Nigerian designer embraces ‘clashes’ and ‘chaos’ at Lagos Fashion Week
Models strutted down the runway, their beaded and sequined dresses evoking the traditional facial scarring still done in some parts of Nigeria. Others donned outfits paying homage to adire, a traditional Yoruba indigo fabric long prized for its craftsmanship.
Kanyinsola Onalaja’s show kicked off Lagos Fashion Week in style, in what has been a busy year for the British-Nigerian designer.
A celebration of culture and heritage
“Nigeria and its culture and its heritage are 100 percent in my designs, down from inception all the way through to the end,” Onalaja tells AFP at her recent evening “celebration”, which came after a New York Fashion Week show earlier this year.
Lagos Fashion Week, now in its 15th year, runs over several days in Nigeria’s cultural and economic capital. Creatives across the continent take to the runway at fashion weeks from Dakar to Johannesburg, though the one in Lagos is considered the largest such gathering on the continent.
Onalaja, of mixed Edo and Yoruba heritage in a country brimming with hundreds of ethnic groups and languages, took inspiration from adire, “reimagining that and the storytelling behind it is bringing it to life with three-dimensional surfaces.”
“To be honest, I think I stopped trying to fit into a particular box of what I think the West wants,” she tells AFP. “I think I’m just representing myself as how I know and what I’ve grown up around, which is the color, sometimes the clashes, the contrast, and fusing all of that together.”
It’s worked: her designs have found purchase outside Nigeria, with actresses including Kandi Burruss, Chloe Bailey, and Jennifer Hudson donning them on the red carpet.
“The Onalaja woman to me is somebody strong, somebody resilient, somebody who appreciates craft, someone who is bold,” says Onalaja, who studied in Rome and whose company is based in London.
African designs on the rise
She’s also been able to push a personal cause on the runway, showcasing models—and clothes—in sizes ranging from extra small to 4XL.
“I’ve always been someone [who] has struggled with my weight and not being able to find pieces that would make me feel great, no matter what occasion,” says Onalaja. “I think we also need more representation of age because we get older every time.”
Onalaja’s show stretched into the warm Lagos evening, for a crowd whose guests included “Afro-lux” designer Reni Folawiyo, Nigerian actress Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama, and American singer Ciara.
Lagos Fashion Week comes as African design is on the rise globally. Soul legend Diana Ross wore a white gown with an 18-foot (5.5-meter) train by Nigerian designer Ugo Mozie to the star-studded Met Gala in May. Afrobeats superstars Tems, Burna Boy, and Ayra Starr were also in attendance, all three dressed by British-Ghanaian designer Ozwald Boateng.
The international acclaim is a nice endorsement, says Onalaja. But the focus remains on Nigeria. “I’m bringing myself and my heritage with the chaos and the beautiful, and everything together,” she says. “I’m not shying away from that anymore.”
