African Fashion Designer Awards 2023: Celebrating creatives of 'fashion preneurs'

The stage was lit with designs of young talented indegenous fashion entrepreneurs in Nigeria, who showcased Nigeria and African culture and heritage through their creatives.

The runway show at the Oriental Hotel Lagos was graced with designs ranging from traditional, casual and classy wears, captivating the attention of everyone seated for the 2023 African Fashion Designer Awards.

Most of the fashion entrepreneurs who showcased their designs have always dreamt of having a successful fashion business and part of the ways they are making efforts to pursue this dream was by showcasing their designs at the African Fashion Designer Awards.

Due to the dynamic nature of the fashion industry, most fashion entrepreneurs find a fashion business quite challenging. However, with perseverance and hard work, a successful fashion business can not only be profitable but soul-satisfying as well.

According to statistics, apparel companies have around 42 percent profit margins. With such high-profit margins and a great demand for apparel, a fashion business can be quite lucrative. However, this also means that there are already many players in the market and the competition will be high. Also, the fashion industry is always evolving around the needs of consumers. This makes the field quite risky business-wise. But if things fall in place, a successful apparel business can prove to be life-changing.

These were some of the highlights discussed at the 2023 African Fashion Designer Awards.

Most of the fashion entrepreneur who showcased, through their designs showed a good fashion sense, knowledge in apparel making and had
good foresight regarding future fashion trends.

Speaking during the event, Olasunkanmi Dasilva, CEO and Founder, African Fashion Designer Awards 2023 said the event was the sixth edition and they have been pushing so hard to ensure that they keep the consistency going.

“This year’s theme is titled ‘Fashion Preneur’. This is for those young fashion entrepreneurs. We want to see how we can come together to embrace everyone in terms of culture and heritage. This is also to encourage young ones from the slum. This event gives designers a platform to showcase their creatives to the world. Some of them, this is their first time, while some others are inhouse designers from previous edition.

“We have 12 designers showcasing at the event. The maximum of pieces is 15. Although some are able to do eight pieces, some 10 and some even six. Every year has a theme and every theme is totally different and unique in their way. So every year, we come up with something different to bring designers together, unite them so that they can also share ideas in terms of creativity from one another,” Dasilva said.

He explained that for those being honoured with awards, this is based on how they have been promoting the African and Nigerian culture and based on how they have been impactful in their businesses and to the youths also.

“I thought of how to promote and motivate these designers. If there are no platforms to keep motivating them, they won’t be able to go beyond their environment. Some people just see these people as tailors but they have been really adding meaningfully to the fashion industry.

“I am not a designer but I love anything creative and innovative,” he added.

The African Fashion Designer Awards aim to celebrate and showcase African and Fashion creatives at its annually.

The event which is an exclusive and unique celebration of the very best of African fashion creatives has a vision to raise the profile of African Fashion Creatives in the global fashion industry ensuring that they are featured and considered as serious contributors in the global marketplace.

The award titles and their winners include African fashion Brand of the year – House of viola pelle; African fashion brand of the year Male – Mumini fashion;
African fashion celebrity of the year male – Emmanuel umoh jr; African fashion Designer of the year female – Mimaxclusive; African fashion Designer of the year male -1981 clothing; African fashion model of the year female – Merry Zakaria; African fashion model of the year male – Alimani sall kamara; African on air personality of the year – Natacha akide ( Symply Tacha); African fashion stylist of the year female – House of viola Pelle; African iconic fashion fitness of the year – Emmanuel umoh jr; African fashion urban of the year – Stephnora Fashion; Next rated actor of the year -Khazim Danmola; Emerging Designer of the year female – AR couture andEmerging Designer of the year male KK wears.