The Rise Of Africa’s Luxury Vanguard At Lagos Fashion Week

As a key player in Africa’s growing fashion ecosystem, the platform provides not just visibility, but a suite of resources that support both creative and business growth for up-and-coming designers. Young designers from Africa often face formidable barriers in establishing themselves within the luxury market, including limited access to quality materials, lack of business training, and global exposure. The platform supports them across three major pillars—brand building and global exposure, business challenges and sustainability, and cultural identity and luxury positioning, each playing a distinct role in elevating African talent within the luxury fashion market.

Brand visibility is one of the most valuable resources for any emerging luxury designer, particularly in Africa, where opportunities to showcase on prestigious platforms are limited. Lagos Fashion Week serves as a launching pad for these designers, drawing international media coverage from multiple outlets. Young brands like Oshobor by Peter Oshobor, are beneficiaries of this. “[Lagos Fashion Week] gives a certain kind of positioning, where it makes your brand credible,” Oshobor tells Luxury Tribune, “and makes buyers trust that you’re doing something right. This makes them want to work more with you.”

Through strategic partnerships with organisations such as Bioderma, Lush Hair and Heineken, Lagos Fashion Week provides young designers access to mentorship programs and global networking opportunities. “[LFW] is at the forefront of promoting African fashion and luxury. It is giving us the chance to meet with global buyers, and be on international platforms like Moda Operandi,” David Boyedoe, founder of five years old fashion label Boyedoe, tells Luxury Tribune. Designers like Boyedoe, whose first showcase was this year, are already experiencing growth. Besides being a part of those selected to work with Moda Operandi’s collaboration with Heineken Lagos Fashion Week, they’re also growing rapidly across socials, and making international sales. “We’ve had up to 1,708 new followers from our show day on the 26th of October,” Boyedoe says, “and have had a lot of orders coming from both our websites and instagram,” he continues. Oshobor is also no stranger to this. “This year is the best we’ve ever had,” he says, pointing at their 2022 debut on the platform. “The day before our showcase, we had 11,000 profile visits [on Instagram]. The next morning, it shot to 30,000+,” he continues. The brand also tells Luxury Tribune that before the showcase, Instagram followers sat at 10.5K, which has now shot to 11.7K and counting.