Nigerian designers and a combination of fashion and culture.
History
The Africa Fashion Week Nigeria, AFWN, was established in 2014 to showcase talented fashion designers who remain largely unknown, for the purpose of further strengthening and developing the international competitiveness of Nigeria’s fashion industry.
The Africa Fashion Week Nigeria is a sister event to Africa Fashion Week London, the biggest fashion festival in the UK & Europe for African inspired fashion and owners of the first African concession store inside the plaza on Oxford Street, London, AFWN intends to become an incubator of young creative talents.
The inaugural edition of Africa Fashion Week Nigeria, took place at the Eko Hotel in May 2014. The event showcased over 30 young & upcoming designers to a global audience. We also had veteran designer Abba Folawiyo, and established designers Zizi Cardow and Ade Bakare showcasing at the epoch making event, to further inspire the young designers. Patrons at the occasion were Chief Molade Okoya Thomas, Sen Daisy Danjuma, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, Princess Fifi Ejindu, and Chief Opral Benson.
Ms Abiola Okoya our Global goodwill Ambassador was at hand to ensure the event went with class and panache. She says ‘This will be a great beginning for the designers and I’m proud to be part of a brand that gives opportunity and platform for designers to showcase their works and selling African fashion to the rest of the world’
This year we are also introducing the Education in Fashion Segment of the Fashion Week, as most young designers don’t realise that there are so many different aspects to the fashion industry aside from the runway, red carpet or who wore it best.
This education in fashion seminar will be delivered by a Top Global Fashion Management Company that focuses on Brand Management and Retail Management and shares over 20 years’ experience working in Europe and the USA.
Africa fashion week Nigeria was founded by Ms Ronke Ademiluyi, who is also the founder of Africa Fashion Week London and produced by Sola Oyebade of Mahogany productions.
Africa Fashion Week Nigeria
africafashionweeknigeria.com
Africa Fashion Week Nigeria is an initiative that will celebrate and promote Nigeria’s diverse fashion culture. The 1st edition will take place in Lagos, as Lagos is the fashion capital of Nigeria and then it will be rotated to different states in Nigeria. It will act as a tool for designers who cannot yet afford to showcase on an international platform, giving them a chance to show their collection on the runway. We realized that most of our young designers have not been discovered and they have a lot to show to the world.
The event will showcase the creativity of young talented designers and help them commercialize their creativity. The event will also educate both international and domestic audiences about the Nigerian cultural fashion and the different fabrics from each state participating, and how it can be infused into contemporary designs. AFWN will eventually be held in various states across the country, as a strategy to ensure grassroots involvement. Africa Fashion Week Nigeria is a new initiative to support, showcase and promote Nigeria’s most innovative fashion talent in a bid to move Nigerian fashion forward through the development of their fashion businesses. It will enhance the reputation of Nigeria’s rising stars in the fashion industry and will be as significant as Africa Fashion Week London.
It will be the first of its kind and this year’s edition will be timed as part of the centennial celebrations marking Nigeria’s 100 years of existence as a nation, by exhibiting the fashion culture of the country for the past 100 years. It is designed to run annually and is geared towards helping the country realize the full potentials of its fashion industry by showcasing the Nation’s undiscovered fashion talent, pushing them into the lime light and creating an event which will be a great tourist attraction, bringing many visitors from across the globe annually.