Inside Lagos Trend Week’s concentrate on rising Pan-African design at dwelling

This yr, Lagos Trend Week had a report variety of sponsors together with essential sponsor Heineken, Ivorian e-commerce platform Anka, telecom firm MTN and skincare model Bioderma. Though it’s but to succeed in pre-pandemic numbers by way of attendees and variety of exhibits, the organisers say the occasion is slowly regaining momentum. Final yr, some 3,900 company attended the five-day occasion, whereas this yr roughly 4,400 attended. Press, fashionable influencers and well-known photographers have been in abundance.

Nonetheless lacking are worldwide patrons, who’ve by no means had a powerful presence at Lagos Trend Week. As an alternative, designers see it as a possibility to make ties with native shops and join with their dwelling client. Retailers from main luxurious retailers in Lagos have been current together with Alara and Temple Muse.

Since 2012, African designers have been welcomed to Lagos Trend Week, together with South Africa’s Maxhosa Africa and Imprint, in addition to Ghana’s Christie Brown. Nevertheless, it is turning into a precedence for youthful, rising designers who consider there’s a possible to construct model consciousness in one among Africa’s buzziest trend capitals. This yr, greater than 10 designers held off-site exhibits, which means Lagos Trend Week didn’t deal with the manufacturing, casting or venue. Designers who select to showcase their assortment on the essential web site, situated on the Federal Palace Lodge in Lagos, have been in a position to make use of these providers.

The objective for occasion founder Akerele was to broaden the scope and expertise seen on the occasion. “This refresh was deliberate. After 12 or 13 years, we are able to’t have the identical designers displaying. There’s at all times room for them however there’s at all times room to help new designers on the calendar,” she says.

Alongside Lagos Trend Week was a Unesco convention coinciding with the launch of the current African trend report. To a room stuffed with designers, authorities officers, business leaders, Unesco unpacked the potential alternatives and challenges within the African market. Alongside the speak led by Akerele and Toussaint Tiendrebeogo, secretary of the Unesco 2005 conference on the safety and promotion of the range of cultural expressions, designers took to the stage to share their experiences of constructing a model in Africa. Seven designers and enterprise house owners together with Cameroonian designer Imane Ayissi, founding father of his eponymous couture home, and Nelly Hagen-Deegbe, founding father of Ghanaian luxurious womenswear model Duaba Serwa have been a part of the roundtable dialogue.