10 top Nigerian designers of 2017
Being involved in fashion and being able to come up with your own creative ideas is incredibly appreciated in Nigeria. The most talented designers who create their new unique styles are instantly recognized by the public. Here, you can read about top Nigerian designers and how they acquired an eternal place in the history of Nigerian fashion.
Fashion industry in Nigeria: current state
Since Nigeria is a diverse country and has many different tribes and nations, the fashion trends here are also diverse. Lately, the fashion industry in Nigeria has blossomed, because a lot of gifted and hardworking clothing designers have stepped on stage. It takes a lot of work and dedication to become a fashion designer, and you always have to be inspired by something to create your own original ideas.
Lots of modern designers take the traditional Nigerian patterns as their own source of inspiration. While moving towards the western trends, the fashion designers in Nigeria try to preserve the original charm and beauty of their native country.
Lots of well-known Nigerian designers had a lot of opportunities to show their best works all over the continent and win numerous awards for them. They set modern trends all over Nigeria for many people to follow them. The following top designers have done a lot of work for the development of fashion in Nigeria, and their creations are prominent when it comes to showing the spirit, diversity, and culture of the country.
1. Folake Folarin-Coker
This famous fashion designer is from Lagos, where she began her career. She was born in this city, but she got her education in European countries like Switzerland, England, and Scotland. She had a unique opportunity to get acquainted with various cultural features around the world, and this influenced her whole mindset. Actually, when she studied in Switzerland, she received a master degree in Petroleum Law there, but her passion for modeling and fashion overtook her whole life.
Folake became curious about combining various cultures and creating her own unique designs that will help her stand out from the crowd, and also help thousands of women find their own style. Nowadays, her colorful and bright designs have earned her worldwide recognition. She even became the first African clothing designer who had an opportunity to show her collections in New York, at the Mercedes fashion week; and not once, but twice in a row.
She has been featured on CNN and other international media, and she also got a valuable Enterprise award at WIE Symposium (which stood for Women, Inspiration and Enterprise). Apart from that, this designer was featured on the Forbes Power Women list, where she appeared alongside many other Inspirational African women.
Folake Folarin-Coker is one of the fundamental designers for Nigerian fashion industry, who truly helped it shine and stand out. When asked about the development of the country’s fashion, Folake is positive about it. In her opinion, ten years ago Lagos gave a tailoring city vibes, and today it is a true capital of African fashion. She also says that Nigerian style has its own defined personality.
2. Duro Olowu
Duro Olowu was born in Nigeria and has Jamaican roots, but he lives in London and pursues his successful designing career there. He is a famous and respected Nigerian designer, who uses African prints and patterns in his clothing lines. This man developed his interest in the fashion industry when he was only six, and throughout his childhood years, he was working hard to become recognizable.
Nowadays, Duro Olowu is a well-known brand both in Nigeria and worldwide. Besides, Duro has worked with worldwide famous celebrities, like Solange Knowles, Linda Evangelista, Uma Thurman, Michelle Obama etc.
The interesting fact about Duro Olowu is that he is a lawyer by education, but despite this, his passion for modeling was stronger than his wish to work by profession. Fashion was his first love, and he got a lot of awards for his outstanding talent. For example, in 2005 he became the first designer who was named New Designer of the Year, without having a catwalk show at London Fashion Week. He also received a lot of awards from African Fashion Awards ceremony, including being announced as the Best International Designer. He was also featured in British and American Vogue magazines. Duro describes his job as not dictating what to to women but giving them a lot of various beautiful options.
3. Deola Sagoe
Deola Sagoe started her designing career in 1989, and now she is one of the most popular and well-known fashion designers and entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Like most designers on this list, she has a different education and profession – she completed the Finance and Management with master’s degree.
Her designs are multilayered, and she combines colourful prints with African native motives. Deola’s signature designs are called Attitude and Elegance, and they were inspired by national Nigerian patterns combined with western designs.
