ARISE Fashion Week | Nigeria, Africa
ARISE Fashion Week: Africa’s Premier Runway, Powered by a Media Empire
ARISE Fashion Week (AFW) first took to the halls of Lagos’s Eko Hotel in 2007, the brainchild of Nigerian media mogul Nduka Obaigbena, founder of THISDAY Newspaper and later ARISE News. It grew out of Obaigbena’s THISDAY Music and Fashion Festival, and went through several names over the years — ARISE Magazine Fashion Week, then ARISE Africa Fashion Week — before settling on ARISE Fashion Week. Unlike most fashion weeks, AFW was never tied to a single home city: over nearly two decades it has staged shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre, New York’s Bryant Park, Washington’s Kennedy Center and Dubai’s World Expo, alongside its recurring base in Lagos, billing itself throughout as Africa’s premier fashion showcase.
Origins and the THISDAY Connection
AFW’s global ambitions were baked in from the start. ARISE Magazine, the publication that gave the event its name, launched at London’s Royal Albert Hall in October 2008 as part of the THISDAY Music & Fashion Festival, immediately positioning the brand on an international stage rather than a purely domestic one. Obaigbena was explicit about that ambition: reflecting on the event’s growth, he described his goal as placing Lagos on the fashion week calendar right after Paris, effectively declaring the city Africa’s true fashion capital. That framing shaped the event’s early years, as it moved between Lagos, London, Johannesburg and New York while building relationships with major design houses and international press.
Naomi Campbell and International Star Power
AFW’s ability to draw major global names has been central to its identity since the beginning. Over the years, supermodels and entertainment figures including Grace Jones, Alek Wek, Imaan Hammam, Akon, Solange and Rihanna have all made appearances, alongside international designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Ozwald Boateng. Supermodel Naomi Campbell became especially closely associated with the event following its 2018 relaunch, six years after its previous edition. WWD’s coverage of that comeback described Campbell surprising audiences by walking the runway herself, opening shows for Nigerian designer Lanre Da Silva Ajayi and South African design duo Kluk CGDT, on top of her official role promoting the event and meeting Nigeria’s then-president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Discovering New Talent: 30 Under 30
Alongside its star power, AFW has also functioned as a genuine launch platform for emerging African designers. Its 2020 edition introduced the “30 Under 30 New Stars” competition, spotlighting young designers working across the continent; finalists like David Boye-Doe went on to build recognized labels blending traditional textiles with contemporary silhouettes. The platform has helped bring designers including Lisa Folawiyo, Tiffany Amber and Kenneth Ize to wider international audiences over the years, pairing them on the same runway as internationally established names.
A History of Comebacks
AFW’s history has been defined as much by its pauses as by its editions. After its early run through the late 2000s, the event went quiet for six years before its high-profile 2018 relaunch with Naomi Campbell. It later staged its 19th edition in Dubai in December 2021, in partnership with the Dubai World Expo and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, before returning to Lagos for its 20th-anniversary edition — “ARISE Fashion Week & Jazz Festival,” themed “Future Forward” — from 2 to 4 February 2023. Its “30 Under 30 New Stars” competition that year continued to run alongside the main runway, with a $500,000 prize pool split among finalists and Kenneth Ize named overall winner. That pattern of hiatus and comeback appears to be part of how the event operates rather than an exception to it: as of this writing, the event’s own dedicated website is no longer reachable, and no confirmed edition since February 2023 turned up in current reporting. Coverage and updates now run instead through Arise News, the media outlet under the same ownership group that has produced AFW from the start.
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