It was all shades of colour and Nigerian traditions displayed on the runway at Oriental Hotel, Lagos recently as fashion designers showcased their creativity, ingenuity and passion for Nigerian textiles on the ‘Wear Nigeria,’ fashion show runway.
From Adire, to Akwa ocha, to aso oke, fashion designers proudly showcased the beauty in Nigerian textiles as models worked elegantly through the runway at the recently concluded ‘Wear Nigeria’, runway fashion show.
Audiences were wowed by the creativity of iconic designers with Nigerian fabrics and the latest trends that define the country’s textile tradition.
It was an evening of fashion at its peak as Nigerian textiles found expression on the runway.
Austin Aimankhu, fashion designer and founder of Wear Nigeria, a 3-day Fashion Arts Festival celebrating Nigeria’s vibrant textile and cultural diversity said to promote Wear Nigeria, they started with a campaign.
“When we started Wear Nigeria in 2016, we started this as a theme of an annual fashion event but we decided that this sector is very critical, so let us take it out and create programmes around it, which is what we are doing with symposium, exhibition and runway event.
“We feel that we need government policies and interventions in this sector to make it happen. We need technology, financing, education to be able to develop our Nigerian textile tradition,” Aimankhu said.
He hinted that ‘Wear Nigeria’ is nothing other than promoting the Nigerian textile tradition.
“How can we grow this sector? People may not know that we are talking about Aso oke, Adire, Akwa ocha, and different types of other weaves and prints we have. We think that enough is not being done in the fashion ecosystem.
“It is a sector that employs a lot of young people, women and a means of empowerment that is being overlooked. That is why we have Wear Nigeria. It starts with intervening in the lives of these people, assisting with what they need to grow like technology, finance and other forms of policy interventions by the government to help them develop it,” he said.
He said everyone has to make conscious efforts and the government delivers deliberate policies that will help grow the sector.
He called on corporate organisations and governments to use the textile industry to develop the country.
According to Aimankhu, the creative economy is a very critical part of the economy and cultural expressions are so critical.
“If you know how to convert cultural expressions to money; it is a great one. For everyone Burna Boy, there are millions of Nigerians hustling in that space.
“So we need to introduce conscious policies, intervention to develop this area. It is the next oil generating revenue if we do what we need to do. What are we doing to capture these cultural expressions? It is not just talking about it. It is huge in terms of earnings, employment generation, gender equality, etc,” he added.
Soji Odedina, group managing director of First Katalyst Marketing and a partner of the Wear Nigeria project who also spoke during the three-day event said Nigeria is going through a lot right now and unless we look inwards and begin to patronise what belongs to us, we probably will not get out of the woods.
Odedina said Nigeria must embrace the Nigerian idea and Nigerian concept, adding that this was why the event is titled ‘Wear Nigeria’.
“In everything we do; our music and Nolly wood is pushing the frontiers. Why not our fashion? This is the next stage for us. We need to push this. This is a foreign exchange earner for us, If we push it correctly. There are Nigerians who want to wear Nigeria. Anytime I travel outside Nigeria, I wear Nigerian fabrics and I see white people who would come up and tell me they like what I’m wearing.
“So, the opportunity is there to complement whatever is going on in the oil sector to make Nigerian textile and fabrics become global. Ghana has done better than us because their fabric, ‘Kente’ is globally recognised.
“Right now, we need to push our own fabrics to the global stage and that is why we are doing this. After Wear Nigeria, the next project for us will be ‘Wear Africa’, so that we take all African countries onboard and we push them to the world,” he explained.
He said for the first time, anytime there is an exhibition of Nigerian fabric, weavers are brought in, so that people will see the process of making the fabrics.
“Before I was born, this was the same manual processing. Now we are graduating engineers every day from our schools, polytechnic and universities. Shouldn’t they begin to focus on opportunities like these?
“Our weavers can come together in a cooperative and can then do well. To get Aso Oke for your wedding, you have to wait two weeks for them. You pay and they bring it to you. Who wants to wait? So we need serious investments and technology and government policies.”
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