Currently, she is a founder and head of The House of Deola Sagoe, which is her own fashion house and place of work. She designed the Odua label for her mother, who played a major role in making her popular. Recently, she started working on special clothing made of hand-dyed Adire fabric. This woman has shown her collections in numerous fashion weeks – not only in Nigeria but also in South Africa and the United States. Except that, Deola does a lot of charity work: for example, she is an ambassador of a program “Catwalk the World: Fashion for Food”, which is created and developed to help starving people.
Deola has three daughters, whose names are Teni, Tiwa, and Aba Sagoe. They are interested in the world of fashion as well, as they are currently the owners of fashion label named CLAN. Among Deola’s famous clients are Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey, which she can definitely be proud of. When she is asked about the growth and expansion of fashion industry in Africa, she says that she is proud of how far it has come, but she still believes there is a lot of room for development.
Source: Depositphotos
4. Lisa Folawiyo
Like the previous designers, this woman studied something different from fashion in the university. She was a Law student at the University of Nigeria, nevertheless, she later realized that she enjoys fashion way more than law.
Her clothing style is innovative because she mixes modern techniques of tailoring with traditional African fabrics. She has launched her own fashion label, Jewel by Lisa, which has expanded over the years since it started in 2005, and currently is a worldwide-known fashion brand, that has a showroom not only all over Nigeria but also in New York.
She usually uses Ankara fabrics for her designs and owns a fabric line which produces exclusive accessories for women. Her line J Label shows the Nigerian culture in a memorable light because it mixes Afropop designs together with urbanized ones. No wonder Lisa has lots of famous celebrity clients: Beyonce, Eve, Tasha Smith, Kelis etc.
This designer has showcased her collections in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and South Africa. She won African fashion awards many times and was featured in international Vogue magazines, namely Italian Vogue. She is considered to be one of the fashion designers who made the most impact on the global fashion, according to BOF500 which is an influential brand list.
5. Soares Anthony
This young designer mainly focuses on clothing for men, which goes under his name, Soares Anthony. He gets his inspiration from Nigerian local fabrics and traditional Japanese designs. The clothes he produces are trendy and modern, yet still masculine and elegant. They also depict the Nigerian national spirit and use the style inspiration from native clothing. He has a unique talent for transforming ordinary looks into a rich and sophisticated style.
Since early childhood, Soares Anthony enjoyed sketching and drawing. He likes mixing different colors and seeing how they work together. His unique and outstanding style has earned him a lot of clients among famous celebrities and politicians. Nowadays, he is young, successful and rich, and his name is famous not only in Nigeria but in the global fashion industry as well.
His clothing is popular among people from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. He tries to use his designer talent for other good things, like running a mentoring program which helps young Nigerian designers succeed on a global level. Anthony says that he usually gets his inspiration from various colors, nature, and artworks of different creators.
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6. Lola Faturoti
This fashion designer was born in Nigeria, even though she currently resides and works in New York. She comes from Ondo State, but she received her primary education in London before moving to New York City and pursuing her fashion career. In the interviews, Lola revealed that she got her passion for designing clothes from her grandmother, who also was a fashion designer and worked on Nigerian traditional styles. At first, she did not like her occupation because she wanted to play outside with other kids instead of doing a monotonous sewing work. However, later she grew to love it so much that she expressed a wish to become a designer herself.
Lola Faturoti became famous after designing a special dress that celebrated Barack Obama’s presidential election. She added the words in the Yoruba language on the dress, which said: “God Bless President Barack Obama”. Lola says that her mother influenced her current style by purchasing a lot of clothes for her from New York and London. This made a great impact on Lola’s wish to become different and create her own unique clothing.
At the start of her career, she worked at Charivari Boutique. Barbara Weiser, the president of this large company, spotted the talent in Lola and helped her to develop her first clothing collection. Since then, she became a prominent figure in the world of African fashion industry. Her experience has surely helped her, as she lived and worked in such cities as Milan and New York and saw various cultures with her own eyes. Lola says that her work usually begins with print and fabric, and then she adds a personal touch to it.
7. Frank Oshodi
This man has been in fashion industry for twenty-five years, and obviously, he has enormous experience. His career began with him being a model. During his modeling career, he was employed by different fashion brands, most of which were quite popular. Apart from that, he starred in TV commercials like Maclean.
