LAGOS, NIGERIA: Heineken Lagos Fashion Week (LFW) will return for its 8th season from the 24th to the 27th of October, 2018. The bi-annual showcase held in Africa’s largest city, has become a permanent fixture in the global fashion calendar. Every year, the Lagos Fashion Week tents welcome buyers, media and fashion enthusiasts to view the collections of young, emerging and leading designers across Africa.
Lagos Fashion Week leads the way with initiatives that support, strengthen and develop the fashion industry. Beyond the runway, the annual event provides a platform that’s gradually re-positioning fashion as a useful tool for commerce and creativity in Nigeria.
This year, Lagos Fashion Week uses its annual Fashion Focus programme to cement its work and dedication to providing incubator support for emerging talent with the launch of Fashion Focus Africa. Established in 2011, Fashion Focus (formerly known as Young Designer of The Year) aims to discover new talent and accelerate growth over a twelve-month period through mentoring and awarding a grant via the Fashion Focus Fund. This programme, which was previously open to only Nigerian talent will now be taking applications from all over Africa.
The Fashion Focus City Tours which feature talks hosted in various local cities, facilitated by leading industry experts for aspiring and emerging talent is also expanding to other Pan -African regions, an organic direction with the launch of Fashion Focus Africa. Tour locations to include: Abuja, Enugu, Ghana, Lagos, Nairobi and Port-Harcourt.
Speaking on the new direction of Fashion Focus, Founder Style House Files (the conveners of Lagos Fashion Week), Omoyemi Akerele states: “This is a natural progression for Fashion Focus, opening up opportunities that the Fashion Focus programme offers to emerging talent across the continent is in line with our commitment to developing the African Fashion Industry to ensure it contributes significantly to the economy and boosts intra African trade”.
Other programs lined up:
- Green Fashion Access – A competition aimed at Nigerian students, to begin to raise awareness of the need to make sustainable choices in the Nigerian fashion industry and simultaneously, to discover raw fashion talents
- Graduate Fashion Exchange – A series of workshops targeted at empowering fashion photographers and filmmakers on the Nigerian fashion scene
- SHF Presents – Following our success last year, in partnership with Nigeria Export Promotion Council, our access to market initiative will continue in London, New York and Milan
- Africa House New York – An initiative by Pangolin LLC – Africa House is a week-long members’ club, convening a vibrant network of policy-makers, thought leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, artists and designers, all of whom are vested in the economic, social or cultural development of Africa.
#LFWNG Important Dates:
- Applications Open – July 1st
– Fashion Focus Africa
– Green Fashion Access
– Graduate Fashion Exchange
- SHF Presents x NEPC: July to September 2018
- Fashion Focus City Tours: 20th – 31st August 2018
- Runway Shows: 24th – 27th October 2018
- Fashion Business Series: 25th October 2018
- Fashion Focus Talks: 27th – 28th October 2018
Heineken Lagos Fashion Week is proudly sponsored by Style House Files, Heineken, Maybelline, FETS Wallet, and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
