Lagos Fashion Week is a multi-day clothing trade show that takes place every year in Lagos, Nigeria. It was founded by Omoyemi Akerele in the year 2011, and it is Africa’s largest fashion event, drawing considerable media attention, nationally and internationally. The event showcases over 60 Nigerian and African fashion designers to a global audience of more than 40,000 retailers, media and consumers. It has helped push African designers and fashion brands like Orange Culture and Christie Brown to be recognized internationally.
Lagos Fashion Week is produced by fashion business development agency Style House Files. The event aims to give Nigeria and the African fashion industry global recognition by bringing together media, buyers, manufacturers and consumers. The event includes showroom presentations, runway shows, and an online platform, LagosFW Digital. Lagos Fashion Week also hosts several initiatives, talk series and competitions, including Woven Threads, Green Access, and Fashion Focus Africa, among others. LagosFW has worked with international fashion weeks to give African brands the opportunity to showcase and collaborate with the British Council, London Fashion Week, Pitti Immagine and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
Heineken Nigeria has been the official title sponsor of Lagos Fashion Week since 2015. In the same year, the competition and runway show Green Access was established to raise awareness amongst Nigerian students of the need to make good choices in the fashion industry. Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of LagosFW, was on the advisory committee for the exhibition Items: Is Fashion Modern? at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) which happened in 2017. The exhibition featured African designers, including Loza Maleombho and Dashiki from Lagos. She spoke about the global impact of African fashion at the accompanying MoMA Live conference.
Omoyemi Akerele was named Zero Oil Ambassador for Nigeria in 2021 by the CEO of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council & President of ECOWAS TPO Network, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, and given the sum of five hundred million Naira grant to support thirty Nigerian brands in the industry. In 2022, runway footage from Lagos Fashion Week was featured in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s exhibition Africa Fashion and several African designers, photographers and creatives were exhibited. Akerele gave an address at the private view and was an advisor to the curatorial team.
The LagosFW runway show schedule presented a number of designers such as
Andrea Iyama Anyango Mpinga, Assian ,Awa Meite, Bloke, Bridget Awosika, Chiip O Neal, Christie Brown, CLAN, Cynthia Abila, Deola, DZYN, Ejiro Amos Tafiri, Gozel Green and many others.
The mission of Lagos Fashion Week is to support creativity and position Lagos as one of Africa’s creative capital for craftsmanship and exploration of artisanal skills across the country and also to retail and create opportunities for fashion retail to thrive in Nigeria.
LagosFW expanded its scope with three main platforms that run concurrently with Fashion Week. They are Fashion Focus Africa, Fashion Business Series and Lagos Fashion Week Presents. LagosFW also advocates for the industry with the Nigerian government and possible investors.
The year 2024 started on the 23rd of October and ended on the 27th of October, with various celebrities and speakers in attendance and other events taking place, such as the runway show.
