OUR SS17 RUNWAY DEBUT AT LAGOS FASHION AND DESIGN WEEK, NIGERIA

What’s not to love about fashion week?

Fashion and art enthusiasts united and immersed in a hub of flourishing creativity.

The presentation of colors, textures, prints and silhouettes, proves fashion to be a living art form. Fashion week creates a space where societal pressures of ‘how to look’ are non-existent, a bubble where ‘fitting in’ is a foreign tongue and expressing your true self through individual style is understood by all.

The buzzing atmosphere, the unique aesthetics, networking with fresh faces who all share a mutual passion, the showcasing of months upon months of a team’s hard work and unwavering dedication - need I go on?

Lagos Fashion and Design Week (LFDW) is a multiday fashion event platform which aims to drive the Nigerian and ultimately, the African fashion industry by showcasing current collections by African designers in the fashion capital of Lagos, Nigeria.

Studio One Eighty Nine, an avid supporter of all that curates or promotes African and African-inspired content, was honored to share the LFDW runway with super talented African designers including Maki Oh and Laduma, who with extraordinary collections, dismissed existing misconceptions about African fashion.

Our Spring/Summer 2017 collection made its runway debut, celebrating brilliant color, artisanal craftsmanship, and the effortlessness of warm, sunny days. Our womenswear, menswear and unisex looks are inspired by Africa’s striking natural surroundings – a modern safari and the human relationships within it.

Muted, neutral tones are juxtaposed with eclectic pops of color bestowing an image of playful sophistication.

Silhouettes are clean, easy, versatile and at times androgynous: kimono tops, button-front shirts, high-waisted pants, couture style skirts and evening gowns. Suit pieces are designed to be mixed and matched. Classic sundresses, caftans and flowing slip dresses are sensuous and simple.

We experimented with layering and wrapping to explore motion, contour, and form.

Prints are central to the collection, including geometric patterns, stripes, dots and cosmic brushstrokes. The ‘Pollock Print’, for example, has been designed as a signature of this collection, inspired by the abstract watercolor paintings of Jackson Pollock.

A beautiful collaboration of communities and tradition comprise this collection. Fabrics include rich blue indigos hand-dyed in Mali from the plant extract; kente woven on a traditional hand-loom in Kumasi in Ghana and vivid fabrics hand-woven in Burkina Faso in collaboration with artisans under the United Nations International Trade Center Ethical Fashion Initiative. We continue to use locally sourced cotton combined with Italian silks, cottons and jersey which are batiked and dyed by hand in Ghana.

Our SS17 collection is an evolution from previous collections, however our mission remains constant: celebrating artisans, supporting women’s empowerment and minimizing poverty through the agency of fashion.

We had an awesome time at LFDW!

To check more from Studio One Eighty Nine at Lagos Fashion and Design Week click here

Like what you see? Studio One Eighty Nine SS17 is available for pre-order now