The Heineken Lagos Fashion Week 2020 with the theme Woven Threads successfully came to an end after a 3-week long program consisting of various online workshops, question and answer sessions and virtual studio tours.
The aim of the fashion week was to bring a community of fashion-inclined people together to highlight and celebrate traditional craft and textiles, as well as exploring the future of fashion and circular economies.
In the first week, there was a panel session consisting of top fashion business owners such as Nike Ogunlesi, the founder and CEO of Ruff ‘N’ Tumble, Sola Babatunde, the founder of OSC College Of Fashion and Jumoke Oduwole, the Senior Special Advisor To The President On Ease Of Doing Business. The session was moderated by Omoyemi Akerele, the brain behind the Lagos Fashion Week.
The discussion was focused on the future of fashion and retail in Nigeria, and what is next for fashion business owners. Speaking on this, they all emphasized the need to focus more on local brands, build trust, cooperate, and collaborate in the fashion industry.
“Creating an enabling environment for the fashion industry is not solely the work of the government. It is a partnership.” – Jumoke Oduwole.
A question and answer session on Fashion revolution with Orsola De Castro, a world-class workshop on sustainable design with Mark Van Iterson, a virtual studio tour with Bubu Ogisi of I.AM.ISIGO fashion brand were amongst the line up for the first week.
Here’s the link to the full recap.
The second week of the fashion show featured more exciting sessions with designers and speakers from a wide range of expertise. It was focused on exploring the future of fashion and the fashion industry.
The week started off with Faith Oluwajimi, the creative director of BLOKE, who discussed building an artisanal brand that focuses on creativity, craftsmanship and community. Workshops on how to design like an African, and various talks on the survival guide for the season featured speakers like Ijeoma Ogbechie, Tokunbo Akerele, Dana Thomas and Niyi Okuboyejo.
“To design like an African is to design for a long time. There is no point in doing what has been done. There is some of it that comes from an ego perspective of finding something that is completely from Nigeria and has high value.” – Osione Itegboje.
The third and final week of the fashion show featured more talks and insights from experienced fashion designers and business owners. Bubu Ogisi discussed how to create a collection plan for fashion designers; Nana Otedola, the founder of Garment Care Nigeria hosted Awa Meite, the creative director of the Awa Meite fashion brand to discuss the designer’s belief in the “healing power of cotton”, slow fashion and creating sustainable clothes and Emmy Kasbiti took viewers on a virtual studio tour.
Generally, the Heineken Lagos Fashion Week was a huge success considering it was pulled off virtually but viewers still got maximum benefit from it.
The organisers of the fashion week announced that applications for the Heineken Design Competition which was meant to close on April 23rd, as earlier stated, has now been extended to May 8.
Many more fashion designers have the opportunity to apply for the competition to stand a chance to win amazing prizes.
Check here to find out how to apply for the competition.
