Fashion in Lagos used to arrive one runway at a time. This December, it plans to take the whole city out to dance.
Africa Fashion Week Nigeria will return on December 20 and 21 with a theme built for Lagos in holiday mood: The Naija December Experience. Plans hinted at a festival more than a show. Guests were promised masterclasses, pop-ups, music sets and after parties.
The event is free. The ambition is not. Over 3,000 designers have passed through AFWN since its inception, many finding their first audience there. Organisers said this year could deepen that impact through visibility and real commercial links. It aimed for energy, but it also aimed for earnings.
At the centre stood Olori Aderonke Ademiluyi-Ogunwusi. British-born. Nigerian-rooted. A law graduate who had studied briefs and chose instead to build runways. She founded Africa Fashion Week London in 2011 and brought the model home in 2014. Her vision rarely stayed indoors.
Her record explains the weight behind her ideas. She developed mentoring schemes with universities in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. She partnered with global fashion schools and turned them toward African creativity. She co-authored books and produced documentaries on indigenous fabric. She treated heritage like a living resource.
Meanwhile, Ile Ife gained its own textile training hub. Women learned Adire techniques and found work from it. Queen Moremi The Musical drew audiences in the thousands. A leadership program for young women followed. She treated culture as curriculum and enterprise at once.
AFWN said the 2025 edition would show fashion as economic power and cultural diplomacy. Lagos appeared ready. The city understands movement, after all. It trades in it. Olori Ronke seemed to trust that one runway can shift how a country imagines itself.
If people wear identity for long enough, perhaps it begins to wear them back.
Leave a comment