Lagos fashion week: putting Africa on the fashion map

mid-off, power outages and paylines, African designers and models are making their mark in the fashion world. Eleanor Morgan reports from Fashion Week Lagos

The stress of traveling to shows in a fashion week can be exacerbated by poor circulation. Arriving late to a show and you can not go - God forbid! - See online. However, taking this as gospel, you've never seen traffic until you go to Lagos in Nigeria, where I was the fashion week Arise Magazine Lagos.

Here, instead of a 10 minute drive you can (and often) have more than an hour. Cars become gigantic beasts segmented rattling along bumpy roads at the speed of glaciers of buses and trucks filled with dozens of construction workers backed open as riding surfboards. It is a world far from being trapped in a taxi on the Champs Elysees and if you are prone to evil as me, rather tortuous. Especially in the heat of 35 ° C with a humidity of 80%, when he finally opened the car door, you feel like you're walking into a saucepan.

The event itself was as chaotic as the main road of the place: a series of tents outside a luxury hotel that foreign visitors nicknamed the "fashion cruise ship" because " it looked like a huge ship P & O, a swarm with fashion buyers, designers and journalists. The show started almost two days late due to problems with electricity - power outages are frequent in a city that depends heavily on generators. Therefore, with 77 African or African-influenced designers (including David and David British label PPQ) programmed to display, it meant a drag.

rumors circulating among the designers who stay in my hotel were also delays due to local patterns of aggression in protest when they learned that international models have been paid much better than were . And it was not the only model problem. Arriving at the airport hotel, the rooms were not available due to a "clerical error". The real reason? An international modeling agency offered to pay more for rooms booked for 26 in total - and theirs. That is, we are told, how it works in Lagos, so they were transferred elsewhere. It's funny, but now after a trip from the airport of bilious, patience is fraying.

When I finally started the show, the atmosphere was amazing. A marked differences in the major fashion week was the amount of local public populated. In Milan, Paris and London, people just take a look at. In this case, it is public opinion. Seating was first come, first served affair which, with international buyers and journalists, the ranks were filled with ridiculously glamorous people (mostly women) dance with live music and the presentation up from their chairs to applaud the designers.

Glamour is a women's inimitable Lagos, his fabrics dresses come in colors of the rainbow, their faces are flawless makeup and sculptured nails - long - are covered with jewels of colors the ocean, reflecting the lights of the runway. They do not play. In a sweat shirt, with hair that was his last-of-friends Monica-of-Barbados time, I never felt dowdier. I asked a girl in the bathroom as long as he was ready. "Three hours," he said, spreading oil your lips with lip gloss more purple.

• designers have had an affair with Africa for decades, since the 60's YSL Derek Lam S / S 12 shows, but Nduka Obaigbena (also known as Duke), media mogul Nigeria Communication, which publishes the newspaper Le Jour and the magazine, Arise, and funded all week, and the payment of more than 300 international visitors, see Fashion Week Lagos as essential to putting Africa on the appropriate map. "We demonstrate that Africans can contribute, be the best and be world class," he said, floating around the crowd waving a white dress, martini in hand. "This is putting Africa on the map ".

A leading designer, Central Saint Martins educated male designer Buki Akib - I hope that shows in London next year - ". Losing a novelty factor" OK, but says he Africa is also a designer Africa should be about where you are. "Anyone can copy the design of Africa," he said in the back of a car, "but we hope that platforms like this show the industry that designers can take African internationally without having to be a separate entity. "

His collection, based on intricate and white knitted black leather with metal panels and dresses swooshy boxing greats, was one of the most successful of all the shows I've seen . Other highlights were Elan Grant, a British Ghanaian whose elegant, feminine dresses splashed with vibrant wine, Christopher Kane, and recorded in all braided necklaces. Maleombho Loza is another high point, which debuted with a diverse collection inspired by the traditional Afghan clothing and the Tuareg nomads of the Sahara, but the use of tissue printing Ankara is very popular in Nigeria.

The highlight of the event for many was Ozwald Boateng, the British designer with parents of Ghana and the first black suit to go to Savile Row in 1995, which presented a mostly black and white, super - the collection of men inspired by a trip to Japan was in 1990 when he was starting. After the show, which closed the week, received a standing ovation to greet and danced their way around the track in the form of U.

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