Review: March, the new month of Lagos fashion.

Every fashion enthusiast in Nigeria knows that the holy month of fashion, is October. It is the month the widely recognized & acclaimed, formerly called Lagos Fashion and Design Week (now Lagos Fashion week), takes place. The event sees fashion lovers come out in their closet’s best to make, in their own little way, their impacts in the fashion scene. Designers on the line up showcase their amazing pieces on the runway with the help of stylists who make sure nothing goes wrong and gorgeous models who give life to both runway and clothing.

This year, the month of March was unequivocally chosen to host two major fashion events being Lagos fashion week, A/W 18 presentation which took place from March 23 to the 25th and Arise Fashion week which took place from March 31st to 2nd of April. Both shows were amazing and largely attended. Arise Fashion week snatched our edges by bringing the legendary Naomi Campbell to host its show. Was it conscious decision by the various organizers, to put each show after the other? No one knows, however these events took place and shook the fashion scene in the process.

Personally, I applaud the movement and I think the fashion industry is on the right track by having two major fashion seasons in a year. For those who are not conversant with the international fashion scene, it is somewhat like having the Fall/Winter shows which they have early in the year, and then later on having the Spring/Summer shows, though the weather tag to it doesn’t apply to us. A major difference in our case however, is the difference in organizers. While Lagos Fashion Week was put together by Style House Files, Arise Fashion Week was organized by Arise magazine, Thisday newspaper.

The Lagos Fashion week Autumn/Fall 18 presentation, had a very impressive line up of established indigenous designers such as IAMISIGO, Ré, Tsemaye Binitie, Sisano, Gozel Green, Bridget Awosika amongst others. The three day event took place at the Wings towers, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Lagos. The LFW team took a break from the normal fashion show setting with an elongated runway, and organized this presentation edition in a salon setting. This arrangement was done in a bid to buttress the point of the presentations which was for designers to showcase their pieces to fashion lovers and buyers, in a more intimate setting which would enable them to buy the pieces off the runway immediately. The show had in attendance most of our fashion inclined faves giving it hot hot with their outfits. Each designer’s showcase was rich with fashion, art and aesthetic vibes. The choreographed movement of the models for most of the designers, showed the adequate rehearsal time given to achieve performance perfection. There were a lot of favorite showcases for me so picking one would be hard, however Orange culture and Maxivive had very memorable showcases with strong political messages being passed across.

While the Lagos Fashion Week presentation focused solely on indigenous designers, Arise fashion week was a mixture of both local and international designers. Arise fashion week left no stone turned as they even had international models grace the runway too (I’m not even talking about Naomi Campbell). Home designers such as Lanre Da Silva, Tiffany Amber, Mai Atafo, Abaya Lagos, Tzar, Kola Kuddus, Fashpa, Imad Eduso, Andrea Iyamah alongside foreign designers including Ozwald Boateng, Quitera George, Maxhosa, Lawrenceairline and others, showcased beautiful pieces on the runway for the course of the three day event, to the delight of the audience.

Guys, there is no doubt that Lagos is fast rising on the global fashion scene and with major shows like these, one can only expect that our fashion trends on the runway would begin to influence the fashion scene globally. With the attention of highly respected magazines such as Vogue & Marie Claire, I hope you share my sentiments when I say that I am super excited and can’t wait for Lagos Fashion week in October 2018. LFDW(as it was then called) was the only major fashion show to happen in a year, but this year we have had two huge shows already and October isn’t even around the corner. It would be exciting to see the fashion scene bubble once again during that period, where fashion’s pulse rate is always high.

Thanks for reading guys!!! I can never stop thanking y’all. The support and love you guys show me is surreal, and I love y’all right back. Please feel free to leave a comment, you know I live for them! Love always! ❤️

Images were taken from the intsagram accounts of the following – @Lagosfashionweekofficial @Amaraworldwide @arisefashionweek @Orangecultureng @ishootrunway