Fashion-obsessed? Keep your eye on Lagos, Nigeria

Lagos Fashion and Design Week wrapped up at the end of last month. For the past five years Nigeria’s budding fashion capital has held runways shows introducing the rest of the world to their talented fashion designers like Amaka Osakwe of Maki Oh who’s dressed Solange Knowles, Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyong’o. This year, the nearly 70 fashion designers showed their collections during LFDW also included talent from nearby West African countries and expats living in Paris, New York and London. A recent article from Business of Fashion detailed the potential for a fashion boom in Nigeria due to both their growing economy (it “surpassed South Africa’s last year”) and the influence of “‘Nollywood’ celebrity style” throughout Africa.

While all eyes are on Lagos from a global perspective, at-home fashion designers are facing two challenges: appealing to local consumers who are more likely to spend their money in Europe and having the resources to properly produced their collections. From Business of Fashion:

“It’s great to see this spree of development in the industry here. It’s an important step in being seen as a strong contender in the international fashion industry [but] we still need a more skilled workforce, to re-open our textile factories [which dwindled in the 90s] and more access to manufacturing and funding,” says Amaka Osakwe, the designer behind the label Maki Oh.