Lagos Fashion Week returns for 15th edition with a commitment to sustainability

Lagos fashion week is back, returning this week for its 15th edition. 

Africa’s largest fashion event, it showcases dozens of Nigerian and African designers. 

On runway after runway, models show off the unique sensibility of African fashion. 

As the world increasingly turns its attention towards African fashion, designers say they’re making up for lost time.

"I think what we're experiencing now is just an overflow, because African creatives have not had a stage and speak for a very long time, and now this is not new," says Cameroonian fashion designer Queen Tumenta.

"This is just an abundance of what has existed already through the years, and we're just having an opportunity to share that. And because the spotlight was not on us before now, and now we have the spotlight, we just have a lot to say.”

And while African designs are increasingly making their mark internationally, the designs on display here in Lagos are still unmistakably African.

This year’s theme is ‘Crafted,' highlighting the heritage and skill that goes into the finished products.

"African culture in general — and Nigerian culture in particular — is highly extravagant," says Pierre Mbengue, a Cameroonian culinary content creator, "and this extravagance is reflected in Nigerian fashion. They have managed to blend the contemporary with the traditional, which is what makes it so bold, making it impossible to miss.”

Lagos Fashion Week itself has become impossible to miss. The five day event is a major draw for designers, sponsors and globe trotting followers of fashion. 

Bilen Gaim is an Australian fashionista:

"It delivered more than my expectation. It's totally different from what I experience in, I've done a lot of Fashion Weeks in Australia. Totally different, and it's very vibrant, very colourful, very... patterns and everything. Everything is so beautiful.”

But it’s about more than beauty. It’s also about circularity and sustainability and ensuring African creators reap the benefits of their work. 

Organisers have issued a manifesto, the Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future, to underscore the importance of developing a commercially viable industry, and of building "supply chains that regenerate the land, honour the makers, and keep value on the continent."