When he retired from modeling, he decided to become a model manager and makeup artist. As a makeup professional, he had a lot of famous customers, and he even did makeup for the beauty queen Agbani Darego, who won Miss World contest in 2001. Later, when he decided he had potential as a designer, the number of his clients multiplied, and since then he holds an important place among the elite designers of Nigeria.
Frank Oshodi’s styles are beautiful and elegant, and this is the key to his successful designing career. He has participated in many Nigerian and African fashion weeks, where he has had opportunities to showcase his original designs. In the future, the experienced fashion designer wants to conquer even bigger heights and is sure that he will succeed in every new beginning.
8. Zizi Cardow
This famous Nigerian designer did not know she is going to work in the fashion industry until the age of seventeen when she got a job in a fashion boutique and this helped to spark her interest in clothes and designs. After she gained some experience in a fashion sphere, she launched her own label called Zizi, which was later expanded throughout the world and played a great role in popularizing the Nigerian fabric and its best qualities. Thanks to Zizi Cardow, Ankara fabric is now globally famous and worn by celebrities not only in Nigeria but all over the world. So, Nigerians can credit this woman for making the national culture popular.
She has won numerous fashion awards during her international career, including becoming a Designer of the Year in 2001, after working in the fashion industry for only one year. This was a platform for her to get noticed on a more global level, and she successfully used the opportunity. She has won a plenty of other awards throughout the 2000s and has become a really outstanding figure in the world of Nigerian clothing design.
Currently, the multiple celebrities and politicians order their clothes from Zizi Cardow. Apart from that, her designs have been featured in various worldwide-known media: Fashion TV, CNN, Channel O, SABC, and others. Except that, Zizi also helped the young designers throughout her mentorship programs.
9. Mai Atafo
This well-known designer is actually an IT specialist by profession, but since he returned from the United Kingdom where he pursued his education, he kept trying himself at various jobs. That was until he decided to start fashion career, and he succeeded in it.
Nowadays, Mai Atafo is a recognized and popular designer in Nigeria and on the international scene. His main purpose was to show the elegance and confidence of Nigerians. His clothing label attracts the famous clients like Stephanie Okereke, Gbenro Ajibade, Mercy Johnson, Waje, and 2Baba. He also worked with the beauty contest winner Omowunmi Akinnifesi. Throughout the years of his work, he has launched different fashion lines, including the casual and formal ones. He grabbed almost all significant male designer awards.
Except for being an incredibly talented clothing designer, Mai Atafo is also a very stylish man. He even won an award for his style by Allure magazine. According to his words and beliefs, fashion is not only clothes, it is also hair, accessories, shoes, and other elements. Mai Atafo thinks that the true meaning of fashion is about all these elements looking spectacular together.
10. Ade Bakare
Before becoming a popular clothing designer, Ade Bakare went to school in the United Kingdom, where he was born. Despite that, he considers himself Nigerian and often visits his native country. After finishing school, he started mastering clothing designs and eventually got employed in the best fashion houses, such as Victor Edelstein and Christian Stambolian. It was not long before Ade Bakare founded his own couture house and became a high-selling designer all over Great Britain.
Usually, this man works with formal styles. He produces the whole range of fashionable and elegant gowns, from casual ones to evening and wedding attires. Along with classic motives, he also adds modern twists to his designs and is not afraid to experiment with fabrics. He also makes hats and fragrances: for example, his best-known perfume is called Breeze. This has attracted a lot of clients from Nigeria and United Kingdom, who are highly fond of his work. Among them, there are multiple English celebrities, politicians and the wives of highly-ranked officials.
This fashion designer’s work was shown on the catwalks in various cities around the world, like New York, Vienna, Paris, Cape Town, Morocco, Mozambique etc. Apart from pursuing his own career, he helps young designers to pave their way up to the top. He was also recognized by Ministry of Youth and Culture for supporting aspiring fashion designers.
These Nigerian designers are the most loved and recognized in the country and beyond. Undoubtedly, they have helped Nigerian fashion industry to thrive and become acknowledged all over the world. Hopefully, they will continue to amaze their fans with their new colourful and glorious designs.
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Source: Legit.ng
